Skip to content

Garden suites bylaw survives public hearing

GIBSONS

Gibsons council gave third reading Oct. 7 to a bylaw that would allow garden suites in low-density infill areas.

The unanimous vote followed a public hearing in which three speakers asked council to consider expanding the area designated for garden suites, two spoke against the inclusion of portions of South Fletcher Road, and one speaker — Kathleen Vance of Headlands Road — delivered a passionate condemnation of the bylaw.

“Who is being asked to accept higher density with less green space?” Vance asked. “Who is giving up part of their garden? Who gets more noise, who gets more traffic, who gets to look at more parked cars, and whose benefit is it?”

Vance said she opposed the bylaw because it “reflects a commodification of housing, by which houses are evaluated by their efficient use of space rather than their value as homes to the people who live in them.”

She denied the bylaw would provide lower cost housing.

“I don’t believe someone’s going to build laneway housing and rent it out for something that a family in Gibsons can afford as one-third of their monthly income.”

For Headlands Road, she said, “I do worry about major drainage problems in the neighbourhood once we double our density.”

Vance also took issue with the term “garden suite,” saying the correct neutral definition was “a detached dwelling unit located on the same lot,” and noted that after such units are built, “considerably less garden will be left on the property.”

In considering third reading, Mayor Wayne Rowe cited Vance’s presentation, calling it “very good,” but said the bylaw was intended to create “more opportunity for affordable housing in our community and also to do it in areas where services are already in place.”

Predicting there wouldn’t be “a stampede” in the construction of garden suites, Rowe noted the concerns raised by speakers about South Fletcher Road and said, “We’ll just have to be alert to issues that arise and deal with them.”

Coun Lee Ann Johnson concurred.

“I think this is an initial step,” she said. “It gives us at least a beginning.”

The bylaw has been forwarded to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure for approval and is expected to come back to council next month for final adoption.