Landowners in the Sunshine Coast Regional District might get more flexibility to put a second home on their properties and entrepreneur Pamela Robertson wants to make that process easier for them.
On Nov. 30, Pamela Robertson, a recent graduate of the Local Entrepreneurs Accelerator Program (LEAP) offered through Community Futures and supported by Simon Fraser University, won the audience award for best business idea.
Her plan is to set up a consultancy that will assist property owners through the process of establishing a second dwelling on their land to relieve the shortage of affordable housing. “What I’d like to do is work with homeowners or property owners who have the want to build a secondary home on their property and help facilitate them from nothing to the full package,” said Robertson.
Originally, Robertson wanted to set up a small-home community by purchasing property along the Port Mellon Highway. She launched a Go Fund Me campaign last summer, but was unable to raise the necessary funds before the land she had her eye on was sold. Community Futures reached out while she was working on the campaign and she has since pivoted her focus to consulting.
She is focusing her efforts on the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) in part because of the amount of land available for secondary homes on properties. There are more than 2,000 homes on properties that are zoned to have a second dwelling, but 90 per cent of them don’t have a second home.
“A lot of people don’t bother moving forward because they don’t want even the hassle of looking into the permitting process, or going up and finding what they can and can’t do,” said Robertson. “Some don’t know the first place to start.”
According to an SCRD staff report published in June 2017, “There is still an untapped potential of approximately 2,209 units that could be built.”
The SCRD is also currently assessing whether to modify zoning bylaws 310 and 337 to allow for increased density. It is considering increasing the maximum size of a second home to beyond 55 sq. metres as well as dropping the minimum amount of land required to build a second home. Currently a second home can only be built on land parcels larger than half an acre, or 2,000 sq. metres.
Ian Winn, vice chair of the SCRD and director for Area F, expects those amendments to happen soon. “I think it’s going to be early in 2018, and then there will be an implementation phase and it could take another six months or more before we actually see the amendments come into effect.” He says going the route of adding secondary dwellings is a positive step, but it also presents challenges of its own. “The question becomes what is affordable and how would it be policed and controlled?”
Dagmar Lynch has property in the SCRD and wants to be part of the affordable housing solution. She wants two tiny homes or mobile homes set up with laundry facilities and septic on her property. “This property is zoned for a single-family residence and what I want to do is provide housing for more than just one family,” she said. Her property is just under half an acre.
It’s people like Lynch that Robertson is hoping to help. “I know that it’s an important issue and I feel really strongly about having a proactive approach rather than relying on someone else to get it done. I do know we can all pull together as a community,” Robertson said.
