It looks like the District of Sechelt has not only aligned its residential policies within the Official Community Plan (OCP) to meet recent provincial requirements, but beat its deadline by almost nine months.
A staff report presented at the April 9, District of Sechelt committee of the whole meeting, said according to the Local Government Act, updates to residential policies to support housing at the municipal level are required by the end of 2025.
But, because present residential policies within the OCP are now aligned with the provincial requirements, further updates by the end of 2025 and in advance of the overall OCP review, are not required.
Kevin Pearson, district senior policy planner presented the report, calling it a “good news story.”
“It talks about the District of Sechelt meeting the provincial requirements on not only the small-scale multi-unit housing requirement that we met last year, but also meeting the deadline for a housing needs report,” Pearson told council.
"Basically, by the end of this year, we had to prove that our OCP met the housing needs report forecast for close to 3,000 units over a 20-year period, from 2021 till 2041.”
He added, analysis showed that the recent OCP amendments just adopted this past December have the district in a better position to allow or support development within the present OCP land-use designations for residential housing.
Pearson noted the work done so far can lead into community land development analysis, which is also under way. He added, with this work complete, the district can now focus on other components of the OCP. “Because we have been talking a lot about residential [housing] the last two years, so we can start looking at other things.”
New housing provisions added to the Local Government Act in 2023 state that the residential policies, maps and designated areas of all municipal OCPs in B.C. must be consistent with an updated housing needs report (HNR) by the end of 2025.
Sechelt received its updated housing needs report last fall. Using methodology prescribed by the Ministry of Housing, the district’s updated report identifies a need for the OCP to accommodate a land and density capacity of 726 housing units by the end of 2026, and a total of 2,890 units by 2041.
The report notes, the five and twenty-year time limits of the HNR began at the last Canada Census year (2021), so have already been in the works for four years. Coinciding with its 2023-2026 strategic plan to support effective growth and efficiencies with housing availability, council directed staff to streamline the development density provisions in the current OCP.
Bylaw Amendment No. 492-35 was adopted in December 2024, with new OCP policies supporting increases to floor-area ratios and building heights in the current residential designated areas of Sechelt. The report notes, it’s now apparent that with this amendment and without any mapping changes, the current OCP appears to be consistent with the Local Government Act. In addition, the small-scale multi-unit housing (SSMUH) amendment to Zoning Bylaw No. 580 last June, to better accommodate small-scale multi-unit housing has also brought that bylaw into compliance with the act.
The report says these amendments have resulted in a “win-win” scenario for the district in terms of meeting the new provincial housing requirements and permits it to focus on creating the new OCP rather than on further amendments – noting that the new OCP will also need to include provisions for housing demand described in the HNR.
The report noted, the HNR projections may be on the high side with a development pace of approximately 150 new housing units built annually over the next 20-year period, because historically, 20-year residential trends are closer to an average of 100 units.
The district’s OCP residential policies are now aligned with act. That is, with the new policies adopted in December 2024 to support increased floor area ratios and building heights, the quantity of reasonably serviced residential land with development potential is more than sufficient for the required 20-year housing unit forecast, according to the report.
