During its Sept. 11 committee of the whole, Sechelt councillors endorsed the district's application the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) Housing Accelerator Fund’s second intake.
Prefacing that the intake cutoff was on Sept.13, Andrew Allen, director of planning and development clarified that council resolution is not required to make an application, however, if the district is successful there will be a resolution to accept the funds granted.
He also explained the second intake is offered to municipalities who applied the first time and did not receive the grant – no new applications will be considered.
CMHC advisors have reached out to district staff with feedback on the first application, showing what scored well and helped assist with focus on the new application, Allen said.
“Our application now really talks about two sides of the number of applications within five years, as well as the broader generational shift to the update of our policies as a whole,” Allen said. “So I do believe we have a strong application following CMHC guidelines and numbers, we are eligible to make an application for over ten million dollars, final number to be confirmed.”
While the recommendations won’t be formally endorsed until they are presented in a regular council meeting, Allen explained he wanted to share their progress and direction since the application deadline was the end of that week.
The application comes with seven action plan items:
- Review and update development finance tools to accelerate the development of priority housing types.
- Establish a non-market and missing middle housing program to incentivize development.
- Increase process efficiency by completing a development approval process review.
- Increase flexibility and reduce restrictions through policy updates.
- Reduce parking standards.
- Complete infrastructure plans to enable higher density and missing middle developments in areas close to transit and amenities.
- Make publicly owned lands available for housing.
Saying she doesn't want to “waste staff's time too much,” Coun. Dianne McLauchlan said the district has to have a “realistic view of what has happened” since the original application.
“I don't really think that we're going to be put on a hot list for the province for needing to provide accelerated housing right away … it's exciting to think like you're going to win the lottery, I was hoping to win the PNE home the other night, but I didn't.” McLauchlan also speculated since Gibsons received funding that the province would not allocate anymore to the Sunshine Coast.
Mayor John Henderson recommended adding low-powered vehicles and micro-mobility the the plan to reduce parking standards and suggested referring the report to the Sechelt Downtown Bussiness Association and the Chamber of Commerce.
Saying that rural communities are often forgotten, Coun. Donna Bell said, “If we don’t swing the bat we’re never going to start.” She asked Allen to clarify if CHMC encouraged Sechelt to make a second application, which Allen confirmed.
The committee endorsed all staff recommendations with McLauchlan opposed.
Housing Needs Report
Earlier in the same meeting, council members received an update on Sechelt’s Housing Needs Report, which identified seven key housing needs.
Affordable housing, rental housing, housing for families, housing for seniors, housing for Indigenous households, housing near transit and homelessness were identified in the report.
The report's summary of the 20-year housing needs said the district will need 366 units to meet the projected growth and 726 units to meet overall demand. Thirty-three per cent of these are expected to be rentals. It states 25 of these will be needed to address homelessness and at least 50 units should be used to acess “underlying extreme core housing need.”
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
