After four years of allowing construction of carriage houses, City of Powell River will consider amendments to the sustainable official community plan (SOCP) bylaw to streamline the process of approving such housing.
At the March 17 council meeting, councillors considered a recommendation that would provide for consultation opportunities and public engagement for proposed SOCP amendments that, according to a staff report, are intended to be housekeeping changes that clarify intent, rather than policy or land-use designation changes to use or densify.
According to the report, the SOCP was amended in 2017 to allow for construction of carriage houses in most low and medium density residential areas. The report stated that to date, the city has processed 43 development permit applications, 13 variances and issued development permits for 17 new carriage houses and 13 conversions of existing accessory structures.
The report stated that in reviewing the carriage house program to date, staff propose amending SOCP development permit guidelines to reduce some need for variances, and to capture some desired projects that are currently not allowed.
At the meeting, councillor Rob Southcott said this is a housekeeping recommendation.
“Planning [department] wants to clean up the language and also amend it to do specifically with carriage houses, but also other compact residential that up to this point has only included CD4,” said Southcott. “That would be to include any lots that were smaller than 500 square metres specifically to do with the carriage houses because we’ve had a number of development variance permits that have come to council to do with carriage houses.
“Since we’ve approved every one of those so far, staff wants to amend language to allow that to happen.”
Southcott said the initiative before council is to allow staff to go before the public to start consultation and develop a report that will come back to council for approval.
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said she supports the consultation.
“It will hopefully reduce the need for variances,” said Leishman. “Carriage houses are a great way to build infill to offer more opportunities for rental housing. We have a huge need for rental housing as identified in our housing needs assessment.
“Also, for intergenerational living, a lot of families would love to have their kids, grandkids, grandparents, mother or father live on the same property. There’s a lot of good ideas that staff are putting forward.”
Councillor George Doubt said when council looked at carriage houses in the beginning he thought it was a good idea. He said he built one of the earlier carriage houses in the community for intergenerational living and it’s working out “really well.”
“I like the idea that we’re opening this up to public consultation to deal with the issues that council has spent time on and reducing the number of applications that have to come to council,” said Doubt. “I’m fully in support of this and I encourage anybody who has an interest in infill and public planning to come out and participate in the consultation.”
Council voted unanimously in favour of the recommendation to consult and engage the public.
