21 B.C. municipalities granted housing legislation extensions after all

The provincial government announced Monday it’s granted extensions to 21 municipalities that were having trouble meeting the deadline for adopting multi-unit housing legislation.

The deadline was designed to force local governments to comply with the new provincial small-scale, multi-unit housing (SSMUH) legislation. In a release Monday, the province says it is now giving 21 communities more time.

Where the SSMUH requirements apply, the following governments have been granted an extension for all zones:

• Northern Rockies Regional Municipality has been given until Dec. 31, 2024.
• Wells has been given until Dec. 31, 2024.
• City of North Vancouver has been given until June 1, 2025.
• Coquitlam has been given until June 30, 2025.
• Fraser Valley Regional District has been given until Dec. 31, 2025.
• Peace River Regional District has been given until Dec. 31, 2026.
• Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality has been given until June 30, 2027.
• Greenwood has been given until March 31, 2028.
• Osoyoos has been given until Dec. 31, 2029.
• Kitimat has been given until Dec. 31, 2030.

Others have amended their bylaws for most areas of their community, the province says, but were granted an extension for certain areas and neighbourhoods where infrastructure upgrades are needed or underway, including:

• The Lougheed/Shaughnessy block in Port Coquitlam has been given until Dec. 31, 2025.
• Various areas within the Sunshine Coast Regional District have been given until Dec. 31, 2025.
• The 4th Avenue extension in Ladysmith has been given until Dec. 30, 2026.
• The Queensborough neighbourhood in New Westminster has been given until May 4, 2029.
• The Silver Creek and East Kawkawa Lake areas of Hope have been given until Dec. 30, 2030.
• Electoral Areas B, C, E and F in the Kitimat-Stikine Regional District have been given until Dec. 30, 2030.
• The Malone Road subdivision, Lot 5 Holland Creek, Forest Field Area, and south areas of Ladysmith have been given until Dec. 30, 2030.
• The Okanagan Falls and Faulder and Heritage Hills areas in the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District have been given until Dec. 30, 2030.
• Steveston in Richmond has been given until Dec. 30, 2030.
• Various areas in Kamloops, including the Rayleigh Waterworks District have been given until Dec. 31 2030.
• Part of the Proper neighbourhood and surrounding Hazel Park in Chilliwack have been given until Dec. 31, 2030.
• The Western Foreshore and Kye Bay areas of Comox have been given until Dec. 31, 2030.

The province says seven requests for extensions from Ladysmith, Langley, Maple Ridge, the Mount Waddington Regional District, the Nanaimo Regional District, Sooke and View Royal were declined.

“Communities that did not receive an extension have 90 days from the date they were first notified to adopt the new bylaws.”

The extensions are frustrating District of West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager after Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon refused to grant West Vancouver an extension just weeks ago.

“[I’m] very disappointed that they wouldn’t extend the same courtesy,” Sager told 1130 NewsRadio Monday.

Sager thinks the government is pulling back now because the election is coming up and the legislation has seen pushback from mayors across the province.

After meeting with the Union of BC Municipalities Monday, Sager says his city is not alone, feeling as though the housing ministry could have handled the legislation better.

“I don’t think there’s a single mayor that is even remotely happy with the way this has been rolled out. They’re encroaching on municipal authority. Municipal responsibility is why we offer ourselves for public service, to do proper long-term planning that works in the community, to make sure that we have the proper infrastructure to service whatever is built — make sure that the simple things like the sewer pipes and the wire pipes are adequate. And so this one-size-fits-all dictated out of Victoria just seems to me and my council to be really offside,” said Sager.

—With files from Srushti Gangdev.