Let’s go back to the 1976 pages of the Optimist when Delta council moved to crack down on in-law suites.
Council at a special workshop in April of that year gave preliminary endorsement for a proposed bylaw that stipulated permission for a suite would only be given if a relative was over 65 or infirm.
Alderman Ernie Burnett was opposed, concerned the bylaw would not allow young married couples to live in suites.
“I am concerned as much about young married couples as I am about the senior citizens and young people are being told ‘no dice’,” he said.
Mayor Tom Goode said there was no trouble from senior citizens living in suites.
Ald. Lorne Hope suggested suites should be “outlawed” in view of the number of complaints received. Don Porter, however, suggested the proposed bylaw was a compromise solution, protecting people living in a single-family area.
After the bylaw received first and second readings at council, Goode defended the move, saying if the city allowed its situation to continue, then every fifth house in Delta would have an in-law suite. He described the bylaw as a “hard measure” but felt it was what people in Delta wanted in order to keep their areas single-family.
Ald. Doug Massey said the bylaw would eliminate “an awful lot” of situations where permission for an in-law suite might be warranted.
“I don’t think the bylaw is going to be practical,” he said.
Massey added that he had not yet seen a municipality that had sufficient rental accommodation to overcome the problem of illegal suites.
A group of Ladner residents at the time had threatened Delta with legal action if the municipality did not crack down on illegals suites.
The suite bylaw would pass but council agreed to lower the minimum tenant age to 50.
“I do not think this is going to solve our problems,” said Burnett. “I still feel there are young people being deprived of conditions that 50-year-olds are not.”
It would take decades before secondary suites would be legalized and seen as a valuable source of rental housing.
According to Delta’s Housing Needs Assessment two years ago, approximately 21 per cent of Delta households rent.
Across Metro Vancouver, the high cost of home ownership has resulted in the number of owner households growing more slowly than the number of renter households.
For example, between 2006 and 2016, the number of renter households in Delta grew by 20 per cent, while the number of owner households grew by only three per cent.
Last year, Delta council approved major changes to the secondary suite policy, which opens the door for more homes being eligible to have suites.
The majority of residents at a public hearing spoke in favour.
Delta currently has over 2,800 dwellings with a secondary suite occupancy permit, with approximately 75 percent of the authorized suites located in North Delta.
Out of approximately 23,600 single-detached lots in Delta, removing the previous lot width requirement will allow secondary suites on approximately 1,950 additional lots, provided that three off-street parking spaces are provided and B.C. Building Code requirements are met.
