More changes are on the way in the City of Delta to make it easier to add secondary suites.
Council at its upcoming March 11 meeting is to consider a staff recommendation to make several bylaw amendments including removing the requirement for a person to hold a valid rental permit to lease or rent a secondary suite and removing the licence fee for a suite from the business licence schedule.
The general manager of development will have the ability to issue and revoke occupancy permits.
Delta over the past few years has been making several zoning and Official Community Plan (OCP) changes to facilitate more units, one of the strategies outlined within the city’s Housing Action Plan.
The city currently has more than 2,800 dwellings with a secondary suite occupancy permit, with approximately 75 percent of the authorized suites located in North Delta.
Four years ago, council approved amendments including eliminating the requirement for a minimum lot width of 49-feet (15 metres) for a house to be eligible for a suite and allowing suites on properties that can fit three on-site parking spaces regardless of parking configuration.
Council last year also approved an amendment that would allow the addition of secondary suites in duplexes, following changes in the BC Building Code.
Also approved last year was a planning department recommendation to remove the minimum 33-square-metre floor area requirement for a secondary suite as well as removing the maximum 90-square-metres for a suite.
Those changes also included amending the percentage distribution of a secondary suite within a single-detached dwelling from no more than 40 per cent of the gross floor area of a dwelling to less than 50 per cent of a dwelling.
BC Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon last fall announced that among the dozen pieces of legislation the province would table to help tackle the housing crises includes making secondary suites legal throughout the province, as well as a pilot financial incentive program to help eligible homeowners build suites.
The province last fall also gave Delta a housing target of 3,607 new housing units in the next five years. The government also provided guidelines for unit sizes and tenures, but that breakdown is not mandated.
According to the breakdown, the city should consider adding an additional 1,199 units of market rentals as well as 830 units of below-market rentals.
