New housing legislation challenging Kelowna city staff, council

There is a lot of frustration from Kelowna City Council as the city begins to implement zoning amendments triggered by provincial housing legislation.

That includes how the city will deal with infill housing projects and transit oriented development areas.

Under the legislation introduced in late 2023, local governments will need to:

• Allow a minimum of one secondary suite or detached accessory dwelling in all single-family zones

• A minimum of three to four units in select areas zones exclusively for single-family homes if the lot is intended to be 280 square metres

• A minimum of six units on larger lots that are close to transit corridors

The legislation, which is meant to increase the delivery of more small-scale multi-unit homes, municipalities need to allow up to four units per lot in suburban areas within the permanent growth boundary.

City planner Adam Cseke told council that the proposed bylaws would see different rules applied to suburban and urban areas.

“In core areas there will be more units, less setbacks and more site coverage than suburban areas,” Cseke said.

A staff report says the single and two dwelling zone is set to be renamed Suburban Residential, which would affect around 13,400 lots.

Further, staff are proposing to rezone all Core Area lots that are currently zoned RU1, RU2, RU3, RU4, or RU5 to the MF1 zone. This will affect approximately 11,100 lots.

However, the staff report says the maximum number of six units per lot will be challenging.

“Most Core Area lots in Kelowna will not be able to achieve five, or six infill housing units,” the report says.

“This is due to several site planning requirements and restrictions, such as lot size, lot dimensions, on-site parking requirements, on-site garbage and recycling collection areas, and new updated landscaping requirements.”

Additionally, the proposed amendments would see the RU1 zone applied to the Heritage Conservation Area, which would limit the maximum units to four, the minimum required by the provincial legislation within suburban areas.

“That’s to accommodate the sensitivity to that particular area,” Cseke said.

The impacts of infill housing units in the heritage conservation area raised several concerns from city councillors.

“Do they have to have a particular look and feel to fit in the area,” asked Coun. Mohini Singh.

Cseke said a package of new design guidelines would be brought forward at a future meeting.

Coun. Ron Cannan wondered if there may be a way for council to protect the heritage area under the Local Government Act.

However, planning director Ryan Smith said specific properties might be protected but the area overall would not be exempt from the legislation that would allow for up to four units.

Coun. Rick Webber wanted to know what the city can do to better protect the Heritage Conservation Area.

“I don’t see tearing down a heritage house and putting in a fourplex,” Webber said, adding that maybe they needed to put a heritage designation on each property.

“There’s no good way to do that. There’s nothing heritage about it, no matter how it's designed.”

The legislation also includes requirements for transit oriented development areas, which includes a need for a municipality to identify major transit exchanges and assign minimum densities and heights for the surrounding area.

City staff are recommending a height allowance of 10 storeys for all lots within a 200 metre radius, excerpt for the hospital transit exchange.

Cseke said they were only recommending a max height of six storeys to not impact the heliport operations at Kelowna General Hospital.

Finally, the legislation will also see one-off public hearings phased out for housing projects that are consistent and aligned with OCPs.

Coun. Charlie Hodge has had issues with the phasing out of public hearings for the past several council meetings.

“There’s a whole lot happening here all at once,” coun. Hodge said.

“I kind of feel like with the elimination of public hearing or being reduced to such a fine line of when you get a public hearing, that being the main access to the public has to council on issues, I wonder how long before we’ll even need a council if they (the province) continue to take away everything from our ability to deal with the public.”

Mayor Tom Dyas said all these changes were coming down from a provincial level.

“Staff have been working diligently to try and continue to sort through these, I know they will continue to work diligently,” Dyas said.

“Not only are we faced with these changes, as Mr. Smith said are some of the largest changes that he’s seen in his career, but we’ve also had to deal with short-term rentals and all of those other changes and they’re going to continue to advocate on behalf of heritage areas, on behalf of transit areas and on behalf of those short-term rentals. But there is a lot of changes that are happening.”

Kelowna City Council will review the second set of bylaw amendments in regards to the sweeping provincial housing legislation on Monday, Feb. 12.