West Kelowna City Council is being asked to approve a request for additional staff to implement new provincial housing legislation.
In a report headed to council this week, interim CAO Ron Mattiussi says staff have recently found out that the city was not successful in its CMHC Housing Accelerator Fund application and must subsequently remove three planning staff positions from the 2024 budget.
The report says those positions were contingent upon approval of the HAF application.
However, with the introduction of Bill 44 and Bill 46 from the province, staff are facing a “significant” amount of work to meet both provincial and municipal objectives, the report says.
“As more information has become available, it is evident that additional staff resources will still be required to meet housing objectives,” Mattiussi's report says.
“At this point, minimum staffing requirements have been identified in three areas: Planning, Engineering, and Information Services (GIS) departments.”
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According to the report, the city’s long range planning department is experiencing “unprecedented” pressures related to meeting housing policies, finding funding opportunities, undertaking “proactive” planning and meeting community expectations.
The 2024 long range planning departmental work plan currently includes items such as:
Provincial Housing Initiatives (Bill 44) – Small Scale Multi Unit Housing - underway
Provincial Housing Initiatives (Bill 44) – Procedures Bylaw update - underway
Short Term Rental Update - underway
Post OCP Zoning Bylaw Update - underway
Density Bonusing Program (budgeted 2023) - underway
Parking Strategy (budgeted 2023) - underway
Complete Communities/Infill strategy (UBCM Grant) - underway
Work on DCC and ACC reviews, the Works and Services Bylaw, the Westbank Centre Revitalization Plan, the Industrial Lands Study, Neighbourhood Planning (Raymer), the Housing Needs Assessment update and Tenant Displacement Policy have all been placed on hold.
The report says these tasks are led by the Long Range Planning team, which includes two full-time employees, and staff resources are being reallocated from current planning applications to ensure the city meets the legislated deadline for the provincial housing mandates.
That deadline is scheduled for the end of June.
In late February, when council supported the mandated removal of public hearings for housing projects that meet the Official Community Plan guidelines, Brent Magnan, the city’s director of development approvals, hinted at the pressures being experienced by several departments.
“We’re challenged by the work plans that we have as well as the staff resources that we have to work through it,” Magnan told council.
He said he had to reallocate staff into those two “long range planning” positions to implement the legislation, something he “does not take lightly” due to the constraints the city already sees in the development approvals department.
He said the addition of two full time employees would help his department and others implement the legislation and necessary changes in the city’s bylaws and policies.
Additionally, when considering a motion to implement fees for commercial users of the city’s boat launches earlier this month, Mattiussi told council that preparing a report on boat launch fees would “be very, very difficult” given everything happening behind the scenes at city hall.
According to the report, the long range planning team is currently receiving direction from Magnan, which has proven “inefficient and challenging.”
The report recommends a long range planning manager position.
The position would “provide oversight and direction to the department in ensuring legislated deadlines are being met, in addition to ensuring ongoing monitoring of housing targets, evaluating workplans, and meeting departmental objectives that are aligned with Council’s strategic priorities,” the report says.
More resources are also being recommended for the city’s Engineering Department, which is primarily responsible for carrying out projects under the city’s capital plan.
It is recommended that council approve an infrastructure engineer who would be responsible for project planning and delivering projects required to support the housing legislation.
Additional general information services positions are also needed. Currently, there is a team of three in the GIS department, however, they are facing a “sizable backlog” the report says.
“As well as further City requirements on the horizon with the Asset Management Plan and the associated software,” the report says.
“Just this alone will require years of work and with the addition of further data management due to the housing initiatives there isn’t enough capacity going forward.”
Mattiussi says in the report that the anticipated costs for the minimum three positions is estimated at $377,145.
This would equate to a 0.907% tax increase, which is over and above council’s first reading approval of the 0.91% tax increase for staffing in the 2024 Financial Plan.
Council has yet to formally adopt the 2024 budget, but gave first reading to it and a proposed 6.85% property tax increase in early December.
The long range planning manager was an original request but was contingent on the HAF funding, the GIS analyst position was also an original supplement request but went unfunded when the staffing budget was reduced to the 0.91% and the infrastructure engineer is a completely new request.
“Ultimately what this would mean (is) a recommended overall tax increase of 7.76% to mitigate the impacts of not receiving the HAF grant and the additional work required to implement the orderly adoption of the new Provincial requirement,” the report says.
West Kelowna City Council will be reviewing this request during the Mar. 26 meeting, which begins at 6 pm.
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