In a letter sent to Mayor Kevin Murdoch on July 17, outgoing Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Ravi Kahlon shortened Oak Bay's deadline to make changes to bylaws that would make it easier to build homes faster.
The orders require the district to tweak its development application procedures bylaw to delegate minor development variance permits to staff – a task previously left to council – and revise its parking facilities bylaw to require at least one parking stall per unit in multi-unit developments, down from at least two.
The deadline is now Dec. 31, 2025, moved up from Jan. 31, 2026.
“I do not understand why the province is putting effort into changing the due date of these requirements,” said Murdoch. “These are dates that we were expected to meet in any case.”
Kahlon explained “the shorter timeline aligns with the deadline for proactive planning and ensures all required Official Community Plan updates are considered at the same time.”
According to Murdoch, however, the district was already working to make the changes, which were first outlined in a May 21 letter from the province.
“All I would say in reading through the most recent letter is that it duplicates the request already received and moves the date up,” he said. “There was no pushback from us on the previous request. It was all work well underway."
This news comes two years after the province set housing targets in 10 communities, including Oak Bay, which was ordered to build 664 new units within five years. It soon fell behind, raising only 16 of the 56 units it was tasked with constructing in 2024.
Kahlon then appointed a housing advisor to Oak Bay on Jan. 30 to "make recommendations to support our shared goal of building homes for people."
Victoria-based James Ridge Consulting undertook a two-month review, which included an analysis of the district’s development approval processes and housing policies and practices.
While the advisor said that Oak Bay is making "reasonable efforts" to meet housing targets, its resulting 39-page report identified a list of processes, practices and circumstances that have hindered housing approvals in the district.
Among them: Oak Bay’s reputation for being anti-development, an outdated Official Community Plan and a tendency to bring even minor variance requests before council. It also noted that “misaligned zoning” means most housing projects require rezoning.
