Staff are off and running on a dozen “options” reports to help Victoria council move through the tail end of its official community plan review.
The city kicked off its OCP review, titled Victoria 2050, in 2023 and spent months doing rounds of public consultation last year, before bringing the latest updates to council – sitting as committee – during its March 6 meeting. An OCP is a long-term plan that guides how a community will grow and change through housing, businesses, parks and transportation priorities as well as ways to respond to the climate crisis.
Information anticipated in the next pass, expected in April ahead of a public hearing that would allow final input, focus on housing and transportation.
Council set out a series of 12 motions looking for more information on the impacts on the “Victoria 2050” vision plan.
Council asked staff to look at options to enable more three-plus bedroom homes; to better enable galley-style housing without changing site coverage policies; to remove or reduce amenity cost charges (ACCs) for affordable homeownership units; to ensure flexibility in the OCP and related policy documents and taking a housing priority approach; to reduce barriers to build car-light or car-free housing; and to limit costs to non-profit housing providers for any new frontage work.
Staff were also tasked with a report on the implications of allowing six-storey, non-market developments city-wide.
“There should be as few limitations as possible to build non-market housing,” said Coun. Krista Loughton, who made the motion, noting recent data shows 61 per cent of Victoria residents are renters with 24 per cent paying more than 30 per cent of their before-tax income on housing. “The best action for the alleviation of homelessness is to prevent it in the first place.”
The motion was among a handful that were not unanimous, with Coun. Marg Gardiner among those opposed, noting two options were originally presented. The recent direction is based on the path chosen – a more incremental approach to densification.
Staff will also look at options to add more local villages to the OCP or convert proposed waterfront villages to local villages. Coun. Matt Dell, who made the motion, said he was excited to see local villages, but sees the opportunity for more – to “build out those small local villages.”
Highlighting the correlation and overlap between housing and transportation, staff will look at options to expand “priority growth areas around transit corridors and active transportation corridors” to be at least a full block. They’ll also bring back options to reduce traffic blockages on transit corridors and create additional transit priority measures; and look at options to strengthen OCP references to future implementation of regional mass transit.
“There are actually some references … they’re just very buried and to my mind could be foregrounded a bit more,” said Coun. Jeremy Caradonna, who made the motion, adding it’s not about the city building light rail, but rather a “signal to residents that we’re ready for light rail.”
The draft OCP and related reports are expected back before committee of the whole in April. Council agenda and streaming are online at victoria.ca.
