Natasha Baldin/News Staff
In light of land-use committee member shortages, Victoria City Council passed a motion to temporarily bypass panels in the housing approval process until the end of August at the latest.
The Advisory Design Panel (ADP) and the Heritage Advisory Panel (HAP) are both currently short on the required number of members and cannot meet to approve any new developments until new members are onboarded.
While the ADP and the HAP meet once per month to review any applicable development processes, the shortages prevent them from meeting in July. While staff said an August meeting will be considered, it is not confirmed whether the panels will meet in August due to the month-long council break, even if the issues are resolved.
The bypass will be in effect until Aug. 31 or until council appoints new and all members receive the required onboarding, whichever comes first.
The title of the council member motion, “enabling faster approvals for housing in Victoria,” along with the minimal context provided in the original motion, had many members of the community concerned on social media that council would be bypassing the land-use committees permanently. Many called it an attack on democracy and accountability.
Councillors called for amendments to the motion to clarify the language around the timing of the bypass and the impacted committees.
“The title of the members’ motion initially got people worked up. The title was perhaps a poor one,” Coun. Chris Coleman said. “I think it’s supportable, but I put a caution to that because we now have to address the issue that has been created in some of the public’s mind.”
Coun. Matt Dell, who introduced the motion, said the temporary bypass is an important way of ensuring approvals do not temporarily slow down during the housing crisis.
“One of the low-hanging fruits in this crisis is to find ways to accelerate the housing approval process. It’s getting more expensive to build homes and smaller builders can’t afford to wait,” he said.
“I’m sympathetic to these applicants because we’re creating unnecessary bottlenecks and red tape and some of these applicants spend tens of thousands of dollars in holding patterns waiting for approvals,” Coun. Jeremy Caradonna added.
The motion passed with eight votes in favour, with only Coun. Marg Gardiner in opposition.
