Why some B.C. municipalities are split over proposal to end single-family zoning

As B.C. moves forward with a housing plan that would effectively end single-family zoning, municipal leaders have voiced both praise and concern over how the sweeping policy might shape the fabric of their communities.

On Monday, B.C. Premier David Eby and Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon unveiled the Homes for People plan, a multi-billion-dollar effort to construct more homes as quickly as possible in an attempt to build our way out of the housing crisis.

As part of the plan, the government will introduce provincial legislation this fall to allow three to four units on a traditional single-family detached lot with additional density permitted in areas well served by transit. It's a strategy that a number of jurisdictions across the world — including Oregon, California and Auckland, New Zealand — have adopted as a way to gently bump up housing density in their communities.

Langley City Mayor Nathan Pachal says the policy has the potential to be transformative in creating more affordable housing options.

"We know traditionally throughout Metro Vancouver, and even across B.C., the largest percentage of urban land for housing is dedicated to single detached homes," Pachal told CBC News. "What this should allow is gentle density."

Langley City, a municipality east of Vancouver, is about 10 square kilometres in size, and 80 per cent of the population lives in townhouses, condos or rowhomes. Pachal says the other 20 per cent lives in single-family detached homes that are taking up about 50 per cent of the land base.

In Victoria, city council has already passed policy that will alow up to 12 units on certain lots.

Vancouver is also seeking public input on a plan to increase its "missing middle" housing supply by allowing multiplexes in low-density neighbourhoods across the city.

Density concerns

But other leaders aren't yet sold on the province's direction.

Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie thinks it should be up to municipalities to decide how they are zoned, particularly given local infrastructure limitations.

"It's fine to say you want a lot more dwelling units, but do you have the sewers and the pipes and the water supply, everything that it takes," said Brodie. "Every time we have a rezoning, we have a traffic study. Are we going to assume that traffic will take care of itself? What about the need for other services, the police, the fire, the libraries, the community centres?"

"What about the character of the various neighbourhoods?" 

Lessons to be learned

While specifics on the legislation are yet to be unveiled, researchers in Oregon say the policy is unlikely to yield a dramatic increase in total units.

In 2019, the state passed a bill that allows duplexes to be built in areas zoned for single-family housing and up to four homes on almost any residential lot in cities of a certain size. In 2020, officials in Portland introduced a law allowing up to six units with strict affordability requirements.

The zoning took effect in August 2021, and the net result has been about an additional 200 to 300 homes per year in Portland, according to Michael Andersen, a senior housing researcher at the non-profit Sightline Institute in Portland.

"Middle housing is not a silver bullet. Anybody who claims that two, three, fourplexes are enough to bring housing costs down and house everyone who needs it ... is mistaken," he said.

Anderson says the policy has, so far, led to gradual change in single-family neighbourhoods, but it will enable more lots to house more residents as buildings reach the end of their life cycle and are replaced.

"The big vision is that we're increasing the amount of options that anybody has in how to live," he said.