Central Cariboo Housing Needs Study - Draft Final Report

In Fall 2020 -- both the City of Williams Lake and the Cariboo Regional District commenced a Central Cariboo Housing Needs Study covering the entirety of the City of Williams Lake as well as Electoral Areas "D', "E", "F", "J" and "K" of the Cariboo Regional District.  This study is a requirement under Section 585 of the Local Government Act - click here.  The Study was completed by CitySpaces, a planning firm that has expertise on this subject.  The final report of this Study must be received/adopted by Williams Lake City Council/Cariboo RD Board by April of 2022

The draft final report of the Study is being presented to Williams Lake City Council, meeting as a Committee of the Whole, tomorrow evening at 6pm.  The report can be viewed here. The draft final report has not yet been presented to the Cariboo RD's Areas D,E,F,J,K Directors but is expected to occur within the next 90 days... 

Something of the more concerning aspects of the final draft report included:

* Consideration of establishing a "Regional Housing Corporation".  These already exist in Metro Vancouver Regional District and Capital Regional District (Victoria, BC) -- Unlike municipalities, Electoral Areas' do not have the same ability to regulate social housing from a neighborhood perspective (no business licensing, etc) and the issues that usually come along with them.  Area "D" residents' I have talked with so far are opposed to this concept as is their local Cariboo RD Area Director

* Consideration for incentivizing developers in Electoral Areas to build more affordable housing -- In the Regional District context, without a RD Service Bylaw in place, this will be impossible in CRD Areas D,E,F,J,K to achieve while the City of Williams Lake has considerable more legislative flexibility in this concept.

* Consideration to establish a "Standards of Maintenance Bylaw" -- intended to regulate how rentals are managed/maintained.  While Municipal Councils are empowered by the Community Charter to enact such a bylaw, Regional Boards' are not entitled to enact such a bylaw, except with leave of the Provincial Cabinet as these bylaws are regulatory in nature and RD Boards' would need the authority of the Provincial Cabinet to enact such bylaws and I'm fairly certain, knowing rural residents' in the Central Cariboo-Chilcotin like I do -- there will be significant pushback on this concept

Overall -- the final draft report looks good and I'm looking forward to adopting this bylaw sometime in 2021....

SF