On October 20, 2020, Council adopted OCP Amendment Bylaw 985-25, 2020 and Zoning Amendment Bylaw 1065-54, 2020.

The OCP Amendment alters:

• the OCP’s land use designation from the existing “Medium Density Residential” to “Multi-Unit Residential Special Character”, and increases the Multi-Unit Residential Special Character density to 60 units per hectare to allow up to 4 units (in the form of a three-family dwelling and a garden suite) on each property; and
• the form and character Development Permit Area from the existing “Multi-Family Residential Development Permit Area No. 4” to “Intensive Residential Development Permit Area No. 8”.

Similarly, the Zoning Amendment alters the zoning from “Single-Family Residential Zone 2 (R-2)” to “Multi-family Residential Zone 7 (RM-7)”, and expands the Garden Suite Area to these lots for the purpose of allowing each property to have up to three units within a single-family dwelling as well as a Garden Suite.

This approach is aligned with Council’s strategic objective of advocating for and facilitating a range of housing types, with a priority of actively working towards increasing the supply and range of safe, secure, and attainable affordable housing options. The bylaws essentially introduce a “Missing Middle” housing type, which the Town currently does not have.

Additionally, changing the OCP’s land use designation and amending the zoning helps protect the neighbourhood from larger-scale developments, which would have been permitted under the original OCP land use designation.

Background/Community Consultation

The Town initiated an Official Community Plan and Zoning amendment for the properties along Davis Road and Poplar Lane, as outlined in bold in Figure 1 (right), in order to provide gentle infill density on the properties in a single-detached building form, while maintaining the character of the existing neighbourhood. Read related Staff Report dated March 3, 2020 here.

Initially, the Town had intended to host an Open House for this initiative, to share the proposed bylaw changes and to answer any questions pertaining to the proposed changes.

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, a public gathering was not possible.

Instead, we asked residents who may be affected by the proposed amendments to complete a short survey. (The survey was mailed to all residents of the Davis Road – Poplar Lane neighbourhood, including properties within 50m of the properties subject to the zoning change, and was also available online, via this web page).

The survey closed on July 8, 2020, with 23 responses received.

Read staff report from September 8, 2020, which includes the resident survey results, here.

On October 6, 2020, an electronic Public Hearing on the two bylaws was held via Zoom.