It was plagued by years of delays, the cancellation of a contract by a consultant and a payout to a top staffer to resign, but North Saanich has finally adopted a new official community plan — albeit one that continues to divide councillors.
The question for many during the OCP review process was how much development should be allowed in a district that prizes its rural character.
Former housing minister Ravi Kahlon urged the district in a May 7 letter to ensure the OCP included a strong emphasis on housing supply, saying it’s not on track to meet its housing targets. North Saanich has only delivered six net new units, representing 10 per cent of its first-year target, and has only 10 units in the works, Kahlon wrote. But councillors shut down discussion of the minister’s message at the time.
While the district’s director of planning says the new plan sets the district up to meet provincial housing targets, some councillors disagreed, with three of seven voting against it.
Councillors Jack McClintock, Celia Stock and Phil DiBattista all opposed the new plan.
DiBattista said he does not believe the plan gives the district any likelihood of meeting provincial housing targets, putting North Saanich at risk of having a special adviser appointed by the province.
McClintock said he’s heard from North Saanich residents who are unhappy with the document. “The public is not in support of this,” he said.
Stock said she has heard from many residents who believe the district is overstepping its jurisdiction by designating the Victoria International Airport land as a development permit area for multi-family, commercial and industrial uses.
Development permit areas are a planning tool that local governments can use to ensure proposed development is consistent with community goals, according to the OCP, which says the airport is under federal jurisdiction.
In what appeared to be a prepared speech following the OCP’s adoption, Coun. Sanjiv Shrivastava referred to the plan as the “big, beautiful bylaw,” acknowledging he was borrowing “the language from the south.”
U.S. President Donald Trump passed the One Big Beautiful Bill this month, which made massive cuts to health care and food benefits, provided tax breaks, and directed money for deportations and military spending.
Felice Mazzoni, director of planning and community services, said the new OCP strikes a balance between retaining the district’s character and meeting housing mandates.
“That’s difficult to do, but I think we’ve done it in this OCP,” he said.
Most of the density increase allowed in the new plan is in the McTavish Road area, where land-use designations allow for multi-family residential developments and townhouses, both up to three storeys, Mazzoni said. Four storeys in seniors’ housing can be considered, he said.
The plan also allows for increased density in the southeast corner of the district, around Amity Drive, where single-family homes can have a secondary suite and a carriage house, a self-contained residential unit on an upper floor above an accessory, such as a garage.
Lots in the area larger than around 0.7 acres can have a detached residential unit in addition to a secondary suite.
The plan also makes it easier for owners of single-family homes to build greenhouses and aims to reduce conflict between farmland and residential use by creating buffers around farmland, Mazzoni said.