Independent advisors who reviewed the lack of progress on housing construction in Oak Bay say the district — which has an anti-development reputation — has made “reasonable efforts” to meet housing targets.
Two years ago, Oak Bay was included in a list of 10 municipalities that would be required to hit targets on new home construction.
After it failed to hit its first year of five-year housing targets, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon sent a letter in January advising that independent advisors had been appointed to probe the “lack of progress,” noting just 16 of 56 net-new units had been delivered.
“I am aware that the District had 11 in-stream applications that could account for as many as 61 new units in the future; however, these did not receive some form of development approval within the reporting period to show ongoing progress,” Kahlon wrote on Jan. 30.
Advisors reviewed development approval processes, land-use planning, and housing policies and practices and came back with a 39-page report in March.
That report confirmed Oak Bay was behind in its first-year and likely second-year targets but said it was “fair and accurate” for the district to say “units are in the pipeline.”
“We found no evidence that Oak Bay is deliberately trying to circumvent or thwart Bill 44 or any other provincial legislation,” said the housing report’s executive summary. “In our opinion, they are making reasonable efforts to meet the housing targets.”
Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch said in a phone interview Thursday the report confirms what the district has argued in the past.
“The report basically said the district is doing what we said we were doing, that the constraints that we highlighted to the province a couple of years ago are true, and that we’re a willing partner in finding housing,” said Murdoch.
Those constraints include the fact the community is fully built out, the district’s relatively small staff resources, and the cost of land in the district.
The report says with another 664 new units due to be built in Oak Bay, the district is facing challenges, but advisors did not find Oak Bay obstructive to housing being built.
“Our goals are the same,” said Murdoch. “We want to see new housing and the right kind of housing built.”
In a statement Thursday, Kahlon said the housing-targets program is working, with more than 16,000 net new homes created in the 30 communities that have housing targets.
In a letter to both Oak Bay and West Vancouver, where progress has been slower, Kahlon provided directives based on the advisors’ reports, giving councils 30 days to submit written comments.
Oak Bay has been directed to amend its development application procedures bylaw to delegate minor variances to municipal staff by Jan. 31, 2026, a practice used in many other jurisdictions.
The district has also been told to amend its parking facilities bylaw for multi-unit residential buildings to require a minimum of one parking stall per unit by Jan. 31, 2026. The bylaw currently requires a minimum of two parking stalls per unit.
Kahlon is encouraging both districts to review the remaining advisors’ recommendations and provide updates on progress toward implementing them.
Murdoch said the work on minor variances is “already underway” and will be considered by the end of the year, while the parking requirements will form part of the district’s Official Community Plan “that’s going on right now.”
“The direct requests from the province are, again, things that we were already doing,” he said.
Murdoch said he appreciates that the report recognized that the housing targets alone were not a great way to measure success. The district is making many of the changes being requested by the province, but there’s a time lag between that and turn-key units being occupied, he said.
“When a municipality implements zoning changes, then developers then have to find land, put their package together, apply and build,” said Murdoch.
“What the housing advisor has observed here is that the required changes that the province is asking for are being done by the municipality, and they’re being done in a way that, by all measures, seems to be successful.”
Kahlon said he agreed with the advisors’ conclusion that there is no requirement to pursue residential development in Carnarvon Park, something Murdoch said the district is “very grateful” for
Murdoch also said a suggestion in the report that the former Oak Bay Lodge site is a viable site for housing is “not accurate.”
The former long-term-care facility grounds belong to the region’s hospital district and are designated for health-care purposes. They’re being actively assessed by Island Health for that purpose, said Murdoch.
“If that were to fail, and the land were to change hands or something, then that would change the narrative.”
As for the advisors’ other more general recommendations, Murdoch said most are valid, but could be applied to any community, such as always looking at ways of improving and simplifying approval processes for housing construction.
“It’s not like you hit an end point where things are good,” said Murdoch. “You just, you’re always in a state of improvement.”
Kahlon reiterated that the targets and directives are not about “punishing communities or removing authority from locally elected municipal councils,” but about working with municipalities to “remove unnecessary barriers” to build more affordable homes faster.
