In an effort to attract much-needed multi-unit residential development to Quesnel, the city is looking to extend the timeframe for tax relief and expand the area in which it offers incentives through its Multi-Unit Housing Incentives Bylaw.
Council adopted a Multi-Family Incentive Bylaw in 2016 to provide municipal property tax relief and development cost charge (DCC) waivers for multi-unit developments in the community. At that time, North Quesnel and West Quesnel were defined as target growth areas in the city, and incentives were developed for these two areas.
The bylaw defines some minimal development standards for accessibility, liveability and design that must be met to qualify for the tax relief incentives. Some low environmental impact standards and/or non-profit housing conditions were also in place for receiving the DCC reductions or waivers, according to a staff report from Tanya Turner, the city’s director of development services.
Now, staff is recommending amendments to the bylaw to encourage the development of new multi-unit developments in the community.
One proposal is to change the term “multi-family” to “multi-unit” to be consistent with other city bylaws and policies.
The proposed bylaw amendment would also expand the areas where incentives are permitted to include the area around the North Cariboo Community Campus and vacant lands in the Carson Subdivision.
The original bylaw offered a 10-year municipal tax exemption in North Quesnel, the primary growth area, and a five-year exemption in the secondary growth area, West Quesnel. Staff is proposing having just one overall growth area and increasing the incentives to allow 10-year tax exemptions and 100-per-cent DCC reductions for low environmental impact and non-profit housing units in all areas.
Staff is also proposing allowing building to Step Code 3 to replace an environmental impact.
These changes were recommended by developers in the community and the city’s building inspector, Turner explained at the Dec. 1 council meeting.
“Our call to try and encourage market development right now is going to be contingent upon us giving these kinds of reliefs, from our experience in other communities,” Turner told council.
Turner says staff anticipates reviewing other areas in the new year, specifically in South Quesnel, to identify lots that would be desirable for multi-unit developments.
This is not only for new builds, explained Turner.
“This is also for renovations of buildings,” she said. “You must create new units would be the key. That’s important because there are a lot of buildings in the community as well that may be looked at for conversion to some multi-unit residential units in some of our larger commercial buildings in the community as well.”
Two apartment buildings were constructed in North Quesnel using the incentives in the original bylaw — the 38-unit Kikihnaw development and the 30-unit Silver Manor building. Both were in the primary growth area and were able to meet the full conditions of the bylaw to receive the full incentive package with a 10-year municipal property tax exemption and full DCC waivers.
“We have a huge issue getting over the construction costs and the return on investment for money that can go anywhere in the province, so that’s what we are trying to address,” said Mayor Bob Simpson. “This really is us ramping it up so we can grab that market housing investment that’s starting to move around and that we desperately need.”
Simpson noted this bylaw is not addressing the issue of unserviced land, and the city still has a lot of work to do in that area.
“We’ve got serviced land in North Quesnel and West Quesnel, and you’ve got that extension now recommended by staff and recommended by the committee to take a look at where we’ve got pretty large chunks of unserviced property,” he said. “So we are putting some unserviced property under this program as well, where, quite frankly, we’ve got the largest potential for infill development.”
Council provided first reading to the bylaw at its Dec. 1 meeting and directed staff to proceed with the required notification of the bylaw.
READ MORE: Final North Cariboo housing report highlights need for more rental supply, housing affordability
editor@quesnelobserver.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter