Housing Action Plan

Thanks for your question.

Sungod's location is fairly far from Scott Road or any of the major east-west corridors, resulting in it being primarily surrounded by single detached housing. It is something that would be considered as part of an update to the North Delta Area Plan; however, it is not known at this time when such an update might take place.

Thanks for your question. While the Housing Action Plan focuses more on the housing side of things, the City is continuously looking for ways to support and encourage transit and active transportation options. For example, increasing density in town centres and transit corridors puts people closer to services and transit, meaning that they will need to rely less on private vehicles. Other aspects of the City's work, such as the Cycling Master Plan (which you can also find information about here on Let's Talk Delta), also play into the overall goal of fewer private vehicle trips.

Thanks for your question.

CD329, and comprehensive development zones like it, are adopted at the request of an applicant/developer, and are typically used when an existing zone in the Zoning Bylaw does not quite fit the needs of a particular development. Unless requested as part of a rezoning application, the City does not modify CD zones, so the regulations that were put in place at the time of adoption remain in place.

If you have particular concerns with the regulations described in CD329, please reach out the Community Planning and Development department at cpd@delta.ca and we would be more than happy to help.

Thanks for your question. Unfortunately, 2021 Census data only started to become available in February 2022, and that data was only about population. Housing data will not be available for a few months, so the Housing Needs Assessment and Housing Action Plan are based on the most recently available Census data. It's worth noting that BC Stats, which issues data each year, was also considered throughout the process to help fill in gaps.

Thanks for your question. There was no moratorium considered as part of the Housing Action Plan; however, staff are developing a Tenant Relocation Policy and a Rental Stock Protection Policy as described in the Plan. These policies will help to maintain critical rental housing stock in Delta and provide additional supports for tenants facing displacement due to redevelopment.

Thank you for your question. Coach houses are scattered throughout the City (mostly in Ladner as you noted), with none currently in Tsawwassen. The allowable density (units per hectare) of the Single Family Residential (SFR) land use that covers most of the low density area of Tsawwassen does not correspond with the slightly higher density of the Infill Single Family (ISF) and Infill Single Family North Delta (ISF-ND) seen in Ladner and North Delta. These latter land uses allow for higher density, which is required as part of the coach house zone as currently written. However, I will note that through the Housing Action Plan's Gentle Density strategy, further opportunities for coach home development will be explored.

Thank you for your question. Smaller houses on smaller lots is indeed one of the ideas that will be considered as part of the implementation of the Housing Action Plan, specifically as part of the Gentle Density strategy.

Hi there, thanks for your question.

While the City isn't able to mandate whether or not a rental property permits pets, both affordable rental housing and seniors housing are high priorities for the City. As currently proposed, those types of units would be considered "priority units", which could then be incentivized by the City through various means (the details of his are still being worked on). We would still be reliant on development (whether for-profit or non-profit) to propose and construct those units, as the City is not able to build them.

Please keep your eye out for the next round of consultation, for the draft Housing Action Plan, which we expect will take place in the next few months.

Thanks for your question. The goal of the Housing Action Plan is not to displace a particular group or segment of the population, but rather to look for ways to allow people who wish to live in Delta (either new residents, or current residents looking to move) the opportunity to do so. For example, that could mean accessible housing near neighbourhood centres for seniors or those with disabilities, it could mean three bedroom units for families, or it could mean below-market housing for people with low to medium incomes. There are a myriad of options being explored through this phase of the project.

With respect to how new residents might earn incomes, that is outside the scope of this project.

Thanks for your question. The idea behind concepts like "gentle density", where we have slight increases in the population of a neighbourhood over time, is to encourage things like duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, suites, etc. The exact mechanism of how those are encouraged would still require more work, as simply permitting them through zoning may not be enough. Indeed, there are single detached neighbourhoods throughout Delta that already permit duplexes outright through zoning, but for various reasons, those who choose to build a new home choose to build a single detached home (with or without a suite). What that indicates is that perhaps simply allowing these new types of buildings may be insufficient, so that would be something that would be evaluated if gentle density is a strategy that is pursued through the Housing Action Plan.