Housing Action Plan

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Consultation has concluded.

On November 8, 2021, Delta City Council approved the City's Housing Action Plan. A copy of the report and the Plan can be found here. Thank you to everyone who provided their feedback on this important project, and we look forward to working to further the actions and strategies in the Plan.


Background

In 2019, the City began developing a Housing Action Plan to help address Delta’s current and future housing needs.

For Phase 1 of this project, we conducted a Housing Needs Assessment with residents and stakeholders to better understand Delta’s current housing situation and decide what are Delta’s priority needs for housing. The key areas we identified are:






Phase 2 saw the development of draft strategies to address the needs identified in Phase 1. Through the input of Council, stakeholders and the broader community, those strategies were further refined and incorporated into a draft Housing Action Plan.



In Phase 3, the draft Housing Action Plan was developed with input from the community and key stakeholders. Following that refinement work, Delta City Council approved the City's new Housing Action Plan on November 8, 2021. You can find a copy of the Council report and the Housing Action Plan here. The Plan reflects the City's commitment to taking action on housing over the next five years, with eight strategies to address Delta's housing needs. The strategies are:

  1. Promote priority housing types through a comprehensive incentives package
  2. Explore ways to increase land availability for priority housing
  3. Introduce tenant relocation and rental stock protection policies
  4. Pilot prezoning in select areas near town centres
  5. Create opportunities for gentle density
  6. Increase the number of accessible units in Delta
  7. Strengthen partnerships and advocacy
  8. Pilot inclusionary zoning


Next steps

Now that the Housing Action Plan has been approved, City staff are already working to implement the actions in the plan to address Delta's housing needs. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far, and we look forward to continuing this important work.

On November 8, 2021, Delta City Council approved the City's Housing Action Plan. A copy of the report and the Plan can be found here. Thank you to everyone who provided their feedback on this important project, and we look forward to working to further the actions and strategies in the Plan.


Background

In 2019, the City began developing a Housing Action Plan to help address Delta’s current and future housing needs.

For Phase 1 of this project, we conducted a Housing Needs Assessment with residents and stakeholders to better understand Delta’s current housing situation and decide what are Delta’s priority needs for housing. The key areas we identified are:






Phase 2 saw the development of draft strategies to address the needs identified in Phase 1. Through the input of Council, stakeholders and the broader community, those strategies were further refined and incorporated into a draft Housing Action Plan.



In Phase 3, the draft Housing Action Plan was developed with input from the community and key stakeholders. Following that refinement work, Delta City Council approved the City's new Housing Action Plan on November 8, 2021. You can find a copy of the Council report and the Housing Action Plan here. The Plan reflects the City's commitment to taking action on housing over the next five years, with eight strategies to address Delta's housing needs. The strategies are:

  1. Promote priority housing types through a comprehensive incentives package
  2. Explore ways to increase land availability for priority housing
  3. Introduce tenant relocation and rental stock protection policies
  4. Pilot prezoning in select areas near town centres
  5. Create opportunities for gentle density
  6. Increase the number of accessible units in Delta
  7. Strengthen partnerships and advocacy
  8. Pilot inclusionary zoning


Next steps

Now that the Housing Action Plan has been approved, City staff are already working to implement the actions in the plan to address Delta's housing needs. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far, and we look forward to continuing this important work.

Consultation has concluded.

If you have a question about the project, please feel free to ask us.

For the ease of responding, please stick to one topic or a single question per submission.  You can submit as many questions as you like.

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    Why has the zoning around Sungod remained the same while you promote urban zones that need higher density? Sungod recreation Center is more used than any other facility in Delta.

    Jim Hall asked over 1 year ago

    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.

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    It seems clear that reducing our car dependency is vital for our environmentally friendly future. What is being done to ensure new and old neighborhoods will be safer and more convenient for walking, biking, and public transit?

    1029chris asked almost 2 years ago

    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.

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    What’s the City of Delta’s plans to deal with outdated and unrealistic building restrictions that were put in place 20 years ago that don’t work for residents in today’s world such as CD329.

    MyhouseistoozA asked almost 2 years ago

    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.

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    Isn't much of this Housing Report already outdated because it relies so much on 2016 Census data?

    byaworski asked almost 2 years ago

    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.

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    Did the study look at a Moratorium on Renovictions & Demovictions - at least until new projects get built over the next 2 - 3 yrs? Changes to the Residential Tenancy Rules don't go far enough to protect residents from displacement.

    byaworski asked almost 2 years ago

    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.

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    Lane houses are allowed in Ladner. Why are detached units not allowed in Tsawwassen?

    MyHouseistoobig asked about 2 years ago

    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.

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    Why not build smaller detached houses on smaller lots? That would lower the price for everybody, owners and tenants.

    MyHouseistoobig asked about 2 years ago

    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.

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    When will there be affordable housing for renting Independent Seniors with a pet? We are paying high amount for rent in Ladner and the Landlord keeps threatening us he will sell because the housing prices are so high. There is no place to rent! We are so scared.

    Ju asked almost 3 years ago

    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.

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    Is this a Socialist move to drive the "middle class" out of delta and replace them with the people you have depicted in the artistic images? The logo IS "Housing the future"!! My specific question is what will Delta do SPECIFICALLY to ensure the people being brought into the area are assisted in becoming income earning and contributing members of society?

    Mohammed asked over 3 years ago

    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.

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    My observation is that many single detached homes that get demolished for redevelopment are replaced by a home that is much larger, has 7 to 10 roof-gables (each an unnecessary expense) and with no sign of a secondary suite. This is no way to increase affordability and density. What can Delta do to discourage this practice while still offering the property owner and/or developer a reasonable financial return?

    Chris asked over 3 years ago

    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.