What do all of your organizations require from developers when they develop in your town? Ie cash in lieu, units etc ? How many/ how much?

Will add to the response when received from other municipalities.

Whistler Housing Authority

Within Whistler, the charge to contribute for employee housing is $5,908.00 per employee. Employees are determined on the following basis:

  • Commercial – 1 employee per 50 sq. m of gross floor area
  • Industrial – 1 employee per 250 sq. m of gross floor area
  • Residential (where subject to rental pool covenant) – 0.2 employees per guest room
  • Any other development – 1 employee per 50 sq. m of gross floor area

Resort Municipality of Sun Peaks

Sun Peaks is unique in that the lift company has a Master Development Agreement with the Province and is the only one with access to develop vacant Crown lands which is linked to developing recreation infrastructure (new ski lifts). There are provisions for allocations of future land for employee housing as the community grows. We have not yet implemented specific cash in lieu or unit requirements for development. A specific housing Development Cost Charge will be brought in this spring to establish a source of dedicated funding for our Housing Authority. 

District of Sicamous

The District does not currently require direct contributions as a condition of zoning. Our zoning bylaw employes an amenity bonus mechanism, whereby a developer may have an additional 2 dwellings or sleeping units per attainable rental unit provided. Our Development Cost Charge Bylaw currently includes exemptions for Affordable Housing, however this is a low-income threshold and does not speak to median income; our DCC bylaw is under review as recommended by the housing strategy. In addition, the strategy contemplates additional incentives through revitalization tax exemptions and a pre-approved plan library (siting permit required only, no DP), delegated approvals (short permitting turn around) as well as potentially establishing a requirement to provide a minimum number of attainable dwelling units or a cash in lieu contribution to the housing fund.

District of Tofino

DCCs as well as affordable housing units are calculated with an existing equation – this will also be under review.

Whistler Housing Authority

For developers of commercial, industrial, or residential units subject to a rental pool, the developer has the option to contribute to the provision of employee housing in Whistler in 3 ways: 

  1. 1)    Paying cash-in-lieu at ~$6,000 per employee generated by the new development; 
  2. 2)    Providing onsite staff accommodations; or
  3. 3)    Providing offsite staff accommodations.

See RMOW Employee Housing Service Charge Bylaw for more information and employee generation formula.


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1. In your opinion, what overall effect do short term rentals have on the community's affordable housing markets?
2. How much of Revelstoke's housing issue is a missing middle problem? What approaches are being considered to address these housing gaps? (Low vs median income)
3. How do we regulate vacation home buyers inflating the real estate market? Is it possible to enact zoning restrictions in some areas to primary home buyers only?
4. Why not more mobile home parks?
5. How much is Whistler’s cash in leu for housing? Is it a flat fee or based on different metrics?
6. With employee housing, what happens if an employee loses their job or want to leave a job. Are they homeless?
7. If Whistler took 30 years to mature, how can we do something in 10 years or less without crashing in the process? What can be adopted now to get us started?
8. For each of the speakers who are sharing details of a well-funded housing organization; where would your community be without that dedicated housing entity?
9. What is the status of the BC housing project on Downie Street? What can be done to bring this to reality sooner?
10. WHA : can you expand on how affordability is maintained in perpetuity? Does WHA retain an equity share?
11. We need to develop micro-home communities in town and in the CSRD. Problem solved.
12. What consideration has been given to how gig economy workers with often fluctuating annual incomes fit into qualifying parameters for affordable housing?
13. How are you, as a Resort Community, leveraging OAP/MRDT taxes for affordable housing? Tools, models ?
14. What kind of anti affordable housing campaigning is Tofino experiencing and why? How are you handling this?
15. What can the tourism industry, which is driving up costs, do better to support affordable housing?
16. Can prefab/modular home construction play a role in affordable housing in Revelstoke?
17. How do you protect against base population displacement?
18. How did the communities balance the availability of housing vs short term rentals, bylaw enforcement costs vs revenue from OAP/MRDT?
19. For Al - Like Revelstoke , Sun Peaks is neighboured by resort land. Does the resort operator have a supportive role in creating affordable housing? If so, how?
20. Have any of the communities looked at infill density? (Carriage houses, zoning to allow for tiny homes in back yards etc) any success stories using that model?
21. Have age demographics been factored into future housing needs? A lot of baby boomers will be looking to downsize into the same type of units that younger
22. What do all of your organizations require from developers when they develop in your town? Ie cash in lieu, units etc ? How many/ how much?
23. Is it possible that we may never get ahead of the housing issue because so many people want to live in Revelstoke?
24. Has the city considered approaching the rail yard about building a multi level parking structure to free up city lots downtown for infill development?
25. Can we get actual action rather than lip service from our municipal government? Or should we expect similar results to our updated DCC’s?
26. Is there an opportunity to reduce DCC fees for the first X number of accessory dwellings developed in Revelstoke to promote faster development?
27. Would Revelstoke consider a speculation and vacancy tax to combat housing infrastructure sitting empty and help reduce market pressures from second homeowners?
28. Do your municipalities have issues with a lack of willing developers?
29. Instead of wanting to ban tiny houses and motor home, why can't we provide quality and safe version? For example having standards and inspections.
30. Paul mentioned the risk of developers turning their backs on us due to high development costs - why not try to push the limit? We are far from it.