UPDATE: The original version of this article referenced a bulding permit acquired by the Hemlock development, which was incorrect. The Hemlock project was approved for a development permit on Dec. 13.
The future of Revelstoke’s development boils down to two documents and a big bylaw review.
With the Official Community Plan (OCP) and Housing Action Plan (HAP) finished, and the Zoning Bylaw review started, the City of Revelstoke has laid the foundational documents for the future of housing development in town. Paul Simon, Head of the Planning and Development Services, talked about how the bylaw review and documents finalized last year have already started to spur some change, including the Hemlock Development on Humbert St. that was announced recently. The fulsome change that the community’s housing situation needs will take time, but the planning documents and bylaw review will start to attract more developers.
“This is where for me it’s super exciting,” said Simon.
Last year, the City of Revelstoke finalized the OCP, which is arguably the most important municipal document for every city. Revelstoke’s OCP is described as a “high-level visionary document.”
“Municipalities use OCPs to outline the future vision of the community over a 10 to 20-year timeframe to plan the nature and location of land use, development, and services based on identified community values and priorities,” says the document.
Simon said the community input received during the OCP creation was integral because it helped establish clear guidelines for city planning when examining developments. With clear framework, the city has the means to provide specific recommendations to developments, so that they meet the goals that the community set in the OCP.
The community isolated multi-unit housing as a key element that needed to be improved for the future of Revelstoke.
“The OCP has a really clear target with those development proposals where we want 75 per cent of new development to be multi-unit housing,” said Simon.
Out of that mandate, the City of Revelstoke helped to establish several key guidelines for multi-family residential and mixed-use development to ensure a more seamless integration of multi-family housing into the saturated single-family home market that currently exists in Revelstoke.
Site plan considerations, off-street parking, building form and character, environmental considerations, and landscaping were all separate categories in the OCP — each containing a list of guidelines informed by the community.
The wording in the OCP was changed from previous iterations to fall in line with the HAP, the other defining housing document.
Rather than using firm language like ‘must’, the new OCP included more prescriptive language like ‘should.’ The effect this has is to allow room for some creativity on the side of developers, which falls in line with the “Incentivize and Invest” section of the Role of Local Government for the Policy Next Steps in the HAP.
“Encourage the development of desired forms of housing through measures such as reduced parking requirements, expedited approvals processes and more,” says the HAP.
The Policy Next Steps section of the HAP also includes recommendations to: facilitate new developments using the OCP, and regulate the form and tenure using zoning and bylaws.
The review of the zoning bylaws in January 2022, per the recommendation in the HAP, was also the beginning of a process that will alleviate the housing crunch in Revelstoke over time.
Simon discussed how antiquated zoning bylaws and an overly complicated process for attaining building permits were partially to blame for the backlog in housing. He explained how a lot of the old residential bylaws were exclusive by nature, and served to support a standard ideal of housing (like a picket white fence for a single-family home). Simon gave the example of how an old building width requirement was changed to be more inclusive. It was a minimum of six metres.
“The history behind that is zoning bylaws are, by nature, exclusionary. People didn’t want mobile homes in their neighborhoods,” said Simon.
Simon said municipalities across North America are revisiting these types of zoning bylaws, as the housing crisis continues to affect them. Updating them helps municipalities adapt to the shifting demand, speeding up the approval process.
The three categories outlined in the HAP (encourage, facilitate, and regulate) are part of why the bylaws are being reviewed, and the change in bylaw is how the Hemlock Development on Humbert St. was approved quickly, and without any variances.
Chris Pollen, the owner of Boxfort Homes and the Hemlock developer, talked about the difference that the two documents and bylaw update had on his process.
“Our journey was very long,” said Pollen.
Pollen figured that he started planning to apply for a development permit in Revelstoke in 2021, prior to the zoning bylaw updates and new documents. He described a hectic process trying to accommodate the various stipulations in the outdated documents.
“Prior to the rewrite, it had references to bonus density schemes, and a bonus density table that didn’t exist.”
He said they worked painstakingly to manipulate the project to fit the old bylaws, adding time and money to the project before it was even started. When the changes were made to the documents and bylaw last year, Pollen’s work as a developer was sped up.
“When the bylaw changed, we were like ‘wow, this just opened up everything,’” said Pollen.
The development permit for the Hemlock project was approved in December by Revelstoke City Council, without any variances.
Once the zoning bylaw review is complete, the city will be able to move forward with developments much faster, but Simon said the order it’s been done is the way it had to be. Each document informs the other, and they both inform bylaw. Council will continue to review the zoning bylaws, a procedure that will likely take up to two years, according to Simon.
As they continue their review of the zoning bylaws, Simon wants to “modernize” zoning options “to reflect more modern development concepts.” For developers, less time between the purchase of land and shovels in the ground means less money and risk for them. By updating the zones, it streamlines a stated goal in the HAP, to the application process for developers, which will make Revelstoke viable for developers looking to build more affordable projects.
READ MORE: LETTER: Wildsight responds to old growth update
@ZacharyDelaney
zach.delaney@revelstokereview.com
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