Homes for Everyone

As your next Mayor, Stephen will collaborate with council to improve housing in Victoria through:

  • Renters Rights Program - A bylaw to provide every residential renter and landlord with a copy of their rights and responsibilities when they sign a rental agreement. The Renters Rights Program includes information on where they can seek help from the city and the province when they believe their rights are infringed.

 

  • Advocate to the provincial government for more robust tenant protections

 

  • Transparent and Accountable Land Application Process –
    • Allow applicants and Community Land Use Committees to address the Committee of the Whole.
    • Explore delegation of delegating Temporary Use Permits to staff to reduce approval timeline.
    • Publish semi-annual reports with key performance indicators to monitor the city’s delivery of service.
    • Shorten permit process - review permits timelines and procedures with the aim of bringing clarity and efficiencies to the approval/decline process (when no variances are sought).

 

  • Prioritize a Build Victoria Plan with a suite of policies to fast-track the build-out of homes with initiatives, such as:
    • Double our ground-oriented land base by allowing duplexes on all single-family zoned lots.
    • Focus densification efforts on arterial and collector roads to promote townhouses, stacked townhouses, and low-rise developments.
    • Accelerate and enforce restrictions on short-term rentals operating outside our licensing system.
    • Allow Duplexes to have secondary suites.
    • Remove restrictions that prevent a home with a rental suite to have a garden suite.
    • Increase the allowable size of garden suites to a more livable space.
    • Incentivize the construction of family-size units through bonus densities and tax policy.
    • Incentivize the creation of non-market and market-cap homes and bring innovation to our housing types.
    • Work to strengthen the protection of tenants facing displacement from their homes through redevelopment within the region and with the province.
    • Implement a property tax holiday to encourage affordable housing development.