The City of Terrace is applying for a federal grant it hopes will eventually lead to more houses being built on traditional single-family dwelling lots.
Up to $4 million would prepare the regulatory and zoning groundwork needed followed by ways to encourage actual housing construction.
“We are seeing the end of zoning that limits the right to a single unit on a lot,” explained city development services director David Block. “The grant program is focused on housing for the ‘missing middle’ by allowing three to six units on what might historically have been restricted to one single family dwelling.”
Most of the money would go to hiring a consultant to guide a change in the Official Community Plan to emphasize housing opportunities followed by changes in zoning.
“Only a limited amount of the funding the city might receive can be directly allocated to capital infrastructure construction, probably in the range of 25- 30 per cent or about $1 million if we were awarded $4 million,” Block said.
The money would come through the Housing Accelerator Fund, a $4 billion program that was part of the 2022 federal budget. Applications weren’t accepted until this July. The city hopes to hear if its successful sometime in November.
The accelerator fund was rolled out as a federal response to a lack of housing across the country.
Part of the city’s plan, should its application be successful, is to find ways to increase housing in partnership with neighbouring First Nations.
As it is, the city is already the home to a number of Indigenous-focused housing developments managed by a lower mainland housing corporation.
And in terms of encouraging construction, it hopes to focus on rental housing and rental housing costing less than the normal rate.
Finding ways to build more housing on single family lots would continue moves first enacted by the city several decades ago allowing secondary suites in all residential zones and allowing stand alone dwelling units in some zones and on larger parcels.
“The next step is to consider further densification in areas near the downtown and on transit routes, etc.,” said Block.
Mayor Sean Bujtas said a successful grant application could lead to a potential 180 housing units within the city.
“It was a very onerous process. It cost us $30,000 just to get the granting application together. We had to hre people to do a lot of this work,” he said.
Bujtas also expressed concern at the population level of local governments being used to decide who gets grants.
“There’s a stream for communities 10,000 [population] and down and there’s a stream for 10,000 and up. So that means we’re competing for a grant against Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton. So we’re in the same stream as those big players,” he said.
The worry is that the grant program will focus on the big cities promising thousands of housing units compared to Terrace’s plan for a potential 180, Bujtas added.
“I’m not going to be very happy about it if we get left in the dark because we’ve been thrown into this giant pit because of that 10,000 level,” he said.
The 10,000 population level is also an issue for Skeena - Bulkley Valley NDP MP Taylor Bachrach who brought it up at a House of Commons committee meeting while questioning federal housing minister Sean Fraser.
“Because the housing crisis affects communities of all sizes, we need to ensure smaller cities don’t get lost in the mix,” he said.