On March 11th, Council adopted the City’s new Development and Subdivision Standards Bylaw. Since February 2023, staff have been undergoing efforts to increase review efficiency and decrease processing times for development applications. An update of the existing Subdivision and Development Standards Bylaw intends to simplify servicing requirements, meet technical standards, and enable future updates of technical standards more rapidly. City staff intend these changes to increase the number of development applications being processed.

The proposed updates are as follows:

• Separating Design Standards from the Bylaw – the updated bylaw would focus on regulatory aspects;

• Technical design standards would be consolidated in a new document, the City of Delta Supplementary Master Municipal Construction Documents (CoDSMMCD)
• Helps streamline the process for technical updates as the General Manager of Engineering will be given the authority to make changes without requiring bylaw updates.

• Update Road Maps and Requirements;
• General Bylaw Updates – encompasses other substantive changes to address concerns from the development community and support the secondary suites program, including:

• Reducing Works and Services requirements for tenant improvements that do not have an impact on water or sewer capacity or require traffic-related upgrades
• Giving the City more flexibility to use cash-in-lieu funds for public services, facilities, roadworks, and utility upgrades
• Allowing six-lot subdivisions (increased from two-lot subdivisions) to use a fixed cost per metre for cash-in-lieu calculations for frontage improvements (Section 5.4); and,
• Increasing the construction value that triggers replacement of services from $150,000 to $250,000 to reflect rising construction costs (Section 5.7).

• Technical Design Standards (CoDSMMCD) Updates.

More information can be found in the full report by City staff.