At Council on March 12th, a report was received with details on the impact of recent provincial housing legislation, accompanied by a proposed workplan from City staff.

The draft Official Community Plan (OCP) process has been paused to allow for consideration of the work that needs to be completed related to Bills, 44, 46, and 47. The first OCP update must be completed by December 31st, 2025.

Public Hearings have been removed for projects that are aligned with the OCP. Development applications seeking a rezoning will still be required to receive three readings and adoption, but a Public Hearing will no longer be part of the process. A notice of no Public Hearing is required. However, Public Hearings will continue to be required whenever the City updates or develops a new OCP, or considers rezonings requiring an OCP amendment. City staff are actively working with legal counsel to better understand the specific circumstances that prohibit a Public Hearing, and the circumstances whereby it is at the discretion of the municipality to hold one. To ensure the City acts consistently when making Public Hearing assessments, legal Council is providing legal opinions to guide City staff through this process.

Bill 44 involves substantial changes to planning processes and land use. City staff have started working on the technical analysis to determine the unit allotment per parcel. Design and massing work began in February 2024 with the anticipation that this work will allow for the draft zones to be developed by May 2024. City staff will work towards creating incremental and maximum density scenarios as part of the Housing Needs Report due before January 1st, 2025.

Bill 46 expanded the infrastructure categories that Development Cost Charges (DCCs) can be collected for. A DCC bylaw update is required for the City to use DCCs to collect on the new categories. Work will start in 2024 for the next DCC program update, with adoption planned for Spring 2026. Amenity Cost Charges (ACCs) will be set based on units, lots, or floorspace area in a new development and must consider the capital cost of the amenities, phasing of amenities, whether the charges are excessive in relation to existing standards of service, and a land economic analysis. The Province has not issued a deadline for local governments to implement the ACC bylaw or update the DCC bylaw. CACs can continue to be collected on projects so long as an amenity cost charge has not been imposed. City staff expect to begin work to create the new ACC bylaw the latter half of 2024, and an analysis to determine amenity needs will inform this bylaw.

Under this new legislation, affordable housing will not be funded, and the ACC is not payable in relation to the development of any class of affordable housing. The City can continue to use density bonus authorities to acquire affordable housing and special needs housing although changes in how the density bonus tool can be used are still being reviewed. City staff’s understanding based on information provided to date is that additional legislation will allow local governments to have the inclusionary zoning policies in place to acquire affordable housing or cash-in-lieu for affordable housing.

The two Transit Oriented Areas (TOAs) that took effect immediately through Bill 47 are Inlet Centre Station and Moody Centre Station. At Moody Centre Station, there are two overlapping TOAs because Moody Centre is also where the West Coast Express stops. In this case, the higher density of the SkyTrain station is applied. The TOAs align with some of the work the City has already defined as transit-oriented development in the draft 2050 OCP.

In addition, the City is restricted from requiring residential off-street parking, except for parking for people living with accessibility needs, for commercial use and loading purposes, and for people to access amenity needs. Residential parking will now be provided based on market demand as determined by the developer and applies only to the TOAs. The City is required to update the parking section in the Zoning Bylaw by June 30th, 2024, to reflect this change. The City’s Bicycle Parking requirements and Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure requirements will still apply.

On February 22nd, 2024, City staff received a letter from the Province stating local governments will be able to use existing base densities established in their zoning bylaws when calculating density bonus contributions in TOAs on an interim basis. For Port Moody, the City will then continue to collect density bonus contributions above 2.5 FAR. The Province expects local governments to transition to new planning tools, such as the ACC Bylaw, by mid-2025. As such, City staff will need to revisit and revise for Council’s consideration the policy to allow collection of density bonus funds above the new TOA FAR limits, while maintaining the 2.5 FAR threshold for the rest of the City in 2025.

Additional information on the staff workflows associated with the Zoning Bylaw update, DCC and ACC Bylaws, Housing Needs Report, and OCP can be found on page 15-17 of the staff report. Page 18 includes a summary of the associated policies and bylaw updates that will need to be made because of changes to the Local Government Act (i.e. tenant relocation, inclusionary zoning, development approvals procedures, density bonus selection).

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