Prince George city council approved the first three readings of a bylaw amending a restrictive covenant to allow for the construction of secondary suites at a Vance Road property at its Monday, Dec. 2 meeting.
The covenant’s current restriction on the creation of secondary suites at 2783 and 2785 Vance Road was said to contradict the province’s recent legislation allowing the construction of three- to four-unit housing in neighbourhoods zoned for single-family dwellings.
That property is close to the intersection of Vance Road and Westwood Drive.
According to city administration’s report on the matter, property owners Gurpreet Kaur Kaila and Jagdev Singh Kaila are currently building a duplex there and wish to add the extra suites.
Back in January 2023, council approved the rezoning of the property from RS2 to RT1 to permit the construction of a duplex. At that time, a covenant was put in place that both prevented the construction of secondary suites and mandated that the duplex units could not be built with a mirror-image layout.
As the bylaw was deemed by the city to align with the Official Community Plan, it was not subject to a public hearing under section 464(2) of BC’s Local Government Act.
However, Deanna Wasnik, director of planning and development, noted that three letters were received about the proposal. Two were opposed to the elimination of the covenant and one was in favour.
Wasnik said administration is in favour of the covenant’s modification so that it aligns with the provincial legislation on small-scale housing.
During council’s discussion on the matter, Coun. Tim Bennett noted that because of the provincial legislation, there may be many further covenant modifications needed going forward.
He asked if council could delegate authority to administration so that council could approve a list of several changes at once, rather than on a case-by-case basis.
Ethan Anderson, manager of legislative services, said it would be possible to do so, except for those which were subject to a public hearing.
“If there was a public hearing involved, then it would take a public hearing to remove it,” Anderson said. “It’s possible to get partway there through a delegated authority bylaw, but not entirely there.”
As for the potential workload that would place on city staff’s shoulders, Anderson said it would take a lot of effort to prepare a bylaw but afterwards it would depend on the volume of covenants modifications.
Wasnik added that some owners of properties with covenants may not want to convert basements into suites and keep the existing conditions in place.
Coun. Brian Skakun said he understood Bennett’s motivation was that he didn’t want to send a message to the province that the law was taking away work for council.
Coun. Kyle Sampson said he wasn’t sure the city should get rid of all these covenants as it could be a way for the city to retain some control in the wake of provincial legislation.
Coun. Cori Ramsay echoed the parking concerns, saying that she thought that front lawns might be eliminated in some areas to serve that need.
While Mayor Simon Yu said he was in favour of this application, he said Bennett was right that a flood of applications for changes to covenants could be a problem.
He also said that converting single-family homes to multi-family could eventually create parking and snow removal concerns in some neighbourhoods.
“I think we need the province to realize these issues,” Yu said. “The best way (to deal with them), of course, is more public transit in certain neighbourhoods so this densification can take place.”
Before the bylaw can receive its fourth and final reading from council, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure must approve the change as the property is near a controlled-access highway.
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