Housing

In 2021 new housing policies and guidelines specific to infill housing were adopted to help meet our community’s evolving housing needs, including opportunities for affordable housing and options for seniors to age in place. This included regulations around small lots, accessory cottages and carriage houses, duplexes and more.

The single-family home is the dominant dwelling type in Central Saanich, with most having three or more bedrooms; however, the benchmark single detached home is unaffordable for many households.

There is a strong need for more rental housing to serve a range of income earners. Increasing the supply of purpose-built rental is a housing priority The District encourages development applications that include rental housing, particularly for seniors, and Central Saanich does not support the short-term vacation rental of residential properties, but rather encourage long-term rental to fulfil local housing needs.

Learn about how to create a suite in your home on our Secondary Suites page.

The District will be exploring ways to incentivize more rental and affordable housing developments; watch this page for updates.

To help provide more housing options, “accessory dwelling units” are now permitted in most residential zones. This means in addition to a single-family dwelling, you can have one accessory dwelling unit (this may be in the form of a secondary suite located within the principal dwelling or a detached cottage or carriage house). Building Permits are required to construct a new accessory dwelling or to legalize an existing unauthorized one. 

Learn more, including the size requirements, on our Accessory Cottages & Carriage Houses page.

The District will be exploring ways to incentivize more accessory dwelling units; watch this page for updates.

An ongoing project to allow more dwellings on Agricultural Lands is currently being explored.

On April 23, 2024, the Province released a list of BC municipalities it will be providing with mandated housing targets this summer—the District of Central Saanich is one of these communities.

The District is committed to improving housing supply and affordability in our community. Housing, in particular increasing the supply of affordable and rental housing, is a priority of Central Saanich Council’s 2024-2027 Strategic Plan.  The strategic plan was informed by community feedback, including the recent Citizen Satisfaction Survey, where residents identified affordable housing as the most pressing issue in the District, as well as the many recent public engagement opportunities. The District’s Official Community Plan was just updated and we have Infill and Densification Guidelines (a project we began in 2018). 

These plans are paving the way for a smooth transition to incorporate more diverse housing types into Central Saanich's housing inventory. The work looked closely at community needs and was designed to support the types of housing our residents and businesses need.

Central Saanich is unique in having more than 60% of our land base in the ALR, which is critical for the region’s food security and economy both short and long term. As such, growth will remain within the Urban Containment Boundary (18% of our land base), which ensures housing and infrastructure is contained to village nodes and neighbourhoods, which creates walkable communities near transit. 

Central Saanich has taken a number of actions in recent years to address the need for more diverse types of housing, and it is resulting in significantly more multi-unit housing, primarily rental.  Between 2020-2023, 558 residential units were issued Building Permits. The 2019 Housing Needs Assessment for Central Saanich called for 557 units by 2025, which has been met. The District recognizes there is more work to do to ensure the housing supply diversity is there for current and future residents. 

Recent steps Central Saanich has taken include: 

• The District’s infill and densification work, which began in 2018 and was adopted in 2021, to identify the types of housing needed and how to integrate them within the Urban Containment Boundary. 
• Updates to the development process, with the goal of making it more efficient and faster. 
• Proposals that advance identified housing or community needs are encouraged. 
• Amending the Zoning Bylaw to allow more housing units on a property and a range of small scale, multi-unit housing options including secondary suites and detached cottages or carriage houses. 
• Exploring housing opportunities as part of the District’s redevelopment of municipal lands. 

The District recognizes there are impacts of increasing housing on municipal infrastructure, parking, our tree canopy and road safety. Staff are engaging consultants to review parking standards, tree bylaws and site design guidelines to help mitigate impacts of development. We will also be reviewing bylaws that allow the District to collect funds from new development to fund improvements for important infrastructure and community amenities such as roads, parks, utilities, and more (the District’s Development Cost Charges Bylaw and the creation of a new Amenity Cost Charge Bylaw). 

External links
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/local-governments-an…