Last night, City Council voted to allow garden suites outright in single-family zones across the City. With 6,744 single family dwellings in the City this move has the potential to substantially increase the city’s rental stock in a very tight market. Until now, garden suite applications have been evaluated by Council on a case-by-case basis through the rezoning process. This change will make it significantly easier and less costly for homeowners to build new garden suites.

I’m thrilled to see Council take this significant step to implement the work done by the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability. While we won’t see the potential fulfilled overnight, with this change we are significantly reducing the red tape involved in building a small backyard rental home.

Before the changes Council made last night, it cost homeowners around $4000 in fees and took about six to eight months to go through the process. With the changes it now costs $200 and takes three to four weeks. For those interested in building a garden suite, you can find the guidelines here. These small rental homes cannot be used for short term vacation rentals; they are meant to house Victorians.

Prior to adopting these changes, we consulted with a wide range of stakeholders and the public. In order to address privacy concerns, we added a section to the guidelines to optimize privacy between neighbours, including recommendations for windows facing away from neighbouring properties and no rooftop outdoor space allowed.

This change is part of the City’s ambitious Victoria Housing Strategy 2016 – 2025, which is the City’s plan for improving housing affordability over the next decade by:

• Increasing the supply of housing for low to moderate income households
• Encouraging diversity of housing types, tenures, and prices across the city and within neighbourhoods
• Building awareness and partnerships for affordable housing through communication, education and advocacy

This significant change won’t solve the housing crisis. As Eric Swanson, Executive Director of Generation Squeeze said last night, speaking in support of the changes, “the housing crisis requires a ‘yes and’ approach.” The move to allow small rental homes in backyards is a big yes. To read more about what’s up next in the City’s plans head to the Victoria Housing Strategy 2016 – 2025.