The impacts of a housing market driven by intense speculative demand are growing more and more evident in Roberts Creek and on the Sunshine Coast as a whole. In fact, housing has surpassed water in my unscientific tally of topics discussed during Saturday morning Gumboot office hours.

Later this month, SCRD Staff will be conducting joint Public Information Meetings with regards to two separate but related Board initiatives.

The first is a review of Rural Area Official Community Plans, and proposed amendments to those plans to support Land Use for Affordable Housing.

The second has been around Short Term Rentals, and the potential consideration of Bylaw changes to regulate their use.

Both initiatives are moving through public processes involving committee discussions, advisory group referrals, questionnaires, best practice research,  and staff reports.

Ahead is a chance to learn more, understand what is and isn’t within the legislative scope of the Regional District, and to share your perspective.  Staff will then bring recommendation reports to the SCRD’s Planning and Community Development Committee for consideration, and then to the Board.

Our Roberts Creek event takes place on Tuesday, November 28th, from 3 to 6PM at Roberts Creek Hall. There are similar meetings that you are welcome to attend at Gibsons Community Centre on Nov 23, and Pender Harbour on Nov 22nd, should the 28th not work for you,

The format will take the shape of  short presentations repeated at 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30, (although the Gibsons event has slightly different hours, see link below), and include time for one-on-one discussion with staff and other attendees, along with a mechanism for specific input.

I would strongly encourage you to follow the link below where you will find more information on the meetings, background documents on both of the topics that will help you maximize the effectiveness of your input. Hope to see you there.

http://www.scrd.ca/planning-meetings

PS. Because the Roberts Creek OCP already contained some policies with regards to Affordable Housing, staff have produced a chart to help clarify the proposed additions and deletions:

StaffTechnicalSummaryChartofProposedRobertsCreekOCP_afHousingChanges