Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality (SPMRM) was granted over $1.5 million by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to improve the local housing supply in the summer, but initiatives to improve housing growth during a three-year period have stalled.
Part of the fund requirements include a set target of housing supply, growth which chief administrative officer Deanna Campbell said SPMRM has fallen behind on.
With the premise of the program focused on acceleration of housing supply in Sun Peaks, failing to meet the housing targets set can raise concerns from CMHC that may lead to a reduction in funding.
Falling short on housing supply targets
SPMRM agreed to the housing supply target of 281 permanent housing units by the end of the three-year term, an additional 184 missing middle income units, 69 other multi-unit housing units and that 38.74 per cent of the housing supply growth target will be affordable units.
“We had a target of 70 building permits for 2024 and we had zero,” Campbell said. “So that obviously has raised red flags with CMHC.”
The municipality is doing everything it can to speed up development and move things along, with a number of things affecting lack of development, Campbell said.
“The foreign buyers ban has had a significant impact on development, and council and our stakeholder Sun Peaks Resort LLP and others continue to advocate the federal government on that issue,” she said, adding that market conditions and the cost to build as a result are not at an ideal place.
Progress ongoing for action items
As part of the agreement with CMHC, SPMRM is required to meet five items in a set action plan on time.
Three action items have been successfully met.
One of these, public-private partnerships to develop non-market affordable housing, includes developing a framework and relationship with developers, including SPR.
Another item that was completed in the fall was updating the development cost charges bylaw.
Lastly, development variance approval authority is now able to be delegated to staff with the inclusion of an update to the development procedures bylaw, allowing developments to move forward quicker.
There are two outstanding action items which Campbell said are progressing forward, though an extension was needed for both and the window of time left to complete them is still fairly short.
The Official Community Plan (OCP) is in the process of being amended to reflect a more current state of the community, however progress on this has been halted due to staffing issues.
Without a director of planning in-house, council relies on municipal planners who work for other municipalities as well.
“We’ve just been short-staffed and haven’t had the resources to move that forward,” Campbell explained. “But we recognize it needs to happen, and so that’s why we’ve engaged our municipal planners on a separate contract to have them lead that work.”
The other unmet commitment is rezoning two lots of Sun Peaks land, parcels 15 and 69, which are set to be rezoned over the next month or two for non-market affordable employee housing.
“Even though there’s no specific plan for development for those lots right now, it doesn’t prevent the municipality from still rezoning them to make sure that they’re ready for when developments are ready.”
Consequences of unmet targets and commitment
The nearly $1.5 million is awarded to SPMRM in installments from CMHC.
To ensure the municipality continues receiving money, it must complete annual reporting with information on the targets.
“We hope that things that are beyond our control, like the foreign buyers ban and the current market rate now in terms of building and development and the cost there will be factored in,” Campbell said. “But ultimately if we’re not meeting our targets, then they have the ability to reduce the funding that we receive.”
Though unsure of the formula CMHC would use in deciding how much to reduce the funding by , she said she knows the final installment is at the end of the three-year program currently underway and is based on building permit numbers.
“Presumably, if we don’t meet the target of our building permit numbers that we had identified in total for the three years, then we’d be likely seeing a reduction in that final payment.”
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