As recipients of the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), administered through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality (SPMRM) has been granted $1,525,798.60 to improve the local housing supply.

SPMRM’s successful application for this funding required an action plan with initiatives to be checked off in order for advances of the money to be delivered.

Meeting the criteria

Along with five initiatives that are on track to completion, as specified in the HAF funding initiatives report presented to council on Aug. 20, the municipality also agreed to a housing supply growth target of 281 permitted housing units and an additional 184 missing middle housing units, 69 other multi-unit housing units and that 38.74 per cent of the housing supply growth target will be affordable units.

These targets should be met by the end of the three year program during which the money is advanced, in order to receive their final payment.

Once they entered into the agreement with CMHC, chief administrative officer Deanna Campbell said they had to revisit the timeline they had set during the application process to meet action plan initiatives. 

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These five initiatives were identified for their purpose of accelerating meeting housing needs, and she said the majority of the deadlines set at this time are for this year.

An exception is the Rezoning Lots to Support Non-Market Affordable Employee Housing initiative. 

“We’ve committed to establishing a practice to rezone lots, specifically lots that were designated in Sun Peaks Resort 2020 Master Development Plan,” she said.

There are parcels of land with development plans in place. Parcel 37 is recently completed staff accommodation and Parcel 74, at 1180 Sun Peaks Rd., is going through a rezoning process to become future employee or affordable housing.

As for the rest of the parcels identified in the plan, Campbell said, it will be an ongoing process as development plans proceed. “As plans come forward for future developments, then we’ll make sure that we’re expediting those rezoning processes.”

SPMRM also has to amend the outdated Official Community Plan (OCP). To reflect the 2020 Sun Peaks Resort Master Plan’s allocation of 13.98 hectares of land specifically for employee housing, revisions were made in 2022 when the OCP received second reading. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs is putting pressure on the municipality to get the plan adopted, but before then, there is a need to re-engage with First Nations. 

They’ve been in contact with the three bands (Adams Lake Band, Neskonlith Band and Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl ̓ecw) who have expressed their interest in involvement with this process.

“We’ll be looking at re-engaging a consultant and starting that work again, making some further changes to that,” said Campbell. “Then making sure that we’re going into the communities of the three Bands and doing meaningful consultation and getting their feedback and input on the OCP.” 

Because of the process of consultation, the municipality plans to request an extension on this item.

One completed item is the Public-Private Partnerships to Develop Non-Market Affordable Housing initiative. Discussions with developers and Sun Peaks Resort LLP on future partnership projects have put a framework in place to incentivize the construction of nonmarket affordable employee housing.

Another initiative that has been completed is the delegation of DVP (Development Variance Permit) approvals to staff, expediting approvals of minor development variances.

The Development Cost Charges Bylaw as amended is waiting on ministry approval, which Campbell said shouldn’t be delayed too long.

“We did make some fairly substantial changes in terms of incorporating additional financial costs to meet planned developments, to assist with the development of future housing, in particular employee housing,” she said.

Allocating funds 

The HAF initiatives report was presented to council on Aug. 20, asking them to provide direction on priorities for the $1.5 million.

A large portion of the funding is going toward infrastructure to support the housing needs of the community.

“We are concerned about our wastewater capacity to keep up with development, so that’s been identified as a priority,” Campbell said.

Council would like that to remain a priority, as well as Development Cost Charges (DCCs) for potential affordable or employee housing projects.

A lack of funding for the Sun Peaks Housing Authority has delayed any significant projects or change over the seven years it’s been in place. Council discussed a portion of money going toward a project manager for the housing authority.

“Our hope is that once developments start coming forward for employee and affordable housing, those would be managed by the housing authority,” Campbell said. “And we’re really going to need someone in a position with the housing authority to manage those housing projects.”

The next step is working with the municipal director of finance and director of infrastructure to decide how to portion the money for each of these priorities.

“We’re committed to continuing to provide updates to council and to the public on how we’re doing in terms of meeting our targets and completing our initiatives,” Campbell said, as well as the progress of projects to be funded down the line.