By Steve Hubrecht
The Village of Radium Hot Springs is trying to increase awareness among local residents about its incentives to create more affordable housing and more long-term rental housing.
It recently distributed information on those efforts to local residents through the village post office.
“We want to communicate these to the public,” Radium mayor Mike Gray told the Pioneer. “It (the information sheet) lets people know the suite of options available for anyone considering adding a standalone suite, a secondary suite, or other new purpose-built rentals . . . these are all options we have been trying to make more attractive.”
The incentives include waiving municipal taxes on the value of building permits to the tune of 100 per cent for the first one to five years; and 75 per cent for years six to 10 for smaller projects; and 100 per cent for a 10-year period for larger projects with five or more rental units.
Purpose-built affordable housing also could have development cost charges (DCCs) either partially or fully waived depending on how many units of housing are rented long term at affordable rates. Such projects will get priority treatment from village administrative staff, ahead of other development projects already in the works. And they may also get half of their off-street parking requirements relaxed.
“This is very significant,” Radium chief administrative officer Adrian Bergles said of the village’s new housing incentives during a recent council meeting.
Gray told the Pioneer that while no single measure may jump off the page as a huge step, at least to the casual observer, collectively they can have a big impact.
“All these things add up. And that’s important,” said Gray.
The raft of measures is meant to help the village deal with its housing crunch (which is also affecting other parts of the Columbia Valley, and much of the rest of the country).
The village’s latest housing needs report was completed last fall, and it outlined that 405 new units of housing will be needed for the village over a 20-year period.
A few months later a draft of the village’s Official Community Plan (OCP) update underscored just how formidable the figure of 405 is by putting an “!” mark next to it in the report, and then pointing out that this number is for permanent residents, not for accommodating tourists and visitors.
