According to the report submitted to council last week by planner Daniel Martin, the idea of allowing detached secondary suites - otherwise known as granny flats or laneway houses -has been under consideration since Bowen became incorporated as a municipality in the 1990s. On Monday evening, the bylaw that will make such structures legal moved one step forward, with council deciding that they will only be permitted on properties one-acre or larger.
Out of 99 respondents to on-line survey launched after council passed the detached secondary suites bylaws through first reading, 62 percent of people had no concerns about such suites being built in their neighbourhoods. However, respondents and people making public comment on the proposal sited density, loss of privacy and views, and a fear that these suites would not be “affordable” as concerns.
Martin told council that while according to the bylaw as written following first reading, there was no proposed minimum lots size for the building of detached suites, but anyone who wanted to build one would have to comply with lot coverage and maximum floor area regulations.
This means that on a lot size of 0.1 hectares (the size of most lots in the Deep Bay loop) you would not be able to cover more than 200 square meters of the lot or construct an accessory building more than 160 square meters in size.
Martin recommended creating a sliding scale of allowable detached or attached secondary suites in order to address people’s concerns about small lots becoming too crowded.
“If you had one acre, you’d be permitted 90 square metres, if you had a half acre, you’d be permitted 55 square metres, which is about 600 square feet. And essentially as you get bigger, if you had say two hectares you would max out at 130 square metres,” explained Martin.
Councillor Melanie Mason said she liked the idea of the sliding scale, but asked whether it could be tweaked to provide slightly larger buildings on the smaller lots therefore facilitating more family-appropriate housing closer to Snug Cove.
“At 0.4 hectares you are hovering around 1000 square feet, which is too big for two people, but not big enough for a family of four,” she said.
When Councillor Mason asked Martin how he came up with the numbers, he responded that they were created in order to address the specific concerns about detached suites on properties smaller than 1 acre (0.4 hectares).
Mayor Murray Skeels noted that “we have a lot of communities outside Snug Cove-Deep Bay, so when we talk about allowing densification on smaller lots it isn’t really true. We have very de-centralized system of neighbourhoods on Bowen now... it doesn’t address doing more in Snug Cove and less elsewhere.”
Skeels added that he was impressed by the number of people who said they would be comfortable with detached suites on lots larger than one acre. Making one acre the minimum size would be clean and simple, he said.
Councillor Gary Ander agreed with this point.
“Based on the feedback it seemed people weren’t happy with the wholesale development of the island. People were looking for a starting point, and I think there would be something like 700 units that could be built at the one-acre level,” he said. “My personal thought is to start at that level and see how it shakes out. If we find that it is not well subscribe, we can always lower it - go to half an acre and try it out.”
Council voted unanimously to move the detached secondary suites bylaw through second reading while setting a minimum lot size of 0.4 hectares, and a maximum square footage for a detached suite at 115 square meters.
