An initiative to authorize additional borrowing in the name of “affordable, inclusive, and adequate” housing across the Capital Regional District (CRD) will proceed in February — providing 90 per cent of the electorate “votes” by sitting on their hands.
Officials announced the CRD has begun a regional Alternative Approval Process (AAP), or “counter petition,” seeking voter approval for the Land Assembly, Housing and Land Banking service to increase its borrowing to as much as $85 million to support “future housing partnership opportunities” aimed at increasing the supply of housing.
Debts would not be incurred immediately, but rather borrowing would begin upon the identification of specific projects — which would then face approval through the CRD’s normal annual budget process. The proposed bylaw also specifically limits the debt servicing cost to a 30-year recovery period, according to officials, and projects would be considered throughout the service area — including Salt Spring Island and the Southern Gulf Islands.
With 331,905 electors eligible to vote within the CRD, the AAP allows the district’s board to adopt a new borrowing bylaw if less than 10 per cent — or 33,191 people — submit a signed Elector Response Form indicating their opposition.
And with a threshold of roughly three times the voting population on Salt Spring and the Gulf Islands put together, it’s unlikely the Electoral Areas will have a significant effect on the AAP process, according to Salt Spring Electoral Area CRD director Gary Holman.
But if the borrowing is approved, Holman said he sees a big upside; a portion of those dollars will be allocated to Electoral Areas, a previously-unavailable “specific pot” of funding to apply for. Holman told Salt Spring’s Local Trust Committee in November that the CRD had already met with the housing minister to request BC Housing match the $85 million on a “two-to-one basis,” and was also approaching the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
“CRD will be the first agency to put funding on the table,” said Holman, “but I’m optimistic that this will encourage matching funding.”
If successful, he added, the district would be creating a large fund of a type Salt Spring has historically benefitted from — not unlike the Regional Housing First program that brought matched provincial and CMHC funds to the 54-unit Croftonbrook Islanders Working Against Violence (IWAV) project.
“Matching funding could also be secured on a project-by-project basis,” said Holman, adding that one non-profit on Salt Spring has already approached all three levels of government regarding an affordable housing project.
If the counter-petition “fails” and the bylaw proceeds, early estimates by CRD staff indicate an average-value property on Salt Spring would incur a little over $2 per month in borrowing cost, Holman said, should the service reach capacity; costs will however grow gradually, as projects are approved and funded, likely over several years.
The deadline for submitting signed elector response forms is noon on Monday, Feb. 5. More information about the AAPs, including copies of the elector response form can be found at www.crd.bc.ca/landbanking-aap.