Council received late correspondence from the View Royal Cli…

Council received late correspondence from the View Royal Climate Coalition proposing a "Density Without Demolition" framework as follow-up to Staff Report DEV-26-019, which outlines Small-Scale Multi-Family Housing (SSMUH) implementation options for the municipality. The correspondence urges a policy direction that would prioritize infill additions, secondary suites, and gentle density on existing residential lots while retaining existing housing stock, rather than enabling lot consolidation and tear-down redevelopment as the primary mechanism for achieving provincial Bill 44 compliance. Staff Report DEV-26-019 is the municipality's technical response to Bill 44's mandate requiring up to four units per lot in single-family zones. The Coalition's intervention matters because it introduces an alternative compliance pathway that could directly shape the zoning controls council selects: reduced frontage requirements for detached infill units, prohibitions on lot consolidation triggers, or heritage retention overlays. The Coalition has been active on View Royal OCP and climate policy since at least 2021, with prior submissions emphasizing building decarbonization and the Zero Carbon Step Code, suggesting a sophisticated understanding of municipal regulatory levers. The "Density Without Demolition" framing does not originate in the staff report but rather as a late-stage advocacy position that council can weigh alongside technical options already before it. Whether it gains traction depends on council's appetite for adding retention conditions that go beyond what provincial SSMUH legislation requires, which could produce a local bylaw that is materially more restrictive on teardown-rebuild projects than those adopted in adjacent municipalities like Colwood or Langford, where fourplex development has already begun converting under as-of-right frameworks. The Times Colonist reported on the Coalition's OCP advocacy in the 2022 election cycle, and the group maintains an active policy presence through its own website. The immediate question is whether council directs staff to incorporate Coalition proposals into the bylaw drafting or proceeds with the options already analysed in DEV-26-019. The bylaw must be adopted to meet provincial deadlines, but the policy choices embedded in it will determine whether View Royal's SSMUH implementation opens a conventional fourplex construction pipeline or channels density into additions and coach houses on lots where existing structures are retained.

Council received late correspondence from the View Royal Climate Coalition proposing a "Density Without Demolition" f…