The City of Prince George exceeded the target for net new housing units set by the provincial government by four per cent from 2024 to 2025, according to a report presented at the Wednesday, Sept. 3 city council meeting.
Prince George was one of several communities assigned a target for new housing units under BC’s Housing Supply Act in 2024.
After being required to have 273 net new units come online between Aug. 1, 2024 and July 31, 2024, Prince George reported 284 units over that time frame. That’s 104 per cent of the goal set for it.
There were 294 new housing units and 10 demolitions.
City staff’s report cited building report statistics showing that more rental units are coming online than owner-occupied units.
In the timeframe covered by the report, 189 rental units were completed while just 105 owner-occupied units were completed.
Of those rental units, 136 were purpose-built rentals while 52 were secondary suites. Just one accessory dwelling unit was completed.
One third of the rentals, 62 in total, offered below-market rents. Another three units had below-market rents with on-site supports. The remaining 127 units offered market value rents.
Putting together all the units, 96 had one bedroom, 93 had two bedrooms, 76 had three bedrooms and 28 had four or more bedrooms. Dwellings with fewer bedrooms tended to be in apartment-style developments while those with three or more bedrooms were within single-family homes.
A graph in the report noted that while the total number of required units were surpassed, the city fell short of some of its targets in specific categories.
Targets weren’t met for below-market rentals, total rental units and one-bedroom units while targets were exceeded for market-value rentals, owned dwelling units, three or more bedroom units and two-bedroom units.
In the timeframe covered by the report, city staff also said that 322 building permits for housing units were issued, of which 60 per cent for purpose-built apartment rentals.
“However, it should be noted that several BC Housing supportive housing developments under construction or recently completed (North Star, Direct Arts Inn, Mark’s Place) are not eligible to be counted under the target order, as they’ve been deemed unsuitable for long-term tenure by the Housing Target Branch.”
Another 13 development permits were approved during the 12 months, adding 560 units to the city’s development pipeline. Staff noted that only three residential rezoning applications received final reading from city council during the 12 months, but they will allow for up to 252 units on the subject properties.
“Currently these permits combine to indicate a total 1134 units to be constructed, indicating a positive trend towards the total 5-year goal.”
The city’s provincial targets for the next few years are as follows:
- Year 2 (2025-26): 302 units
- Year 3 (2026-27): 346 units
- Year 4 (2027-28): 346 units
- Year 5 (2028-29): 478 units
Combined with the 273-unit target for the first year, the city’s total target for net new housing units over the five years is 1,803.
During the meeting, Coun. Tim Bennett called the report “a good news story” though he said the city still has a long way to go.
Coun. Trudy Klassen said she was wondering about the status of incentive programs offered in the city’s housing strategy.
Director of planning and buildings Deanna Wasnik said the housing strategy was received by council earlier this year for information, but specific direction would be needed for staff to work on creating incentives.
Coun. Cori Ramsay said she wasn’t sure if incentives were needed at this point with the strong housing number seen so far. She asked for more information about why BC Housing units don’t count towards the target.
Wasnik said that spaces in some of the converted motel buildings don’t have required elements like kitchens in each units, which prevents them as being counted as a long-term dwelling.
With the city having provided some of the land used to create the BC Housing facilities, Ramsay said she would hope some of them would count towards the target and wondered if more specifics could be requested from the government.
Ramsay pointed out that the report shows that Prince George isn’t meeting the below-market rent target, but those low-income units the city has helped facilitate aren’t being counted.
Coun. Brian Skakun said the housing targets have created a lot of extra work and arbitrary rules for local governments. With the Union of BC Municipalities’ annual conference coming up, he suggested that it might be a good idea to discuss the issue with provincial representatives.
Coun. Kyle Sampson said he was “ticked off” to see the government overstep its bounds in mandating this work for municipalities, though he acknowledged that housing should be a priority.
He joined his colleagues in saying that the city’s contributions to various housing facilities should be counted under the housing targets except maybe for the Third Avenue transitional housing facility.
Sampson put forward a motion saying council supports advocating to the provincial government to having BC Housing units to count towards the housing target at the UBCM conference.
Mayor Simon Yu said housing is an issue faced by all three levels of government and he would support a motion calling for additional provincial funding.
Sampson’s motion passed unanimously.
