Grey Highlands council will not be rushing into a plan to end the ban on mobile/modular homes in the municipality.
At its meeting on April 4, council voted in 5-2 favour of directing staff to bring forward a proposal to end the municipality’s zoning and official plan prohibitions on mobile/modular homes.
The vote came a week after council, at a committee of the whole meeting, recommended that staff bring forward housekeeping amendments to the official plan and zoning bylaw to end the mobile and modular home ban in the community.
Committee of the whole recommendations must be ratified at a full council meeting.
When the matter reached the regular council meeting, members of council had pondered the issue for a week and decided on a slight change to the wording of the resolution.
The initial resolution directed staff to “begin the process of amending the zoning bylaw and official plan to remove any prohibitions on mobile or modular homes.”
Council voted to change the resolution to say: “begin the process of proposing to amend…”
Deputy Mayor Dane Nielsen and Coun. Nadia Dubyk voted against the resolution.
Both Nielsen and Dubyk expressed concerns that the housekeeping amendments on mobile homes would take staff time away from the overall work to update the Grey Highlands zoning bylaw - a process that has been underway for some time. Both Nielsen and Dubyk expressed support for the concept of lifting the ban, but said they thought it was best covered during the overall zoning review.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, while in the middle of that process, to pull out a special item for change,” said Nielsen.
Coun. Joel Loughead said the item needs to move to the front of the line to help address the housing crisis.
“The thinking behind this process is to fast track this type of housing in our community, which we know there is a need for,” he said. “We’re hearing desperate pleas from some individuals to fast-track this.”
Coun. Paul Allen said he was concerned by the wording in the resolution that was directing staff to prepare blanket amendments to entirely end the prohibition on mobile and modular homes.
“There may be, I think there will be, areas we don’t allow them,” said Allen, who asked staff if the wording of the resolution meant that mobile/modular homes would be allowed everywhere a standard home would be allowed.
Municipal staff confirmed that the initial resolution asked for amendments to completely lift the prohibition.
Mayor Paul McQueen said he felt council was getting too far into the details before the planning work was done on the issue. McQueen noted, with confirmation from planning staff, that setbacks, lot coverage and height restrictions would still be in place for any mobile/modular home proposed.
“The building code still applies to it for windows and insulation. (The building code) still applies to whatever it is as a building,” said McQueen. “Are we looking into this in too much detail?”
Ultimately, Allen moved the amendment to soften the language in the resolution.
“I’m worrying about the wording. People are going to read this and panic,” Allen said, noting that his proposed wording change to the resolution kept the idea as a proposal at this point in time. “We’re not going to necessarily remove everything - we’re proposing to do it.”
Any amendments to the zoning bylaw and official plan proposing to lift the prohibition on mobile/modular homes are required to go through a full process that involves a public meeting to gather input from local residents on the changes being proposed.
