Educational Resources

How do we make room for more housing without overwhelming our infrastructure?

As new policies open the door to gentle density across BC, communities are facing tough questions about how to finance and manage the infrastructure needed to support it.

This short, practical guidance paper, developed by Small Housing with support from Urban Systems and ECONorthwest, explores how local governments, planners, and utility providers can prepare for incremental growth. It highlights where current development finance tools fall short, and offers clear, actionable recommendations—from sewer capacity to electrification—to help infrastructure keep pace with policy.

Whether you’re in planning, engineering, or policy, this resource will help you navigate what comes next.

This Small Housing Guidance Paper identifies existing and emerging tools for local governments to increase the supply of gentle density and enhance its affordability.

This guidance paper brings together insights and perspectives collected through two expert roundtables where participants identified existing and emerging  tools for local governments to increase the supply of gentle density and enhance its affordability.

Key insights:

• Gentle density housing is more attainable than single-detached homes due to shared land costs, smaller square footage per unit, and shared building surfaces.
• The local government tools (see below) can make it easier to build this form of housing, and can help to bring down the costs of development. This, in turn, will help to incentivize the production of new supply. As more supply comes online, housing prices cool.
• If local governments stack the tools (and their related cost reductions), they may be able to create sufficient incentives to make the inclusion of below-market units viable within a development.
• There are additional tools that can be leveraged by community partners, such as non-profits, lenders, and other levels of government, that can further support the creation of new and affordable gentle density homes.

Tools for Local Government to support affordability:

• Pre-Approved Plans; Pre-Zoning Allowing for Ownership Tenure: Strata or Freehold; Regulatory Relaxations; Cash-in-Lieu Infrastructure Fund; Limiting Greenfield Development; Parking Reductions; Expedited Project Streams; Delegated Approvals; Certified External Professional Review; Density Bonusing; Reduced Fees; Tax Exemptions

Tools for Non-Profits, Lenders, and Senior Governments to support affordability:

• Create and resource a central knowledge holder; Provide administration support for housing agreements and affordable rentals or ownership; Oversee pre-approved plans; Develop supportive lending products; Create additional services and supports for local governments; Provide greater authority for local governments to enable gentle density; Develop new tools to incentivize gentle density

This report from the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, part of UC Berkeley, highlights barriers faced by developers working in states that have enabled multiple units to be built on traditionally single-family zoned lots.

Key insights:

The report details that Middle Housing delivers many benefits to communities:

• Increases racial equity in housing and neighbourhood access
• Providesentry-level homeownership opportunities
• Creates lower greenhouse gas emissions per household).

The following developer challenges are highlighted:

• Design requirements need to be flexible/supportive of missing middle housing;
• Larger projects of 8-12 units need to be permitted to make projects financially viable; that complicated utility and subdivision rules deter small-scale development;
• Approval timelines need to be more efficient; and that there is currently a lack of traditional financing tools to create a funding package for projects.

Key recommendations:

• Introducing development code changes beyond zoning reforms, including updating design requirements and assessing current impact fees and utility requirements
• Allocate dedicated resources to streamline permitting and approval processes
• Considering more ambitious land use changes, such as increasing the maximum units that can be developed per lot, to help foster increased missing middle housing development.

This CHMC study investigates successful examples of regulatory, planning, and financial initiatives at the municipal level that have helped to overcome obstacles to infill development (including contaminated sites grants, accessory apartment development, and development fee exemption programs).

Each initiative highlights local stakeholders’ responses, the impact of the program on local development, program cost (including staff time allocated), and long-term program evaluation.

The study identifies common success factors between initiatives which include linking intensification to other policy goals (e.g., efficient use of public infrastructure funds), ensuring there is robust public engagement, identifying a policy champion, creating a supportive municipal policy environment, and monitoring program outcomes.

This report has been prepared by Ray Tomalty, Co-operative Research and Policy Services.

This discussion guide provides an overview of housing affordability in Metro Vancouver, looking at trends in persons experiencing homelessness, available housing supply, rental housing supply, the purchase price of homes, and the percentage of homes with a core housing need.

Key insights:

Compiled by Simon Fraser University, this paper explores:

• The roles of different levels of government to produce and maintain affordable housing
• Alternative ownership and tenure models (include housing/equity co-operatives and collaborative housing)
• Affordable housing finance tools (including equity loans, community land trusts, and group mortgages)
• Cost saving models to reduce construction costs (including using modular pre-fab housing and micro units) along with each models’ advantages and challenges.

The BC Government’s dedicated web page aimed at providing information to prospective homeowners interested in building and managing a secondary suite or ADU property.

Key insights:

• This page has information for homeowners interested in building and managing a secondary suite or ADU, including a guide and information about the new BC Housing secondary suite incentive program (accepting applications April 2024).

• It provides FAQs & responses on secondary suite and an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) are
• Articulates some of their benefits to homeowners (e.g., to provide multi-generational living opportunities and provide additional household income).

Further to this, the page links to Home Suite Home, a guide created by the province which details:

• Local zoning and building code requirements
• Guides homeowners through how to obtain a building permit, notes the rights and responsibilities of becoming a landlord, and provides information on where to find and hire professionals to develop a secondary suite.

Additionally, information is provided on the new Secondary Suite Incentive Program, which will give conditional financing to eligible homeowners to construct affordable attached or detached rental units.