The City of Pitt Meadows is located in north-east Metro Vancouver. The rural and rich agricultural land comprises a vast land base in the community, providing food security and economic activities in the lower mainland. This land is also protected under the Agricultural Land Reserve, limiting the development within the City’s urban containment boundary. The limited land supply available for greenfield, low density development has fostered municipal policies that support sustainable, smart-growth principles such as infill development, commercial and residential mixed-use development, walkability of shopping and home, and highest and best use of land.
The land constraints supports a sustainable community, but has also increased pressure on the local real estate market. The combination of limited land supply, as well as pressure from the increasingly unaffordable housing market in Vancouver and elsewhere in the region, is pressuring the housing stock in Pitt Meadows with respect to pricing, housing form, and tenure.
To this end, the City of Pitt Meadows initiated a Housing Action Plan for the community. The objective of the Housing Action Plan was to identify the housing needs and barriers, and to identify policy or regulatory actions to address those barriers. The Housing Action Plan would also fulfill the City’s commitment to Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy, in which all Metro Vancouver municipalities are to complete a housing strategy.
The Housing Action Plan comprised of consultation activities including an Ideas Cafe Session and a Public Open House. Age-friendly consultation materials were prepared, including housing action plan games and word puzzles, strategically crafted to engage and educate the community about the Pitt Meadows Housing Action Plan.
The consultation activities and subsequent critical housing indicators research provided insight into the housing gaps in Pitt Meadows; mainly:
- Continued demand for single-detached homes and limited land supply;
- Increasing density while maintaining neighbourhood character;
- Limited choices for empty nesters looking to downsize;
- Shortage of suitable rental housing for singles;
- Limited availability or take-up of legal secondary suites;
- Shortage of affordable home ownership options for some moderate-income households;
- Concern about potential loss of non-market housing units (particularly co-op housing units); and
- Limited affordable seniors-oriented housing.
As part of the Pitt Meadows Housing Action Plan, strategic objectives and actions were prepared to address the key housing issues in the community. The actions were framed to address market supply, improve the conditions of market rental housing, and to support the development of non-market housing.
The Housing Action Plan also provided an implementation strategy that prioritized actions for the City. As their first social planning exercise, the Pitt Meadows Housing Action Plan provides the foundation for the municipality to move towards creating a more inclusive community.
PROJECT TEAM:
Jada Basi Linda Allen Ken Berglund