Have you or someone you know considered converting part of your home to a suite ?  Wondered why majority of homeowners do not apply for a building permit?  Interesting in seeing the municipality update and align their bylaws with the current BC Building code?

On Monday May 29 6PM at the Central Saanich Municipal Hall council chambers as part of the housing discussion, topics will include how can we enable and encourage more home owners to apply for and build a secondary suite to help with the housing shortage.   One of the topics will be municipality alignment to the current BC Building code.

Since the 2019 BC government changes to promote secondary suites there are now a much wider variety of designs, typologies and secondary suite configurations available for home owners to consider during their development planning. Attached 2019 BC Building code summary of changes are specific to removing barriers, accommodating and encouraging construction of Secondary Suites.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/construction-industry/building-codes-and-standards/bulletins/b19-05_secondary_suites_changes_to_design_and_construction_reqs_2012_12_13.pdf

If you missed it here is a link to 2 recent newspaper article about a motion for the district to encourage more secondary suites…

https://www.peninsulanewsreview.com/news/central-saanich-councillor-makes-pitch-for-district-to-encourage-more-secondary-suites/

https://www.peninsulanewsreview.com/news/central-saanich-to-debate-secondary-suite-policy-changes/

There are numerous benefits and reasons why the municipality should make this a priority from providing workforce housing that reduces the employee commute carbon footprint to having multi-generational home options for grandchildren and aging parents.  If this is of interest, we encourage you to attend the Special (Open) Council meeting that will discuss future plans for Housing and Secondary Suites.