91原创 Township council voted to send Brookswood鈥檚 new neighbourhood plans back to the drawing board again, for modifications to meet new provincial housing regulations.

At the Monday, Jan. 29 council meeting, council voted 8-1 in favour of updating the current plans for the Booth, Fernridge, and Rinn neighbourhoods, to bring them into alignment with the province鈥檚 new rules allowing small-scale multi-unit housing (SMHUs).

Announced last fall as part of a wide-ranging package of housing reforms aimed at increasing housing supply and reducing home costs, the provincial regulation will allow threeplexes and fourplexes on any serviced single-family lot across most of the province.

That was expected to have an incremental effect on existing neighbourhoods, but local politicians in the Township, Surrey, and other growing areas immediately worried that it would impact areas zoned for future growth, whose plans contain a significant amount of single-family housing.

The neighbourhood plans for Booth, Rinn, and Fernridge were just revised in 2023, with two major revisions. The last version would have allowed for a total population of about 46,000 residents in the three South Brookswood neighbourhoods, with a mix of low-rise condos, townhouses, and single-family areas. Parks, school sites, and utilities were planned for that projected population.

However, if every single-family unit was developed as a fourplex 鈥� and developers would have that right under the new rules 鈥� the total population could hit 120,000 people, Township staff estimated.

Council had three options presented by staff.

The first was to scrap the three neighbourhood plans, which would put the planning process back to square one.

The second, which passed, will see the Township staff work to update the plans to meet the new provincial policies. A report will come back to council within the second quarter of this year.

A third possibility was to simply monitor the situation until the end of 2025, to watch industry and regional trends on construction of SSMU housing.

鈥淭hat means potentially no single-family housing [housing] in Brookswood?鈥� asked Councillor Margaret Kunst, referring to option two.

Mayor Eric Woodward said that would be at the discretion of council. He also noted that revising the single-family portions of the plans may impact other aspects as well.

The Township is receiving $744,000 from the provincial government to help pay for the staff work that will go into dealing with the flurry of reforms. But Woodward noted the money can鈥檛 just be used on projects like re-planning Brookswood.

鈥淲e鈥檝e also got to pre-zone a 20-year land housing supply, and we鈥檝e got to consider Bill 47, and also create an ACC system [amenity cost charges] under Bill 46,鈥� Woodward said, dubbing $744,000 an 鈥渋nsulting鈥� sum given the work required.

Coun. Michael Pratt noted that the revisions would put the brakes on a number of applications 鈥� the Township is also holding back other single-family projects to talk to developers about what they intend now 鈥� but would give longer-term security.

Township staff were asked if they could have this and other related work done, given the scope.

鈥淲e can proceed as long as we understand it is a priority,鈥� said Mark Bakken, the Township鈥檚 senior administrator.

READ ALSO: Plans for Brookswood hit some potholes