POLICY REPORT

URBAN STRUCTURE

Date: July 17, 1997

Dept. File No. PB

CC File: 5301

TO: Vancouver City Council

FROM:Director of Community Planning

SUBJECT:RS Options - Kitsilano RS-1S Area

RECOMMENDATIONS

A.THAT the Director of Land Use and Development be instructed to make application to rezone the Kitsilano RS-1S area shown in Figure 1 from RS-1S to RS-5S and the application be referred to Public Hearing; and

FURTHER THAT the Director of Legal Services be instructed to prepare the necessary by-law for consideration at the Public Hearing.

B.THAT the Director of Community Planning be instructed to report to Council development applications which are contrary to the proposed zoning amendments for possible withholding pursuant to Section 570 of the Vancouver Charter.

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of A and B.

COUNCIL POLICY

On June 6, 1995, Council asked staff to report back on interim measures to deal with neighbourhood requests for character zoning until such time as staff are able to go back into those neighbourhoods to work with them on the CityPlan Neighbourhood program.

On May 17, 1996, Council instructed staff to proceed, in co-operation with neighbourhood groups, with a consultation process to determine neighbourhood support for an interim zoning in single-family areas in advance of CityPlan's Neighbourhood Visioning program, to proceed with RS-6 as an interim zone available to RS-1 and RS-1S single-family neighbourhoods and, where there is demonstrated community support, to include RS-5 as a possible interim zone for single-family neighbourhoods.

SUMMARY AND PURPOSE

This report recommends referral to Public Hearing of RS-5S zoning for the portion of Kitsilano currently zoned RS-1S illustrated in Figure 1 below.

A multi-language random sample telephone survey of area residents and property owners was conducted in the area. The survey indicated that there was roughly 64% support for a zoning change to deal with concerns about the design of new developments and landscaping. Of those in favour of a zoning change, 59% preferred RS-5S zoning.

RS-5S zoning encourages new development and additions to be compatible with the neighbourhood by providing a floor space increase if the RS-5/RS-5S Design Guidelines are followed. If followed, the design of new houses and major additions along with site landscaping would be derived from the design of properties near to the development site.

(Figure 1. Proposed RS-5S District - Kitsilano RS-1S District)

BACKGROUND

On May 17, 1996, Council adopted a process to implement the interim zoning program requested by Council on June 6, 1995. The program addressed issues of external design and site landscaping in RS-1/RS-1S neighbourhoods. RS-6/RS-6S zoning is offered with the additional option of RS-5/RS-5S zoning where there is demonstrated community interest in that zone.

RS-5 and RS-5S zones (RS-5S is a new zoning approved at Public Hearing on July 8, 1997, to replace RS-1S zoned areas) encourage new houses and additions to be compatible with existing houses and landscaping by providing a floor space increase in exchange for going through a design guideline review process. Buildings which meet design guidelines derive their design from nearby houses and site landscaping. "Impermeability" regulations prohibit excessive paving of the site. When the guidelines are used, the permit process in this zone typically takes two to three months for a development permit, one to three weeks for the building permit. For those who do not seek a floor space increase but build to an above basement floor space slightly less than the maximum permitted under RS-1, no design review occurs and applicants are only required tofollow district schedule regulations. For these applications, joint planning/building permits take approximately one to three weeks.

RS-6 and RS-6S zones (RS-6S hasn’t as yet been chosen by an RS-1S neighbourhood nor has it been referred to Public Hearing) require or prohibit certain design features, and encourage site landscaping in order to establish a minimum standard of design quality and foster a greater variety of design than under RS-1 zoning. "Impermeability" regulations prohibit excessive paving of the site, and a modest floor space increase is provided if landscape design guidelines are followed. The combined Development Permit and Building Permit process in this zone takes approximately three to five weeks.

The Council-approved planning process for the interim rezoning program involves three steps:

1.Phase I - This phase determines the general level of neighbourhood support for a change in zoning. Only after neighbourhood support is demonstrated does Planning commit significant time and resources to a rezoning process. This first step is therefore carried out in co-operation with resident groups who assist in notifying area residents/property owners of the planning program. A post-returned "expression of interest" survey is then conducted among all area residents and property owners. This survey is monitored or carried out by Planning staff. If the survey achieves a 25% response rate, and if 60% of the respondents to the survey support a change in zoning, then staff proceeds with Phase II.

2.Phase II - This phase determines the type of single-family zoning which the neighbourhood supports. Staff distribute more detailed information on RS-1/RS-1S, RS-5/RS-5S and RS-6/RS-6S zoning to all area residents and property owners and hold an open house. Following this, an independent consultant is used to conduct the Phase II survey as a multi-language random sample telephone survey. Typically, for a neighbourhood of roughly 2,000 households, 700 are contacted leading to the completion of approximately 400 interviews (taking into account people who are not home or who refuse to be interviewed). This yields statistical results at a 95% confidence level with a plus or minus 5% margin of error. A 60% support rate for a new zoning is adequate for staff to refer a rezoning report to Council.

3.Staff report back to Council on the Phase II survey results with a recommendation on the area zoning and, where appropriate, referral to Public Hearing.

DISCUSSION

1.Planning Process

(a) Phase I Resident Surveys

Phase I surveys were conducted in Kitsilano in May of 1997. The results of the Phase I survey can be summarized as follows; the response rate (i.e., total surveys returned/total surveys delivered) was 28%:

Question 1: Which option do you prefer?	a) Retain the current RS-1S zoning	b) Seek an alternative zoning	c) Undecided
	35%	64%	1%

The results of the Phase I survey indicated that there was sufficient support in these areas to proceed onto Phase II of the Interim Zoning process: there was a greater than 25% response rate and more than 60% of those responding supported a change in zoning.

(b) Phase II Telephone Surveys

In June of 1997, staff distributed detailed information on RS-1/RS-1S, RS-5/RS-5S and RS-6/RS-6S zoning to all residents and property owners in the Kitsilano RS-1S area (see Appendix A). Contained in the information package were staff phone numbers in order that questions could be asked and responses given. Multi-lingual "call back" lines were set up for people with English as a second language. All distributed material was translated into Chinese. An open house (with translation services) was held in the area to answer questions and display additional, more detailed information about the zoning.

The random sample telephone survey of area residents and property owners was conducted by an independent consultant towards the end of June. With approximately 500 completed phone surveys in the Kitsilano RS-1S area, the accuracy of the resulting statistics is roughly plus or minus 4% at a 95% confidence level. The survey results are as follows; a full detailed report is available from the Clerk.

Question 1: Which option do you prefer?	a) Retain the current RS-1S zoning	b) Seek an alternative zoning	c) No opinion
	31%	64%	5%

Question 2: If you preferred to seek an alternative zoning [1(b) above], which zoning option do you prefer?	a) RS-5/ RS-5S	b) RS-6/ RS-6S	c) Undecided
	59%	37%	4%

The Phase II survey indicates that the Kitsilano RS-1S area has approximately 64% support for a zoning change to deal with concerns about the design of new houses and landscaping. Of those in favour of a zoning change, most preferred RS-5S zoning. Staff, therefore, recommend referral to Public Hearing of RS-5S zoning for the Kitsilano RS-1S area.

3. Impact on Property Values

The Manager of Real Estate Services advises that under current market conditions, there should be no significant impact on property values in the short term if RS-5S zoning is adopted.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS

The RS-5S zoning encourages site landscape planting which will positively affect the city's micro-climate and air quality. This zoning also regulates the maximum site coverage by impermeable materials which would also have positive effects on micro-climate, and reduce runoff thereby decreasing flooding potential and reducing combined sewer overflows. Each of the zones provide some moderate incentive for renovating existing houses which could result in lessening the burden on landfill sites from the demolition of existing houses on sites where new houses are proposed.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS

The Children's Policy and the Statement of Children's Entitlements are not applicable to this amendment.

PERSONNEL IMPLICATIONS

RS-5S zoning is more complex than RS-1S zoning. Processing of applications will generally involve extra staff time for checking applications, meetings with applicants, meetings with staff (e.g., landscaping and engineering), telephone enquiries, file searches, correspondence, site visits, and providing information to residents and prospective applicants. Compared to RS-1S applications, RS-5S applications will affect staff in the following areas:

·Development Planners or Planning Facilitators (12 to 16 hours per application);

·Plan Checking Technicians (20 to 25 hours per application--bulk of research, correspondence, and neighbourhood applicant and staff liaison duties are handled by this position);

·Development Information Officers (additional 2 to 3 hours per application);

·Landscaping Technicians (additional 0.5 hour per application);

·Building Inspectors (additional 2 hours per application); and

Property Use Inspectors (additional 0.5 to 1.0 hours per application).

Since October of 1996, Council has rezoned West Kerrisdale and MacKenzie Heights to RS-5 and made one- and two-family dwellings conditional in some RT-4 and RT-5 areas. RS-5, RS-5S or RS-6 zoning has been adopted by Council in parts of Dunbar, Douglas Park, and West Southlands, along with North and South Kerrisdale. RS-5 zoning has been referred to Public Hearing for West Pt. Grey (scheduled to reconvene on July 28, 1997). Taking into account the changes made or proposed above, with referral to Public Hearing of RS-5S zoning for Kitsilano, a potential of roughly 198 person-weeks (note: 13 additional person-weeks for Kitsilano) could be added to staff’s workload.

The implications of the increase in staff workload for Planning has been discussed in a memorandum dated March 25, 1997, which has come before Council from the Director of Land Use and Development. The memorandum concludes that given space constraints in accommodating additional staff and a declining number of development applications, staff will monitor development activity in the forthcoming months and review staffing levels when additional neighbourhoods are brought forward for possible rezoning.

The City Building Inspector and the Manager of Property Use Inspection Branch note that the additional workload for building inspectors and property use inspectors will be accommodated with existing staff, although future area rezonings will likely bring about a request for additional staff in order to maintain current levels of service. There may also be some additional workload placed on property use inspectors because of post-occupancy complaints, particularly with respect to the impermeability regulations and site landscaping guidelines associated with the RS-5/RS-5S and RS-6 zoning. Staff will be monitoring the situation through the course of this year and will report back to Council should additional staff be required.

CONCLUSION

This report recommends referral to Public Hearing of RS-5S zoning for the Kitsilano RS-1S area.

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(c) 1997 City of Vancouver