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Report examines impact of controversial Saanich bylaw

Report finds EDPA guidelines have created confusion but have limited effect
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The report from G.P. Rollo and Associates found Saanich’s Environmental Development Permit Area guidelines have caused confusion

A report into the economic impact of controversial guidelines designed to protect areas deemed ecologically sensitive across Saanich offers both opponents and proponents something, while admitting to potentially serious methodological limits.

The report released last month finds Saanich’s Environmental Development Permit Area guidelines have caused confusion, but has done little to diminish property values, as EDPA critics have claimed. The report, however, also acknowledged that it was working with an insufficient sample of affected properties to “facilitate a thorough analysis” of the guidelines, an admission that might strike some as fatal since the report only studied the economic impact of the EDPA guidelines.

Saanich’s previous council passed them in March 2012 with three goals in mind: protect the areas of highest biodiversity within Saanich; prevent and minimize damage during development; and restore damaged or degraded ecosystems.

According to the district, EDPA guidelines cover about five per cent of all private properties within Saanich.

Saanich council has initiated a review of the bylaw scheduled to come forward later this year.

That review will be more comprehensive than the report prepared and published by G.P. Rollo and Associates (GPRA), which considered “only the economic impact aspects of the EDPA.” The study, it added,  did “not address legal, environmental science, EDPA property mapping, municipal administration of the EDPA, EDPA community education, or other non-economic issues.”

Looking at the findings, the report states that “some recent public concerns” about the “adverse impact” of the EDPA on property values are “justified, with substantial impacts on some – though very few – properties and perhaps some slight impacts on others that will likely be hidden by the recent market surge.”

The report also notes that the EDPA guidelines have caused “quite a bit confusion, uncertainty and misunderstanding” around land use and property development. Members of the public including developers and realtors have also lacked time to “sufficiently understand the EDPA” despite efforts of public engagement. This lack of time has caused concerns, “some of which are justified but most of which are not.”

However, the actual effect of the EDPA guidelines appear to be limited. “GPRA believes that with the exception of a small proportion of EDPA properties that are being impacted by the EDPA, that current concerns regarding the adverse economic impact of EDPA regulations will be much less in the future as property owners benefit from substantial price increases that are expected to occur,” it said.  In short, homeowners with properties under EDPA guidelines do not have to worry about their property values and nest eggs, except for “very few, only extreme cases, outliers, where EDPA restrictions are exceptionally limiting,” it reads.

Ultimately, the report recommends relaxing EDPA restrictions where appropriate.

The report’s findings, however, come with a methodological caveat. The report notes that “GPRA has not been able to identify the total number of potentially impacted properties, but believes it is a small proportion of EDPA designated properties.”

Saanich resident Anita Bull, a long-standing critic of the EDPA guidelines, praised the report’s level of production and research. “However, I believe there is one foundational problem that reduces its credibility and usefulness,” she said. “The report’s conclusions are drawn from sales analysis done during a period where the EDPA was not well known to the sellers, buyers, real estate agents and even BC Assessment. Knowledge of the existence of the EDPA is critical for determining impact on value.”

She also points to sections of the report that raise questions about Saanich’s communication strategy. “Industry professionals in some other Island communities mention Saanich being generally difficult and time-consuming to work with, which may impact EDPA reaction,” it reads, adding that there “may be a perception that the EDPA adds to an already unfriendly development climate.” That same section also notes that Saanich’s EDPA guidelines are not as “restrictive on paper” as other guidelines in other communities.

 



Wolf Depner

About the Author: Wolf Depner

I joined the national team with Black Press Media in 2023 from the Peninsula News Review, where I had reported on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula since 2019.
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