Zoning Bylaw Refresh

Project Background

Ucluelet is updating its Zoning Bylaw to make it clearer, easier to use, and better aligned with the community’s needs. The update also reflects direction from the Official Community Plan (2022), which sets out the long-term land use vision for the community.

The Zoning Bylaw refresh will be a comprehensive process that also includes three focus areas: gentle density housing options, short-term rentals, and pre-zoning for multi-family housing.

Gentle Density Housing Options

What is Gentle density? Gentle density refers to the integration of small‑scale, multi-unit housing options in established neighbourhoods. Gentle density housing can provide more housing options between single-family dwellings and apartment buildings in existing communities while maintaining their character.

Some common gentle density housing forms include:

• secondary suites
• detached accessory dwelling units
• duplexes
• triplexes
• small townhouse buildings
• small-lot single-detached houses

There are zones in the current Zoning Bylaw that permit gentle density housing forms, but only in limited areas. There are opportunities to update existing gentle density zones to provide integration with existing neighbourhoods and more options. There will also be consideration of permitting more gentle density housing options in existing neighbourhoods currently zoned R-1 – Single Family Residential.

Short‑Term Rentals

With Ucluelet being a Resort Municipality, short-term rental units are an important aspect of the local economy. Short-term rentals can also affect the pricing and availability of long-term housing units, which can make it challenging for locals to find and afford housing, and challenging for the employees that businesses rely on to find appropriate housing.

The comprehensive Zoning Bylaw Update provides an opportunity to engage the community on short-term rentals and refine the regulatory framework accordingly. The goal of refinements is to achieve a balance between supporting the needs of a Resort Municipality that relies on tourist accommodation, while mitigating impacts to long-term residents.

Multi‑Family Pre‑Zoning

Multi-family housing refers to buildings with multiple attached primary dwelling units, such as townhouse and apartment buildings.

With the goal of increasing the pace of new housing development in appropriate locations, the Zoning Bylaw Update will consider pre‑zoning land that is already designated Multi-Family Residential or Village Square Commercial in the Official Community Plan (OCP).

The OCP provides the long-term land use vision for the community, whereas the Zoning Bylaw outlines how land can be used today. As in most communities, there is land currently identified for multi-family residential and mixed-use development in the OCP, but limited to smaller building forms and/or different land uses in the Zoning Bylaw.

In a typical development process, a developer would apply to the District to “rezone” land before they could submit a building permit application. Pre‑zoning makes the development process faster and more predictable for projects that already align with the Official Community Plan, and where the infrastructure requirements can be identified, helping to reduce development costs and speed up the supply of new housing.

Through the pre-zoning analysis of the Zoning Bylaw Update, there may also be opportunities to update the OCP land use designation of some properties to Multi-Family Residential and pre-zone accordingly, subject to community engagement and further Council direction.