Skip to content

Zoning bylaw to get major overhaul

Public input wrapped up May 3 on the draft of a new zoning bylaw aimed at simplifying the 30-year-old outdated one currently on the City of Duncan’s books.
web1_170502-CCI-M-overhead-duncan-city
The City of Duncan’s zoning bylaw is under review. (Citizen file)

Public input wrapped up May 3 on the draft of a new zoning bylaw aimed at simplifying the 30-year-old outdated one currently on the City of Duncan’s books.

Zoning states what is and is not permitted on a given property. The old zoning bylaw has been amended 73 times in the 29 years since its 1988 adoption. Officials say it’s no longer in line with the vision set out in the 2007 Official Community Plan. As such, staffers at City Hall have drafted a completely new one to keep up with the times.

The new bylaw will reduce the number of zones from 16 to eight with more flexibility within each zone. It addresses row homes and secondary suits, food trucks, the highway corridor, urban farming, and more.

Dave Pady, Duncan’s manager of planning, describes the process as “thoughtful and innovative, with the new zoning bylaw encouraging a user-friendly, logically organized document, resulting in fewer zones, each of which will allow for more opportunity and greater flexibility for developers and property owners.”

Duncan Mayor Phil Kent said the feedback he’s heard has thus far been good.

“I was at the first open house and the feedback was quite positive with respect to the way it was laid out and the simplification of the zones and the more flexibility in the zones,” Kent said.

City officials hosted four sessions: two open houses, one online forum and even a booth at the farmer’s market one Saturday to get public feedback on the draft.

“Right now it’s in a draft form, we haven’t given it any readings. So we’re truly absorbing the input and if any changes are deemed necessary they’ll be done to the draft and then it’ll be forwarded to council for the first three readings,” Kent said.

Kent said that because it’s such a significant document, a public hearing will likely follow.



Sarah Simpson

About the Author: Sarah Simpson

I started my time with Black Press Media as an intern, before joining the Citizen in the summer of 2004.
Read more