‘Going to be a challenge’; Kamloops saddled with creating 4,236 new housing units

KAMLOOPS — On Tuesday (Sept 27), the B.C. government announced housing targets for 10 communities, including Kamloops, as part of the Housing Supply Act, which identified cities across the province with the greatest need. In Kamloops the target is 4,236 new units built over the next five years.

Councillor Stephen Karpuk is excited by the goal, but understands it won’t be easy to reach, certainly not on their own.

“It’s great. We are happy to part of the top group trying to get homes built but we are a little bit leery about how we are going to get there using the metrics they put in place. It’s going to be a challenge when we don’t build — unless they want to give us a lot of money which we could build — but we only approve,” said Karpuk.

The province hopes to push communities lagging behind on housing to approve more builds, while working to improve and streamline the permit process from various ministries.

“My message to council and mayors is, ‘Let’s control what we can,’” BC Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon told CFJC Today. “Let’s make our process faster. Let’s make sure we plan our communities in a way that everyone understands what is going to be built in them, so that we can when projects do come forward, move them along faster.”

Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson echoed the need for all levels of government to help reach that goal, but cautioned about where they could find the land to develop.

“I just hope that we are not planning to take a bunch of land, farmland out of the Agricultural Land [Reserve],” added Hamer-Jackson.

The Canadian Home Builders Association is staring down a 13 per cent increase in workload to make the five-year target. And with rising costs, it could be a slow start to the five-year plan as things stabilize.

“Right now, with stress tests being difficult and interest rates being high, developers are frankly looking at really high rates when they are looking to start a project. It’s questionable how many projects are actually getting started in these first few years,” said Central Interior Home Builders Association President Tom Calne.

Less than 3 per cent of Kamloops is currently buildable land space, so everything else will have to come from infill and redevelopment.

“We need to find better use for the land we have,” said Kahlon. “Make sure we get maximum value for the community out of every single parcel. That is why we are going to move to allow up to four units on single family lots, so when one house comes down, we aren’t replacing it with just one house.”

While over the last five typical building years excluding the pandemic, the City of Kamloops approved more than 4,000 units, this year has been much slower, according to Karpuk.

“We approve what comes before us. I think in the month of July, we had two building permits. All of those extraneities, interest rates, the fear of what is going on in the economy. That is changing peoples minds. It’s changing developers’ minds. The cost of materials, concrete is way more expensive, and now we are suppose to tell them to build,” said Karpuk.