BOYLE – Village of Boyle councillors are hoping they’ve found a happy medium for new development sizes that will encourage people to build in the community without damaging existing property values.
During the April 3 council meeting, councillors voted 5-0 to pass first reading of an amendment to the Land Use Bylaw (LUB) that will require new homes to cover a minimum of 15 per cent of the lot. A public hearing has been set for May 1 at 7 p.m. as part of the village’s regular council meeting.
Councillors weighed both sides of the issue during their March 20 and March 27 meetings. On one hand, councillors wanted to welcome any interested in building a home to the village, but on the other, a 600 sq. ft home right beside a 2,000 sq. ft home is going to adversely impact the existing property.
“If someone builds a tiny home in-between two homes, that tiny home will be worth a lot more than it would be normally, but it would be on the backs of our two residents,” said Mayor Colin Derko. “We don’t want to discourage people from moving to town either … if we have someone who’s gung-ho to build a tiny home in Boyle, I want them here.”
The process started during the March 20 meeting, when CAO Warren Griffin pointed out that an amendment to define a “tiny home” as a manufactured dwelling under 500 sq. ft left a gap in the LUB.
To help prevent the issue, Griffin proposed a 17 per cent minimum coverage, which would cover 1,025 sq. ft on the average low-density lot in the village. Councillors were concerned about the size still being too large — the agreed upon 15 per cent will mean the smallest building allowed will be 904 sq. ft or 84 sq. metres.
“We’re in a generation where, for up-and-coming people, traditional homeownership is so far out of reach and not an option. If we are saying that your home has to be 1,200 sq. ft to live in Boyle, I don’t think that that makes sense,” said Coun. Shelby Kiteley.
The other concern for council was uniformity. In an era where sub-developments in larger municipal centres come with pre-built restrictions — something they unanimously agreed wasn’t right for Boyle — the village can appear a little hodgepodge at the best of times.
As a result of inconsistent policies, some neighbourhoods in the village have homes that are built across two lots, while others have residences that are under 900 sq. ft.
“We can go back and forth on it, but the whole thing is we need to have some sort of symmetrical reason for what gets built,” said Derko, a life-long resident of the village. “What we’ve seen in the past was all because of panic … I don’t know how we do it, but every municipality does. I guarantee you can’t build a tiny home in Riverbend.”
