A weekly roundup of noteworthy news in municipalities across B.C.
Exactly 20 years after becoming the first B.C. municipality to allow secondary suites in single-family homes, the City of North Vancouver has posted another provincial housing first. On Monday city council voted to legalize secondary suites in the city’s 471 duplex buildings, in a move that effectively renders each building a potential legal triplex or fourplex. The decision also affects 200 additional properties already zoned for duplex use but which nonetheless contain either a single-family home or no structure at all.
Residents in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District now have 24-hour access to building permits, property information and other regional data thanks to a new web application. As of this week, myRegionView allows users to search map features in the TNRD and member municipalities, create a printable map and find services offered with the regional district. These include libraries, water systems and transfer stations.
A new pathway that will connect Chaffey Avenue and Halley Avenue in Burnaby is going through, despite former concerns of tenants being forced out. The Chaffey-Halley pathway will sit on city-owned property in the South Burnaby neighbourhood near Chaffey-Burke Elementary School. The city developed a pathway concept and presented it for public input in February.
Natural shade along [Penticton‘s] Okanagan Lake waterfront is going to be just a memory this summer and for many summers to come. That was one of the things the public found out at a pre-construction information session Tuesday. About 70 people packed a small room and the hallway outside at the Penticton Lakeside Resort to hear how the construction along the Okanagan Lake waterfront will affect use of the popular area.
Five sleek and slender machines full of energy are now ready for electricity-starved motorists in Richmond. New electric vehicle charging stations have been installed at Richmond City Hall and the Richmond Olympic Oval, along with community centre parking lots in Steveston, Thompson and Cambie. Owners of electric vehicles can fuel up for free at the stations, which offer two Level 2 plug-ins, capable of fully charging a vehicle in four to six hours. The stations are open around the clock.
***
A selected image from the Spacing Vancouver Flickr pool. Image courtesy of waferboard.