The Corporation of Delta is conducting a comprehensive review of its zoning bylaw and is looking for input from residents and business owners on proposed changes to said bylaw.
On Aug. 3, the corporation will hold a public information meeting at the North Delta Recreation Centre to discuss changes to its nearly 40-year-old zoning bylaw. Staff will be on hand from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. to address any questions and comments Deltans may have.
According to the corporation’s website, the existing bylaw “has been amended in a patchwork fashion, resulting in a document that does not work well as a cohesive land use bylaw and does not reflect contemporary land use standards.”
The goal of the bylaw review is “to bring forward an updated bylaw in a new, user-friendly and streamlined format, reflecting modern land use standards and meeting the current and anticipated needs of Delta,” the website says.
Marcy Sangret, Delta’s deputy director of planning, ex- plains that decades of amendments have made the existing legislation difficult to navigate, for the public as well as for staff, as the relevant pieces for a given project may be disconnected and scattered within the bylaw.
Sangret also points to the number of projects require- ing zoning variances as a sign that the bylaw needs to be updated.
Among the proposed changes to residential zoning are new rules concerning house size caps, basements, secondary suites, parking and landscaping.
Corporation staff are also looking at consolidating and renaming zones as a way to address user friendliness and to streamline regulation, but Sangret says property owners can rest assured that the new bylaw typically won’t result in a change in land use.
The new bylaw will incorporate graphics as a means of presenting and clarifying regulations, as well as include hyperlinks within the digital version for easy cross-referencing.
It will also include specific regulations to promote healthy communities and reduce carbon emissions and the demand for energy to meet provincial requirements.
Sangret says that staff will likely submit its final draft submission to council for approval sometime in the fall. Should the submission pass first and second reading, it would then go through an additional round of public con- sultations before final adoption of the bylaw.
More information, including a form allowing Deltans to give feedback on the proposed changes, can be found at delta.ca/your-government/bylaws/zoning-bylaw-review.