Nanaimo's new zoning bylaws- what do Nanaimo residents think?

Nanaimo's new zoning bylaws- what do Nanaimo residents think?

Today I visited the open house held by Nanaimo's city planning division at Bowen Park.  It was held to inform the Nanaimo public of the proposed new zoning bylaws. The information they laid out was informative and there were a number of Nanaimo resident's attending.  It appears that the public feedback from the four open houses was generally supportive of the proposed changes.

I received a handout with the results of a survey the city conducted.  There were 17 questions on the survey.  In a nutshell here are the four most significant (as I see them to be) elements of the proposed changes:

1 Single family lot's size minimum is being reduced.  It currently stands at  600 sq.m. and the proposed minimum is 500 sq. m.

2  Proposed non strata, affordable row housing be made available.

3 Allowing 1.5 storey detached secondary suites

4 Permitting urban food gardens on a limited scale in all zones.

Question 17 of the survey summed up the top nine changes to the zoning bylaws.  Once these were listed the question was asked "Do you feel these proposed zoning changes will encourage the type and form of development you would like to see in Nanaimo?"

The survey results to that question were as follow:

42% said Yes

28% said No

30% made no comment

For additional information on the proposed new zoning bylaws in Nanaimo visit www.nanaimo.ca