The District of Squamish plans to amend its bylaws to limit ultra-large homes in the community. At a meeting today, the District of Squamish council will discuss amending the zoning bylaw to limit housing size allowed in Squamish. The amendments would limit the homes to a maximum size of 400 m2 or 4,305.56 square feet.
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According to a staff report, the lack of size regulation is usually not an issue when staff regulate the size of duplexes or single-detached homes. On average, a typical dwelling unit size for a new single detached unit or a new unit in a duplex is roughly 250 m²; however, the size range has become large, ranging from 110 m² to over 600 m², based on the data from 2022 to 2024.
Staff propose introducing a maximum dwelling unit size of 400 m², which would capture 93% of single-detached and duplex units.
“Adding a maximum size would reduce the size of ultra-large homes and may facilitate the creation of more dwelling units in those cases as duplex and multiplex zoning options are now widely available in Squamish,” the staff says in a district report. To reduce the potential risk of more variance applications coming to Council, staff are also proposing to include a delegated variance, which would give authority to the district staff to vary up to 25% of the size requirement subject to delegation criteria.
Council will discuss the amendments today.
Ted prior says
Let’s. Pass a bylaw that stops or slows district spending
K. Sinclair says
Rather than capping building size, let’s cap the size of Government. They no longer serve the People or deliver on any of the services they were intended to provide.
I propose an 80% reduction in DOS staff to start.
Nadine says
I agree with limiting the size of housing units to a realistic maximum. I think 4000 square feet is still bigger than any single unit should be. I would also like to see the minimum size of a unit go down as well. I’m sorry some citizens of Squamish continue to use any on line opportunity to ignore to topic and slag our fellow citizens.