{"id":158889,"date":"2025-10-23T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T08:30:00","slug":"rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/","title":{"rendered":"RDBN board skeptical of housing density mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local leaders at the Regional District of Buckley-Nechako (RDBN) board meeting on Oct. 23 expressed concerns that new provincial housing mandates will fail without funding for critical infrastructure such as water and sewer.<\/p>\n

The discussion was triggered by a letter from the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs regarding its small-scale, multi-unit housing legislation.<\/p>\n

RDBN staff clarified that the most stringent density rules (requiring three to six units per parcel) only apply to Smithers within the regional district due to its population being over 5,000. Nevertheless, directors from both large and small communities warned that the policy is disconnected from reality.<\/p>\n

RDBN Director Gladys Atrill, mayor of Smithers, confirmed her community is facing this exact problem. The geography of Smithers, nestled in Bulkley Valley, means there is little land remaining for new construction. Atrill said that Smithers has tried to increase density by building higher, but ran into infrastructure issues.<\/p>\n

“The engineering department… reminded us, like, hey, the pipes, right? You might be able to push more water, but you’re not going to be able to actually handle the waste,” she said.<\/p>\n

RDBN Director Kevin Moutray, mayor of Vanderhoof, criticized the top-down mandate for ignoring the associated costs.<\/p>\n

“The neighborhoods aren’t designed with the services for that kind of densification,” Moutray said, adding there is no indication “that the Province is coming with that money to upgrade that infrastructure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mandate should be accompanied by infrastructure funding, board says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":158902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRDBN board skeptical of housing density mandate - The Interior News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RDBN board skeptical of housing density mandate - The Interior News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mandate should be accompanied by infrastructure funding, board says\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Interior News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-23T08:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Staff reports\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Staff reports\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/\",\"name\":\"RDBN board skeptical of housing density mandate - The Interior News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/10\/web1_6580salmonarmtownhouseconstruction1-bpfiles-6web.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-23T08:30:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b2a2559930289000cbfc74c234c9073b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/23\/rdbn-board-skeptical-of-housing-density-mandate\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/10\/web1_6580salmonarmtownhouseconstruction1-bpfiles-6web.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/10\/web1_6580salmonarmtownhouseconstruction1-bpfiles-6web.jpg\",\"width\":630,\"height\":413,\"caption\":\"New home construction. 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