Survey: Aligning the Invermere OCP with the Housing Needs Report
Each municipality in BC is required to prepare a Housing Needs Report to identify its 5-year and 20-year housing needs. The findings are then incorporated into the Official Community Plan (OCP).
We recently completed our interim Housing Needs Report for the District of Invermere. The Report, based on 2021 Census data, found that Invermere will need 190 more housing units within 5 years, and 723 more units over the next 20 years. With recent development occurring in Invermere, the 5-year housing need identified in the Report has already been achieved.
The Report also identified the following key areas of housing need in Invermere:
- Affordable rental housing for families and individuals
- Supportive housing
- Homelessness
- Seniors’ housing
- Affordable ownership opportunities
- Lack of market rental housing and impacts of short-term rentals
- Housing near transit and active transportation
We are now incorporating the information from the interim Housing Needs Report into the OCP. This will consist of updating policies and/or maps in the OCP to ensure that there is the right amount and type of land in Invermere and the right policies in place to accommodate the number of units identified.
If you live or work in Invermere, or you spend a lot of time here, we want to hear from you. How can we best update our OCP to accommodate Invermere’s future housing needs? Please fill in our short survey here (Survey closes Midnight July 7th, 2025).
We will also be hosting a public engagement event in September. Stay tuned for more information.
Timeframe:
- June: Survey
- Late August: Draft of OCP amendment presented to Council
- Early September: Public Open House
- Mid-November: Council meeting and public hearing for the new OCP Bylaw
Additional Information:
