The provincial government has released its housing target order for the City of White Rock.

According to the order, White Rock must provide 1,067 new housing units over the next five years.

This represents some 75 per cent of the total provincial housing needs estimate for the city, which now stands at 1,422 units. The target numbers were released June 26 by Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon.

Mayor Megan Knight said the city will work to comply with the order.

"Council will be working on the mandated housing targets with the province and finding ways to achieve them, considering our community's needs," Knight said in a city media release issued Thursday.

The order sets out specifics of the five-year housing target, which must be met by June 30, 2029. Included are annual cumulative housing targets, performance indicators, and progress reporting dates. 

The release noted that careful land-use planning that considers the "unique context of White Rock" will be necessary to meet the provincial targets and help address the housing crisis regionally.

White Rock was announced in April as part of a group of municipalities selected for development of housing targets.

In a June 14 letter to Kahlon, Knight said council appreciates "the province's commitment to (its) 'Homes for People' plan to make more housing available across B.C., and we recognize that all local governments will have a role to play in the implementation of this plan, with supports from the province."

But, in the same letter, Knight also voiced city objections to the manner in which the plan is being implemented.

Among them, she noted that the city has been struggling with employee retention and recruitment in recent years, and while Knight offered a commitment to increase building permit staff by four full-time members in four years, she added that implementation of the plan and related changes to zoning, mandated by Bill 44, have placed extreme pressure on existing staff.

"We believe that the province's desire to increase housing units lacks proper understanding of the challenges that a small local government faces, where the staff have broad portfolios and multiple responsibilities, which encompass areas where larger organizations have more depth and capacity to manage," she wrote.

Small-scale multiple unit housing (SSMUH) zoning updates do not take into account topographical challenges of steeply sloping White Rock hillside lots, she added, and existing parking challenges will not be helped by the province removing the city's ability to set minimum parking requirements on some of the new development.

"While some flexibility is allowed for siting standards, the standard approach being applied by the province will prove to be detrimental to a community as unique as White Rock," Knight wrote.

She also decried the fact that the abolition of public hearings for such development "leaves no opportunity for the public voice to be considered."

"The public hearing process was established by the province decades ago, and is ingrained in the development approval process," she said. "It should not fall on the shoulders of local governments to have to communicate to the public that their voices cannot be heard at bylaw consideration."

Knight added that there should be a "more robust communication campaign from the province on both SSMUH requirements and on the housing target process."