Who gets to live on the islands?
2026-10-04
Our new all-islands study follows the link from family housing rules to multigenerational living and asks who bears the cost.
Blog
How Denman proposed a 64-hectare subdivision minimum: the recovered record
2026-09-10
Denman’s Housing Review was listed in January 2021 to increase housing options. The bylaws — read a third time on 15 September 2026 and not yet approved by the Executive Committee or the Minister — set a 64-hectare minimum lot in every zone, our general area screen identifies two qualifying parcels among 894 mapped parcels, excluding special subdivision routes and untested approvals. We read 100 Islands Trust documents and 39 meeting recordings to find out when that happened, who proposed it, and how the figure was chosen. The full chronology is on denmantown.org.
Fifteen recommendations. Three prioritised. Four and a half years.
2026-09-03
In 2021 the Islands Trust hired outside reviewers to look at how it runs itself. In February 2022 the reviewers said its practices “do not meet the requirements set by good governance principles,” that its processes are “obscure and overly bureaucratic,” and that its performance targets are “virtually non-existent.” They also said real good things about the Trust, and they recommended reform, not abolition — fifteen recommendations in all. It took Trust Council three years and three months to hold the meeting that finally worked through them, the Province deferred the requested statutory review until after the next local elections. Records reviewed through June 2026 show three recommendations prioritised, work on recommendation 7 and recommendation 8 deferred at 0%; they do not establish a complete current status for all fifteen.
The Denman Housing Review, explained from the bylaw text: house size, suites, “Land-Share” zones, tiny homes, cisterns and the end of the density bank
2026-09-02
Bylaws 260 and 264 rewrite what you can build on Denman Island. This is what the proposed text actually says, clause by clause, with page references to the 24 August 2026 agenda package: a 300 m² cap on a house, suites and second dwellings by lot size, the renamed co-housing zone, RVs and yurts as homes, a ban on whole-home short-term rentals, cistern rules, and the deletion of density banking. Third reading carried 15 September 2026; approval by the Executive Committee, and the Minister for the OCP amendment, is pending — nothing below is in force. Updated 28 September 2026.
“Let’s let the ministry say, oh, they didn’t”: the Denman trust committee removes the housing-needs figures from its plan, on the record
2026-09-02
At second reading of Denman Island’s new housing bylaws on 24 August 2026, the trustees and their planner agreed to delete the two sentences of the official community plan that reported the province’s housing-needs figures for the island — 109 units in five years, 359 in twenty — after the planner said twice that a legislative requirement to reference the report exists. The stated reason: not to suggest the island’s population will grow. The stated method: delete it and see what the ministry says. Every line below plays from the Trust’s own recording.
Share the argument, not just the link
2026-08-23
Every substantial campaign argument and every post can now become a sourced, page-specific PNG—built from live copy, designed for a feed, and still useful in email, messages, documents, and print.
We read the court cases. Most of them go against us.
2026-08-23
Seventeen counted decisions on the Islands Trust. It has won fourteen, lost one and split two, and both defeats at trial were reversed on appeal. It can lawfully zone the sea. None of these decisions addresses where its outer boundary runs. The post has been updated twice since publication and its original count of ten is preserved inside it.