The city's proposed development incentive policy has yet to be approved by council, but already it's undergoing some careful changes.

The policy, meant to stimulate economic development and the creation of housing in the region, was unveiled last month. It offers three levels of tax grants — minor, standard and major — depending on the development.

But at last Monday evening's council meeting, approval of the policy was put on hold pending further discussion.

Already, some significant changes have been made to the original document. The latest draft requires applicants to provide a "preliminary development plan”.

It also includes a caveat saying the incentive will be revoked and cancelled if construction does not commence within two years.

Both additions to the policy work to ensure the incentives are not abused, explained Mike Gau, the city's manager of planning and development services.

"We want people who are actually intending to build something to acquire these,” Gau said.

Most significantly, the major incentives category has been revised, slashing the 22 city-designated "high priority” sites.

Originally, one of the developments eligible for a major incentive — which will provide up to $500,000 over 10 years — was a multi-family or mixed use development on one of the sites.

Now, however, the proposed policy includes "a downtown mixed use development with at least 25 residential units or a downtown multiple family housing with at least 30 units and an off-site ammenity” as being eligible for the major incentive.

Extensive debate over what should and should not qualify as a "high priority” site led to the switch, Gau explained.

"In the end, we had a map that wasn't based on a ... constant criteria,” Gau said. "As it got to that point, it was harder to work with.”

The adjustment drew praise from one city councillor at last Monday's meeting.

"It'll be a reasonably level playing field,” said Coun. Doug Graham, who has stated he generally does not support incentives.

"We're not going to give incentives to somebody just because they happen to be sitting on a piece of land we'd like to see developed.”

Still, Graham has concerns about the policy.

He doesn't believe there's a reason to create incentives for minor developments such as garden suites.

Under the proposed policy, such developments would be eligible for up to $10,000 over five years.

"I mean, give me a break,” he said at last Monday's meeting.

"If somebody's going to put a living suite or a garden suite in their house ... they're doing it so they can make a buck or they can house a relative or something like that. And we're going to give incentives for that? It just doesn't make sense to me.”

The policy is a "knee-jerk reaction” to the housing crisis, Graham said, adding he believes it needs more consideration.

"I think we're rushing in where we shouldn't be going,” he said.

Mayor Bev Buckway disagreed, saying the policy has been encouraged by the local business community.

"We know we are not in the housing business,” she said. "But this is something we can do to play a role in it.”

Council voted last Monday to defer voting on the proposed policy for two weeks.

The delay allows for a "fine-tuning” of the policy, Gau said.

"We're getting really good suggestions for improvements,” he said.

"But not opposition. So that's really encouraging. And we know that it's important overall; it just has to be clarified in a few points.”