The Regional District of Nanaimo Board approved Manufactured Home Park Tenant Assistance Policy B1.11 on 13 October 2026. It replaces a 2006 policy that asked for a relocation plan but set no compensation amounts. This post is for park owners, and for buyers whose price for a park leans on what the land could become. I have followed the policy in The Park Report, my monthly newsletter, since the Electoral Area Services Committee reviewed the updated draft on 9 July.
What did the RDN approve on 13 October 2026?
The Board approved a rewritten and renamed version of Policy B1.11, the Manufactured Home Park Redevelopment Policy it adopted in 2006. The RDN's project page records the approval, and the adopted text is Attachment 6, "2026 Final", to the policy item on the 13 October 2026 Board agenda.
It sets minimum compensation for every resident who owns or rents a home in the park under a tenancy in place when a complete rezoning application is received. It also sets a 24-month notice period, requires a relocation coordinator the RDN approves, and ends in a covenant on title.
It is a Board policy, not a bylaw, and it works through a rezoning. It covers a rezoning application, and where applicable an official community plan amendment, where the redevelopment would displace tenants as the RDN determines. The Board may weigh compliance when it decides the application, and the commitments are secured by covenant before the rezoning bylaw is adopted. The RDN says it has no redevelopment applications before it and knows of none on the way.
Does the RDN policy apply in Nanaimo, Parksville, Qualicum Beach or Lantzville?
No. B1.11 applies in the electoral areas where the RDN does the zoning, which are Areas A, C, E, F, G and H. The four member municipalities, Nanaimo, Lantzville, Parksville and Qualicum Beach, zone their own land, so a rezoning there goes to that council.
It does not reach Gabriola, DeCourcy or Mudge Islands either. They make up Electoral Area B, but they sit in the Islands Trust's Gabriola Island Local Trust Area, whose local trust committee does the zoning.
Inside the City of Nanaimo, the city's own Manufactured Home Community Relocation Assistance Policy, approved on 17 November 2025, applies. It requires a bona fide offer to buy each home for at least the greater of its assessed or appraised value, applies to a property with four or more occupied homes, and reaches subdivision as well as rezoning. B1.11 does not mention subdivision.
B1.11 also does not reach a closure that needs no rezoning. If the current zoning already allows the next use, only the provincial rules apply: sections 42 to 44.1 of the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act for homeowners, and sections 49 and 51 of the Residential Tenancy Act for renters. My MHPTA guide for buyers sets out the homeowner side.
The Section 42 closure rules, the three tiers of compensation, municipal redevelopment policies and the real timeline. Free.
Read the redevelopment guideWhat does a park owner have to pay a resident who owns their home?
If the home can be moved, the owner pays the whole move plus the $20,000 the MHPTA requires; if it cannot, the owner must offer to buy it for the highest of its appraised value, its BC Assessment value or the MHPTA amount, and pays a moving allowance and the cost of removing it. A qualified professional assesses each home against the RDN Building Bylaw and appraises it as of the application date, and the figures are updated within 60 days before adoption.
A home counts as movable only if it is suitable to move and has somewhere suitable to go in the RDN or the wider region. The applicant then pays every part of the move, from disconnecting services and permits to transport and preparing the new site. On top of that it pays the MHPTA compensation, $20,000 per tenancy under section 44(1) of the Act and section 33.1(1) of the regulation.
If the home cannot be moved, or there is nowhere suitable to put it, the applicant pays to remove or dispose of it, pays a moving allowance of $1,000 to $1,500 depending on bedrooms, and pays the greatest of three figures: the appraised value, the BC Assessment value, or the compensation the MHPTA requires. It must make a bona fide offer to buy the home for that amount, paying at least 25% of the price within 30 days of adoption, a further 25% within 180 days, and the balance when the tenancy ends.
Whether the statutory $20,000 is paid on top of that purchase price, B1.11 does not say, and its text points both ways. It lists the MHPTA amount as one of three options, while the clause for a movable home lists it as an extra item and the renters' clause says "in addition". But its scope says it does not replace or modify obligations under other enactments, the July 2026 staff report described the compensation framework, then in draft, as "in addition to and not in place of" MHPTA requirements, and section 5 of the MHPTA means no agreement can reduce what the Act requires. That makes it a question under the Act, not the policy. Until a lawyer tells you otherwise, carry the $20,000 on top.
What do renters get under the RDN policy?
A resident who rents a home in the park gets a moving allowance and a payment based on how long they have lived there, on top of the one month's rent that section 51(1) of the Residential Tenancy Act already requires.
The moving allowance is $1,000 for one bedroom or fewer, $1,250 for two and $1,500 for three or more, adjusted each year by CPI from the policy's adoption and paid when the tenancy ends. The tenure payment is three months' rent for a tenancy under five years, four months for five to nine years, five months for 10 to 19 years, and six months for 20 years or more, on the rent payable when the rezoning application is approved. It can be paid as a lump sum, as free rent, or as a mix.
Homeowners must also be offered a pad in another park and renters other rental housing, with priority on the same community, and the options are to be at a rent no more than 10% above whichever is lower: the CMHC average market rent for the RDN, or what they pay now.
How much notice do residents get, and when can work start?
No notice ending a tenancy for the redevelopment can be given until the Board adopts the rezoning bylaw, and after that every resident gets at least 24 months. The provincial minimum is 12 months for a homeowner under section 42(2) of the MHPTA and four months for a renter under section 49(2) of the Residential Tenancy Act.
Work on the site waits longer. No demolition, excavation, site clearing, servicing or other work that would interfere with residents living there can start until every notice period has run out, every affected resident has left or agreed otherwise in writing, and everything owed under the approved relocation plan has been paid or provided. That rule went in between the July draft and the final version, after 97.1% of survey respondents supported it.
Before first reading, the applicant has to write to every resident within 30 days of applying, hold a community meeting within 60 days, and file a statement of occupancy. Where tenancies end by the 24-month notice, no site can be cleared until two years after the rezoning bylaw is adopted.
Who runs the relocation, and who pays for it?
The owner pays for nearly all of it, and the RDN approves the person who runs it. Every rezoning application must name a relocation coordinator, a qualified professional the applicant retains, and the choice needs the RDN's approval. The coordinator has to disclose any conflict of interest, give residents a confidential way to raise concerns, and report to both the applicant and the RDN, and must be replaced if the RDN reasonably decides independence or performance is falling short. The coordinator stays involved until a year after the new development is occupied.
Every resident also gets a right of first refusal on a unit in the new project with at least the same number of bedrooms and accessibility features. A returning resident must be offered at least 20% below average market rent, or 5% off the sale price of an ownership unit, and the policy does not say how long the rent discount lasts.
The policy puts the whole obligation on the property owner and gives the RDN no duty to monitor or enforce a relocation plan. What holds the owner is a covenant under section 219 of the Land Title Act, registered at the applicant's cost before adoption, which secures the final relocation report and a housing agreement under section 483 of the Local Government Act. The RDN may enforce that covenant but has no duty to, and it can ask for status reports until at least a year after the new development is occupied.
What if a homeowner disputes the appraisal?
The homeowner can get a second appraisal at their own cost, and if the two differ materially, the appraisers must try to agree, failing which an independent third appraisal or another process the RDN accepts sets the value, at a cost shared between the applicant and the homeowner. The policy does not define "materially" or say how that cost is split.
The applicant's appraisal must state its valuation standard, use a common valuation date, and show how additions, decks, accessibility improvements and other material investments were treated.
How does the RDN policy stack on the MHPTA?
It sits on top: for the three tenancies below, the provincial figure of $41,300 to $96,300 becomes $160,300 to $180,300 under B1.11. All figures are assumptions, not market data.
- A homeowner with a double-wide that can be moved, with a pad free for it in the region. Assume the full move costs $40,000.
- A homeowner with an older two-bedroom single-wide that cannot be moved, appraised at $90,000, assessed by BC Assessment at $75,000 at both dates that matter, and with no tax owing on it.
- A renter in a two-bedroom park-owned home at $1,300 a month throughout, there for 12 years.
| Tenancy | Province alone | Under B1.11 |
|---|---|---|
| Double-wide, can be moved | $20,000 | $60,000 |
| Single-wide, cannot be moved | $20,000, up to $75,000 | $91,250 to $111,250 |
| Renter, 12 years | $1,300 | $9,050 |
| Total | $41,300 to $96,300 | $160,300 to $180,300 |
Under the province alone, the single-wide's owner gets $20,000, rising to $75,000 only if they apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch under section 44.1, meet the conditions in section 33.2 of the regulation, and the director orders the extra $55,000. Section 44(2) of the MHPTA and section 51(2) of the Residential Tenancy Act add more only if the stated purpose is not followed through within a reasonable period, so both are left out.
Under B1.11, the single-wide's owner gets a $90,000 purchase price, the greatest of the three figures, plus $1,250 for moving. The higher figures add the statutory $20,000 on top of the purchase price, which is how I would model it. The renter gets five months' rent of $6,500, the $1,250 moving allowance before any CPI adjustment, and the one month of $1,300.
The table leaves out disposing of the single-wide, which the park owner usually pays for either way. B1.11 puts it on the applicant, and under the province alone a home that cannot move is usually left behind, with section 40.92 of the regulation stopping the owner recovering any shortfall from a resident who owes no rent or fees. It also leaves out the appraisals, the coordinator's fees, the covenant, and the discounts for residents who come back. Every figure is per tenancy.
Is BC getting a new Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act?
Not yet. What exists is a request: at the Union of BC Municipalities convention in September 2026, delegates endorsed resolution NR10, submitted by Sooke. It asks the province to work with local governments, homeowners and industry to review and strengthen the legislation governing manufactured home communities with a new and updated Act, and to set consistent provincial standards for compensation, relocation assistance and communication. Its preamble cites the patchwork of local government policies homeowners rely on, and B1.11 is the newest piece of it.
A UBCM resolution binds nobody, and the province decides whether to act on it. The request will land on whichever party forms government after the 24 October 2026 provincial election.
What does B1.11 do to what a park in the RDN is worth?
Nothing to its income. B1.11 does not touch rent, occupancy or operating costs while the park runs, so a park priced on its income is priced the same way it was before. What changes is the cost and time of redevelopment, which matters to any park priced on what the land could become.
A buyer underwriting redevelopment in the electoral areas now has to price appraised home values, moves, renter payments, a coordinator, a 24-month notice period that cannot start until adoption, at least half of each buyout paid within 180 days of adoption and long before any new revenue, and discounts for residents who come back. All of that comes off the land value, and it comes off hardest where the homes are old and cannot be moved.
If you own a park in an RDN electoral area and are thinking of selling, sell it on its income. A buyer paying for redevelopment upside will now deduct B1.11 from it, and you are better off with a price the rent roll supports than one that depends on a buyer's rezoning.
Before you list a park with a redevelopment story attached, build the list a buyer will build anyway: each site, owned or rented, length of tenancy, bedrooms, rent, and the age and condition of each home. Whether a home can be moved is now the biggest line in a redevelopment model.
To know where B1.11 leaves your price, send me the details and I will tell you how a buyer will look at it. Buyers will find the provincial rules and other municipal policies in the redevelopment guide.
I am a licensed real estate agent, not a lawyer, and this is a summary of a regional policy and the provincial rules under it, not legal advice. Section numbers reflect the BC Laws consolidations current to 13 October 2026. Get counsel before you act on a specific park.
Logan focuses exclusively on mobile home park transactions across British Columbia with CDW & Associates at RE/MAX Commercial Advantage. He holds a Diploma in Urban Land Economics from UBC Sauder and is a CCIM candidate.