Members of the Powell River Regional District planning committee are recommending the province stay with the status quo at Caesar Cove on Texada Island.
In March 2003, Land and Water British Columbia Inc. issued the Caesar Cove Boat Club Society a 10-year licence of occupation for marina purposes. In February 2013, the licence was extended for two years.
The agreement between the province and the society does not grant exclusive use and occupancy of the land. The area is approximately one acre of foreshore and uplands at Caesar Cove in Sturt Bay which is at the end of Marble Bay Road near the village of Van Anda.
The society applied in November 2011 to change its current licence of occupation to a 30-year lease, which would give it exclusive use. The regional district received a referral from the ministry of forests, lands and natural resource operations about the application in July 2013. Planning committee members discussed the referral at the August 13 meeting.
Van Anda resident Angela Beaumont appeared at the committee meeting as a delegation. She asked elected officials to not support the society’s application. She said despite the fact the group doesn’t have exclusive right to the area, a no trespassing sign has been erected on the property.
Beaumont also wrote a letter to the regional district to share her concerns. “I believe that taking away the public access to this local treasured community asset, and safe historic marina on Texada, and giving it to 10 private individuals for a private marina in our park is definitely not in the best interest of all local Texada and Van Anda citizens or tourists visiting,” wrote Beaumont in her letter.
Dave Murphy, regional district director for Texada and planning committee member, was previously a member of the Caesar Cove Boat Club Society and served as the group’s secretary treasurer. In 2011, when he was a member, he filed the society’s application for land tenure change, but has since resigned from the society and reported to the planning committee that he no longer moors his boat there or has any financial connections to the club.
When asked about the reason for the application, Murphy responded that the club members were looking for more security for the money that they had put into maintaining and developing the facilities there.
After discussing the issue, directors passed a motion supporting the existing licence of occupation. Murphy voted in opposition to that motion.
“We sat down, argued about it and in the end decided to throw it back to the government and say, ‘What’s wrong with a licence of occupation?’” said regional district board chair and planning committee member Colin Palmer, who represents Electoral Area C.
The motion the committee passed is a recommendation to the board and is expected to be on the agenda for the August 22 board meeting, which is taking place on Texada.
After the planning committee meeting, Beaumont commented that she was pleased that the regional district had not supported the 30-year lease option and that she was going to start a petition of Texada residents to send to the ministry of forests, land and resource operations.
