by Laura Walz [email protected] Powell River Regional District rural directors have taken steps to address issues surrounding inconsistent land uses in the southern electoral areas.
Planning committee members voted at a recent meeting to send a letter to Dr. Jacques du Toit, a Powell River medical doctor and owner of Seaside Wellness Centre for Women, a proposed facility located on Traffe Road. The letter will state concerns for the impact of the facility on the area’s aquifer and the quiet residential neighbourhood, as well as inconsistency with the southern region OCP (official community plan). It will also provide information on the regional district’s procedure bylaw and the process for making an application for an OCP amendment.
Many residents in the Traffe Road/Pebble Beach area, which is located in Electoral Area B, attended the meeting to express concerns with the treatment facility. John Hogg, who spoke for the group, brought up the procedure bylaw and asked if du Toit was ever given a copy of it. He said he thought the procedure bylaw should have been followed. “We are very, very disgruntled about it,” he said of the treatment facility. Hogg had submitted a letter and petition in support of having suburban residential zoning in the area before the planning committee meeting took place.
Don Turner, senior planner, explained there is no obligation for anyone to apply for an OCP amendment because it is not a regulatory bylaw. “The applicant has admitted he was fully aware of the OCP, he purchased the property based on that knowledge,” Turner said. “He hasn’t made an application and because we have no regulatory bylaw, he has actually done nothing wrong.”
Stan Gisborne, Electoral Area B director, told the residents that the regional district administrator had suggested the area covered by the Myrtle Pond zoning bylaw could be expanded to include the Traffe Road/Pebble Beach area. Gisborne agreed that wouldn’t address the issue of the treatment facility, but it would prevent expansion of non-residential uses in the area. “Someone might decide to put an apartment building or something like that in,” he said. “Obviously, the area can’t afford to provide the water in particular for any more density.”
After much discussion, directors passed a motion directing staff to amend the Myrtle Pond zoning bylaw to include the suburban residential designations in the Traffe Road/Pebble Beach area. Directors also directed staff to prepare a report on the zoning bylaw adoption process for the committee.
Kim Barton-Bridges, a Southill Acres resident, asked directors to send a similar letter to the owner of a concrete batch plant on Stevenson Road, since it was inconsistent with the Low Density Residential designation in the OCP. The directors agreed with her suggestion and passed a motion to send a letter to the owner of the plant, stating concern for the impacts of the business on the adjacent residential neighbourhood, the inconsistency of this land use with the OCP, information on the procedure bylaw and on how to make an application for an OCP amendment.
