City of Powell River council chambers were packed to capacity for a public hearing on Blueberry Commons in Wildwood, where 39 people provided input into the proposed rezoning of the property to allow for a cooperative co-housing development.
The public hearing was held on July 13 and stretched nearly three hours. Of those who provided input to city council and staff, 25 people spoke in favour of the change in zoning, 13 were against and one was undecided. Also proposed to be changed is the sustainable official community plan (SOCP) bylaw.
The zoning bylaw change proposes to revise the current A2 agricultural zoning to comprehensive development seven (CD7) for the property located on King Avenue. According to proposed bylaw 2645, which is a bylaw to amend City of Powell River zoning bylaw 2100, 2006, a co-housing residential development means a housing model that is inclusive and supportive, while maintaining an independent living environment.
The bylaw states that these types of residential developments may include a combination of single family, duplex, townhouse and cluster housing dwellings. Dwelling units are typically individually owned and occupied, but residents collectively own and use some buildings and structures and the adjoining lands.
According to schedule one of the zoning bylaw, a total of 36 dwelling units are permitted on the property. The schedule states that the intent of the CD7 zone is to accommodate Blueberry Commons Farm Cooperative (a cooperative incorporated under the BC Cooperative Association Act) to establish in the neighbourhood of Wildwood, a co-housing residential development with an operational farm that uses sustainable technologies and practices.
City director of planning services Jason Gow said Blueberry Commons is proposing 36 dwelling units on 7.3 acres of land. He said in metric, that is 30,000 square metres, and so dividing the size of the land by 36, it comes out roughly to 800 square metres per residence. He said the minimum lot size for an RA1 zone, of which there are a number of adjoining properties to Blueberry Commons, is 730 square metres.
“There are many properties zoned RA1 in Wildwood that could be subdivided down to 730 square metres,” said Gow.
Opponents voice opinions
The public hearing heard from Kendall Peters, a resident of King Avenue, who purchased her home in 2018. She said she grew up in Wildwood and has been involved in the community since she was a young girl.
Peters said if the proposal passes, what she loves about Wildwood will never be the same. She said after the preliminary public feedback was presented to council by Gow, it appeared the majority of Wildwood was in favour of this development, based on the responses.
“It did not reflect the conversations I was having with my fellow neighbours,” said Peters. “In fact, most of the people I talked to did not know about the proposal. A few dedicated neighbours and I decided to create a petition to start a dialogue in our community.
“The petition was designed to specifically ask questions about citizen views on increasing density as well as bylaw amendments. We quickly learned that it was a little more in-depth than it needed to be. We switched to a single question: “Do you support this project?”
Peters said the response was a simple yes or no so both viewpoints could be heard and recognized, with the end goal of providing it to city councillors to gain a better understanding of where Wildwood residents stand on this issue. She said in the single-question petition, 183 Wildwood residents were surveyed. Peters said of this number, 167 people were opposed and 16 were in support.
“We knocked on everyone’s doors that we possibly could,” said Peters.
She asked if high density development would benefit farming in Wildwood. She said to put a large development in a semi-rural neighbourhood is contradictory to all of the previously stated planning policies for Wildwood.
Libba Padgett, another opponent of the development, said co-housing is a great concept, but she was standing before council to talk about the zoning issue. She said Wildwood residents are staunch in their chosen lifestyle and have worked long and hard to get their objectives into the sustainable official community plan. She said new development should be respectful and compatible with the character of Wildwood.
“The density of this proposal is in no way compatible with the surrounding properties,” said Padgett.
She added that the existing zoning bylaw states that A2 large rural lot zoning, which is the current zoning for the Blueberry Commons property in question, permits a single family dwelling. She said there was a reason that bylaw was passed and that was the vision Wildwood residents had and still have.
“The majority of Wildwood residents are united in the opposition to the SOCP changes that would allow increased housing density on larger lots in Wildwood and subsequent changes to city bylaws to accommodate such proposals,” said Padgett. “The vast majority of Wildwood residents would very much appreciate it if city hall and council, as far as Wildwood is concerned, leave the SOCP the hell alone.”
Member commits to dialogue
Ron Berezan, a Blueberry Commons member, said the cooperative is committed to ongoing dialogue with the neighbourhood to work through the concerns. He said members will continue to invite people to come, to see the land and to hear a little bit more about what the vision is, and to hear the concerns voiced at the public hearing.
Berezan said the housing project and adjoining farm Blueberry Commons is operating are one entity in the sense that it’s all owned and run by the same group of people. He said the name, Blueberry Commons Farm Cooperative, reflects the deep commitment and identity around agriculture.
“That’s why that property is such a good fit for what we want to do,” said Berezan. “The fact of tying that agricultural focus in with the housing project is one way of going forward at a time when running a farm and making a viable food-growing farm operation is increasingly difficult, primarily because of the cost of land. To buy a five- or eight-acre parcel of land and take on farming it as an occupation, those margins are very difficult. When we bring a group of people together, we leverage more financial resources and more human resources to be able to make a farm enterprise work.”
Aaron Mazurek, another Blueberry Commons member and owner of Terra Nostra Farm in Powell River, said he has a passion for growing food and building the local food supply. He said last year, Terra Nostra grew more than 20,000 pounds of food for this community, delivering to restaurants, food stores and the food bank, the farmers’ market and home deliveries.
He said farming in Powell River is almost non-existent and farming in Canada is in big trouble.
“If we don’t look at alternative models to farming, we won’t have farms and we won’t feed ourselves,” said Mazurek. “Wildwood is great agricultural land for the most part and it’s divided up into little lots that makes it very hard to farm.
“Projects like Blueberry Commons have shown over the last couple of years how much food can be produced there. If there isn’t a model of affordable housing and home ownership for those people who want to grow that food, and run that farm, it’s not going to happen. If we don’t look at alternative models, we are not going to be able to feed people in Powell River.”
Mazurek asked the mayor and council to look at what is best for Powell River and the Wildwood community.
“You’re not going to find another group of people as dedicated to farming and this community as the people who are proposing this project,” added Mazurek.
The matter will be coming back to city council in August.
