A majority of Powell River Regional District planning committee members voted at a recent meeting to recommend the board give third reading to the Area B OCP.
Area A Director Patrick Brabazon voted in opposition to the motion because of the designation of a property on Stevenson Road. The western portion of the property is designated mixed commercial/light industrial, to recognize an existing concrete batch plant business, while the eastern portion retains the rural residential designation, which was the designation in the existing OCP for the southern regional district, which encompasses both Areas B and C.
Brabazon said the majority of input from residents was about the property, which he called “the worm in the apple,” and 99 per cent opposed changing the designation. “If we decided tonight to amend that OCP in accordance with the requests and wishes of the residents in the area and brought that property back into residential, then I think we would have solved one of the big festering problems of this OCP,” he said.
Colin Palmer, board chair and Area C director, said a policy in the existing OCP, called D5, created a problem. D5 states existing land uses will be recognized in any future land use regulations. “I don’t know how to ignore our own bylaws, that’s the whole question with D5,” he said.
Brabazon said he believed the policy didn’t apply in the case of the Stevenson Road property. As well, Brabazon said, the planning committee has been hearing continually since the business was established that “the people who count, the constituents in the area, don’t want it. They want the property left as residential.”
Palmer replied that even if the designation was returned to residential, the owner can stay there “for 100 years.”
Brabazon agreed and said residents in the area understand that. “If it’s returned to residential, he will not be in conformance with the OCP and that’s what the people want,” he said. “It’s their OCP.”
Brabazon made a motion to amend the bylaw to return the property to residential and to proceed to a new public hearing. However, no one seconded the motion, so it died.
A majority of directors passed a motion to refer the OCP to the December 19 board meeting for third reading, with Brabazon voting in opposition to it.
During the meeting, the committee also passed a motion to accept the report about the second public hearing for the OCP, which was held on November 13. About 20 people attended the public hearing, during which some concerns were raised, including the designation of the Stevenson Road property. However, no changes to the plan were made as a result of the concerns residents raised.
