Residents of Southill Acres are raising concerns about businesses setting up industrial operations on property that is designated residential. Property owners have submitted a petition to the Powell River Regional District opposing changes in the draft OCP (official community plan) which redesignates three key parcels adjacent to or near their neighbourhood to heavy industrial.
The draft OCP for Electoral Areas B and C has not come before the regional board for initial readings. Yet businesses have established operations on Stevenson Road parcels that are designated residential in the existing OCP. With no zoning in place, the regional district has no mechanism to stop any of the businesses from contravening the policies in the OCP.
Southill Acres residents are concerned about three redesignations of Stevenson Road property contained in the draft OCP:
• A proposed batch cement plant on a parcel designated low density residential and redesignated heavy industrial in the draft OCP.
• An auto-wrecking operation, established on a parcel designated commercial and changed to heavy industrial in the draft.
• A storage facility established on property designated low density residential and redesignated in the draft OCP to light industrial.
The properties border, or are near to, a new sand and gravel pit at the end of Stevenson, which was developed on Crown land through a five-year licence. The regional board opposed the establishment of the gravel pit and informed the provincial government of its opposition. But the province said it never received the regional district’s letter, which expressed concerns about the impact on Southill Acres residents and possible impact on the recharge area that supplies residential wells. The business has recently applied to the ministry of natural resource operations to amend its existing licence to include a concrete batch plant.
Southill Acres residents are concerned about increased traffic, noise, impact on water quality and quantity, property values and outdoor recreation and an increased risk of forest fires.
Kim and Charles (Bart) Barton-Bridges have researched the issue and led a delegation to the regional district’s planning committee yesterday, February 22.
Bart, chair of the Southill Acres Strata Corporation, and Kim told the Peak they spoke to Electoral Area B Director Stan Gisborne about their concerns. Gisborne indicated the designation for the proposed cement plant property had been changed in 2010, said Bart. “It was only under duress that he acknowledged that the OCP is in draft form,” Bart said. “He also stated a cement plant would use hardly any water and he wouldn’t mind if it were next door to him.”
Gisborne said he believes the cement plant would use a minimal amount of water and wouldn’t be noisy. “Because of the distance it is from Southill Acres, I don’t think they’d even hear it,” he said. “There might be a few more trucks going up and down there, but I don’t think they would even know it’s there unless they drove up the road.”
Half of the cement plant property was designated rural residential to provide a buffer to Southill Acres, Gisborne also said. The designations were changed to reflect present or more appropriate uses, Gisborne pointed out, and the draft plan was presented at two meetings in December. No comments or concerns were raised about the industrial designations on Stevenson at the meetings, he added.
If there were a zoning bylaw, Gisborne noted, and if a property was zoned residential and an industrial use was present, it would become legally non-conforming under Section 911 of the Local Government Act.
