qathet Regional District directors received about 75 pieces of correspondence regarding plans to establish a wood waste landfill on Sarah Point Road north of Lund.
The application for the landfill has since been withdrawn by the proponent.
At the January 12 planning committee meeting, correspondence from the industrial wood waste landfill application to the province was on the agenda.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he found the correspondence to be quite interesting. He said a lot of people, for the most part, were asking questions to find out more about what is going on.
“There appears to be some misconceptions and a bit of NIMBYism (not in my back yard), however, I think the community has the right to be concerned about activities that could affect them and their community,” said Gisborne. “Ultimately, it appears the provincial government has authority over such approvals.
“I’m just going to speak from my interpretation of maybe how to avoid such a situation in future. I always find the best way to combat misinformation is with accurate information, and open and transparent discussion. In the future, if another individual wishes to make such an application, and is directed to engage with local government, I would hope the applicant would appear as a delegation before our assembly in order to provide information and answer possible questions. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be surprised to watch the rumour mill take off much like it did with the application that this correspondence is in relation to.”
Gisborne said he had a question of staff. He asked about the designation of the land in question in the Electoral Area A official community plan. He asked if it was industrial or commercial.
Manager of planning services Laura Roddan said the property in question is designated rural residential and the use that was being proposed was not consistent with the official community plan. She said if the regional district had a zoning bylaw, the regional district could have told the property owner that this use was non-compliant with the zoning regulations because it’s not an allowable use under the official community plan.
“Without zoning, there’s no way to regulate,” said Roddan.
The planning committee members voted to receive the letters.
