View points
Please attend the City of Powell River council meeting 7 pm Thursday, October 16. Attend if you are interested in seeing (there will be no public input allowed) which council members vote for changing the number of dwelling units per lot for all Powell River just so that Quay West Marine Development Corporation can build a five-storey, eight-apartment block building on its waterfront lot [“Planning department turnovers affect waterfront development,” July 9].
The five-storey plain box-looking building would be on the vacant lot across from 4404 Marine Avenue and would border right on the new seawalk trail. This big, high building would block our ocean view and many of our neighbours’ and everyone who drives or walks down Marine Avenue directly east of the new BC Ferries loading facility.
The Quay West corporation wants to have the exclusive view from its waterfront lot for its eight apartment owners. The corporation would not allow public access to the seawalk through its property. The rest of us would be blocked from viewing the new waterfront habitat compensation project, the boats moored at the government wharf, the ferries coming and going and the occasional whales, porpoises, dolphins and sea lions swimming by.
Again, please attend the October 16 council meeting as it is the first change to the rules that Quay West needs so it can build eight apartments on the lot, where seven would be maximum, if the lot’s zoning were changed.
The corporation has already put before council a request to change the waterfront zoning to mixed zoning for its lot to allow for the eight apartment residential dwellings.
Your physical presence at the October 16 council meeting will show mayor and councillors that we want them to defeat the bylaw amendment and we want them to stick to the rules for everyone and stick to the official community plan.
Douglas Malloch and Denise Greatbatch
Westview Avenue
Thanksgiving
Our family wishes to express our gratitude to all the men and women who found my son Jordan Beaudoin on Texada Island [“Boating accident claims life,” April 30].
Jordan drowned as a result of a boating accident on April 26, 2014. We are especially grateful to Mr and Mrs Kappmeier; Texada Island, Powell River, and the West Coast Marine Unit RCMP members; Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue air and sea units; and the Rescue Coordination Centre on Vancouver Island.
Powell River Search and Rescue volunteers: your kindness and selfless giving helps our hearts to mend.
Anyone who contributed in any way, we give thanks to.
Alison Macpherson Beaudoin
Sechelt, BC
Promises delayed
Three years ago before the last municipal election City of Powell River councillors Jim Palm, Debbie Dee and Maggie Hathaway placed an advertisement in the Peak that promised a referendum on “co-treatment”—the proposal to have Catalyst Paper Corporation Powell River Division mill take over treatment of the city’s sewage. They said, though, there wasn’t enough information at the time for people to make an informed decision.
Three years later and there are new explanations for why the ballot question on co-treatment didn’t come through as promised. Dee was quoted in last week’s Peak as saying a ballot question would have to be about borrowing [“Opposition to wastewater co-treatment surfaces,” October 8]. But the Community Charter allows council to seek community opinion on any question, such as “Are you in favour of having the mill take over treatment of the city’s sewage?”
Palm said the city does not intend to pursue co-treatment because there is no money for it. But council has committed in its financial plan to cover the entire cost of co-treatment, even if it has to borrow the money.
Hathaway said she was embarrassed about how long this has taken and that the city needs to “move ahead” with co-treatment even if there is public opposition. But the city’s engineering consultant informed council just in March that the mill’s treatment plant is too big and too expensive for the city to run on its own if the mill closes.
This bombshell of a statement prompted another round of consultant research to figure out a way to make the co-treatment plan work. So, the problems with co-treatment—not concerns raised by the public—are what’s holding up Powell River’s sewage treatment plan.
With the term of council now extended to four years rather than three, and construction on co-treatment planned to start in 2017, a clear vote on this issue is apparently never going to happen.
Ellen Gould
Michigan Avenue
