City of Powell River Council has removed from a closed meeting a motion that was passed regarding a proposed supportive housing development adjacent to qathet General Hospital.
At the October 10 city council meeting, councillor Cindy Elliott read the following rise and report from the October 8 committee of the whole closed meeting: That staff be directed to issue a letter that accepts, in principle, the qathet Regional Hospital District board’s conditional consent as outlined in their August 8 letter, in response to the city’s request of the permanent closure and highway dedication removal of the undeveloped portion of Complex Way, to permit the development of a second supportive housing facility, and commits the city to the development of a formal agreement that incorporates the conditions of the qathet Regional Hospital Board’s consent following receipt of third reading of the City of Powell River Permanent Closure and Removal of Highway Dedication Bylaw 2760, 2024, and before council considers adoption.
Elliott said people are worried that this means the decisions regarding supportive housing that were on the October 10 city council agenda were made already.
“That is not the case,” said Elliott. “In order for us to proceed to decisions, we had to consider whether the terms from the qathet hospital district were acceptable to us should we want to move forward with the other decisions.
“This decision reflects that we accept the terms of qathet Regional Hospital District so that we can move forward with our public discussions on whether the city would like to make decisions on this today, or not. I wanted to alleviate people’s concerns that decisions were made, because they are not. This is about whether the terms from the qathet hospital district were acceptable to us, or not, so that we could move into public with this and discuss matters that we need to decide on.”
The Peak has written the City of Powell River and qathet Regional District regarding the August 8 letter. The City of Powell River responded that a staff member would possibly reply, and qathet Regional District indicated the matter would be discussed at the qathet Regional Hospital District board meeting on October 16.
At the October 10 city council meeting, councillors voted, by a four to three margin, to defer the first three readings of two bylaws that could pave the way for construction of a supportive housing complex near qathet General Hospital. Mayor Ron Woznow introduced a motion to defer until the council meeting on November 7, after the conclusion of the BC provincial election.
In a response to the August 8 letter, city director of planning services wrote to the qathet Regional Hospital District Board on October 9, indicating that staff were directed to write to accept, in principle, the conditional consent of the regional hospital board outlined in the August 8 letter.
“It is understood that the board consents to the city adopting a bylaw that would permanently close and remove the highway dedication of an undeveloped portion of the Complex Way highway dedication adjacent to qathet General Hospital… for the purpose of leasing to BC Housing to develop a supportive housing facility, provided the city commits that the portion not in the proposed lease area is returned to the qathet Regional Hospital District,” stated Gow in his correspondence to the regional hospital district. He added that if the BC Housing project does not proceed, the land would be returned to highway dedication.
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