City of Powell River council members have requested a staff report into the prospective annexing of properties on Nootka Street, currently located in qathet Regional District.
At the December 14 committee of the whole meeting, councillors reviewed a letter from Grasshopper Developments about a city boundary extension to incorporate lands with civic addresses of 7406 and 7440 Nootka Street within city boundaries.
Mayor Dave Formosa said his understanding is that the correspondence is for staff to take the request of the developer who wants to annex a large piece of property and pay the piper to do so.
“He’s already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in engineering to understand what it is he would have to do to join our system,” said Formosa. “Also, from my point of view, I would welcome new taxpayers into our community. I’ve always been supportive of the process and I hope this process moves forward and that we can see this get annexed in.
“Councillor Jim Palm and myself met with this individual a number of times and the last time with the director of planning. Some suggestions were made to the developer on things he might be able to do because this is a big job. One of the suggestions was that he hire his own staff member who could be dedicated directly to this annex.”
Formosa said the city’s engineering and planning departments are so busy with the vast amount of development going on in the city that it’s unknown how much time could be spent on the proposed annexation.
“I do know the developers are committed and have the funds,” said Formosa. “I’m happy to support this annex.”
Committee chair councillor Cindy Elliott said that in the letter it seemed council is being asked to provide some sort of direction to staff.
Corporate officer Chris Jackson said staff is looking for direction to bring a report back.
Palm said the meeting with the proponent, him, the mayor and director of planning services Jason Gow was very constructive.
“Mr. Gow had done his homework, talking to the ministry [of municipal affairs and housing], and during the meeting it was suggested that Grasshopper Developments may want to hire one of our staff to work on this full time,” said Palm. “The word from government is that they would like Grasshopper to hire their own consultant to work with our staff, which, I believe, is being followed up. That takes the heat off our planning staff. Down the road, 200 homes later brings in roughly $1 million in taxation to the city.”
Councillor George Doubt made a motion that the matter be referred to staff to bring back a report on steps they might or might not want to undertake. Doubt said he respects the fact that the developer has gone to great expense to study the situation about how to develop the property in an appropriate way.
“I’d like to know exactly what the cost of services are and a detailed map of the services in the area, and what kind of road is being proposed,” said Doubt. “I’d like to get a thorough report from city staff on how this would go forward. I know there are portions of the Local Government Act that would come into play and there are lots of things the minister would have to do if we decide to refer it.
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said there is a cost to staff spending a lot of time on the proposal.
“It could be a really in-depth report by multiple members of staff,” said Leishman. “Without an application fee for this kind of work, or any kind of cost recovery, I’m a little bit nervous about getting staff to spend too much time when they already have a heavy work plan in place.
“I would like to see a very brief report on how much work is involved in starting this work and whether there is a cost recovery model where staff can try to recoup some of the costs.”
Jackson said his understanding of Doubt’s motion is that the letter from Grasshopper Developments be referred to staff with direction to provide council with a report regarding procedural steps, options, property tax implications and cost-recovery opportunities.
The committee unanimously supported the motion.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated the councillors reviewed a letter from Grasshopper Developments about a city boundary extension to incorporate lands with civic addresses of 7406 to 7440 Nootka Street within city boundaries. It should have read 7406 and 7440 Nootka Street.
