City council will consider sending the Blueberry Commons Farm Cooperative cohousing plan in Wildwood to public hearing.
At the May 18 committee of the whole meeting, councillors were updated on a proposal to establish the project at King Avenue in Wildwood. Director of planning services Jason Gow said his report to councillors was to consider comments received during early community consultation, based on the Blueberry Commons application that proposes amendments to the sustainable official community plan (SOCP) and rezoning of the vacant property in Wildwood.
“Their proposal is to accommodate a cohousing residential development,” said Gow.
He said staff had provided an initial report at the February 16 committee of the whole meeting, tied to a development on a vacant property on the north end of King Avenue. He said Blueberry Commons is both the applicant and owner of the property.
“Their desire is to establish a 36-unit cohousing residential development,” said Gow. “The development proposed is considered to be multifamily.”
Gow said amendment to the SOCP is required so the associated rezoning application can be considered. He said when this occurs, local government must provide one or more opportunities for consultation for individuals or groups that may be affected.
On March 4, council directed staff to notify persons, property owners and organizations within a 250-metre distance from the boundaries of the subject property by mailed notice. Notice was also published in the Peak, as well as a posting on the city’s website, said Gow. This consultation lasted until April 1 and during that time the city received more than 75 pieces of correspondence from residents, property owners, governments and organizations from across the region.
“When I compare that to similar engagement processes this is something I would consider a solid response,” said Gow.
He said there was also a project page established on the city’s Participate Powell River site and it received 437 visits, with 104 of those visitors downloading document files, such as the original staff report.
“The takeaway from that is early engagement creates opportunities for improved communication, more meaningful dialogue and better preparedness should an application move forward to public hearing,” said Gow. “Most respondents took the time to provide a detailed and thoughtful response. In my opinion, the response was not one-sided. Some respondents are strongly opposed to the development while others are enthusiastically supportive.”
Gow said he developed a spreadsheet that tabulated the responses. He said responses from those within 250 metres of the subject property had more opposition. There is more support for the proposal in the rest of Wildwood and only support for the proposal in the city and qathet regions.
“Overall, there is more support for the proposal across the city, the region and Wildwood, but more opposition in the immediate vicinity of the subject property,” said Gow. “The challenge for council is how to balance these conflicting positions. There’s probably not a clear right or wrong answer.”
Mayor favours public hearing
Mayor Dave Formosa said the committee would be considering whether the application should be sent to public hearing, which, he said, is a good tool, especially given the large response from the community.
Formosa said he noticed a lot of people were concerned about traffic. He said he gets it but asked how the city can continue to grow if people say they don’t want more traffic.
“I’m in favour of this going to a public hearing,” said Formosa.
Councillor Jim Palm said change is never easy, especially when it’s in one’s neighbourhood.
“When we’re talking about Wildwood, the report makes reference to 75 responses,” said Palm. “Do you have a breakdown of Wildwood, Mr. Gow, as opposed to outside of Wildwood?”
Gow said his count was 24 positive responses in the Wildwood neighbourhood to the project and 19 were negative.
Councillor and committee chair George Doubt said he, like the mayor, had read through all of the letters. He said a number of them mentioned affordable housing but when he looked at the Blueberry Commons leaflet, he didn’t see anything calling the project affordable housing.
“People may be making an assumption because it’s a cooperative,” said Doubt.
Gow said he wouldn’t use that term to describe this project.
Formosa said the matter should go to public hearing so people have the opportunity to speak. The committee gave consent to send the matter to council to determine whether the project should go to public hearing.
According to a document from Blueberry Commons, a cohousing neighbourhood is like a traditional village, where people of all ages live in fairly close proximity in private houses and share some common areas, buildings and resources.
