qathet Regional District (qRD) planning committee recently heard concerns about the Savary Island official community plan process.
At the November 6 planning committee meeting, Rick Thaddeus, a Savary Island property owner since 1976, said he wanted to address the official community plan process for the island that is currently underway.
He said the biggest issue is the hazards study, which cites a previous report that was discredited.
“The thrust seems to be, from what I can see, restriction rather than remediation,” said Thaddeus. “The thrust should be: what can we do to remediate?
“If the recommendations in the study were implemented, you are just destroying a huge number of properties for their use. Savary Island goes unrecognized for the economic activity it generates in Powell River.”
Thaddeus said if the regional district integrated the hazards study into the official community plan, it would be devaluing property, so presumably, there would be less property taxes.
He said he had encouraged people to send in the regional district’s survey for the official community plan, and he regrets that now because he found the survey questions to be leading.
“They were mom and apple pie and impossible to say you disagreed with,” said Thaddeus. “I didn’t like the whole structure of that survey. In answering some of the questions, it made me think more, and I’d like to do it again.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said Thaddeus had mentioned the let’s talk land use survey that was conducted two years ago. He said at the March 2022 planning committee meeting, there were some comments about Savary Island and land use regulations. He said his understanding at the time was that the mainland areas in the survey stated they did not want land use regulations, but he believed that Savary Islanders indicated they did want them.
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick asked Thaddeus if he was aware of the Texada Island official community plan process a couple of years ago.
“We had a very similar study done,” said McCormick. “There was a lot of discussion at the community advisory committee and at the end of the day, while the maps were included in the official community plan, there were no regulations incorporated. I wanted to know if you were aware of that. Just because you had a study doesn’t mean it will be in the final document.”
Thaddeus said it would be nice if it wasn’t.
After Thaddeus made his presentation, Electoral Area A director and planning committee chair Jason Lennox indicated that correspondence from Savary Island had been received. While some made it to the November 6 planning committee agenda in time, there were a number that didn’t, and they would be part of the December planning committee agenda.
One piece of correspondence from the Savary Shores Improvement District (SSID) referred to studies that Thaddeus was alluding to, conducted by consulting firm Tetra Tech. The correspondence indicated that inclusion of the studies into the Savary Island official community plan would result in the collapse of the improvement district’s water system.
The correspondence stated that including the studies into the official community plan carries with it the potential for implementation of extreme setbacks when building or rebuilding, thus eliminating plans for infrastructure replacement or upgrades in the setback zones.
“As trustees, our efforts to responsibly manage this water system for the future requires that the Tetra Tech studies not be included in the official community plan,” the correspondence stated. “Any other land use considerations potentially affecting SSID, such as tree removal regulation or water use regulation, should be reviewed with SSID in advance of the proposal to the community.”
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