City of Powell River council will hold a second public hearing on zoning and official community plan (OCP) amendments for the property known as the old arena site.
Council passed a motion at the January 20 meeting directing staff to proceed with a public hearing. The public hearing has been scheduled for 7 pm on Wednesday, February 16.
Last May, council passed the first two readings of amendments that would change the designation of the property, located at the corner of Marine Avenue and Abbotsford Street, from parks and playing fields to mixed use. It held a public hearing over two nights in June and an open house in October. Subsequently, council asked staff to conduct further public consultation, but that never happened.
Click here to view a larger version of the Park Plan Study photo.
In December, Jay Yule, president of the Powell River Regional Economic Development Society, wrote to council, urging it to make a decision.
Before it can proceed with third reading, if that is what the majority of councillors wish to do, council needs to hold a second public hearing. After a public hearing, no further information or submissions can be considered by council. In this case, council has received substantial input since the public hearing in June.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway voted in opposition to the motion to hold another public hearing. She thought it was premature, because the city is investigating the availability of land across Marine Avenue. “We are looking to change the zoning so that it would probably result in requests for proposals from developers and it’s a very small parcel of land,” she said. “Simultaneously, we are pursuing the land across the street in some way to take out of Crown grant and become an acquisition of the city.”
Hathaway said she preferred deferring the public hearing until the city has more information about the property across Marine, which would provide developers with a larger parcel. “If we proceed along this route and then we do requests for proposals on that very small piece of land, there’s no place to go for a developer but up,” she said.
Councillor Debbie Dee said the motion was just to proceed with a public hearing. “We are giving notice that we are going to consider changing the zoning from parks to mixed use,” she said. “There’s nothing that says we have to accept any proposal.”
Responding to a question from Councillor Jim Palm, Stan Westby, chief administrative officer, said he didn’t know how long it might take to find out about the property across Marine. However, he added, it involved a long process and it was going to take a while.
Palm said he agreed with Dee, that council needed to go to a public hearing “to move this process forward.”
Councillor Aaron Pinch noted that having a public hearing doesn’t preclude council from doing anything.
Mayor Stewart Alsgard said a public hearing gives the public another opportunity to speak on the issue. “We’re going to provide an opportunity, so it’s not an hour or 45 minutes before a council meeting, but a stand-alone opportunity for however long it takes for people who really want to, again, or for the first time, express their views,” he said. “There is a lot of history, a lot of prior discussion, a lot of files five, 10 years ago on the very subject. Here it is again, but this time around we have perhaps a different generational view of it all.”
Councillors Dave Formosa and Chris McNaughton were absent.
