qathet Regional District board has voted to put Shelter Point sleeping cabins on hold until after its parks and greenspace policy is complete. At the January 28 regional board meeting, directors put the cabin project into abeyance.
According to a staff report, the Shelter Point Park and Haywire Bay Park campground report prepared by Kurt Pyrch Management and Consulting in March 2018 contained the recommendation to build cabins at Shelter Point campground. At the regional board meeting held April 25, 2019, recommendations for improvements to the campground were approved, including “construct a limited number of wooden tents or camping sheds to help open new market opportunities.” According to the report, subsequently, cabins were added to the capital plan, and in the 2020 to 2024 financial plan two were scheduled for construction, one in 2021 and one in 2022.
At the January 20 finance committee meeting, directors discussed the recommendation to put the project in abeyance. Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick said the plan the board had endorsed recommended a phased approach to improvements at Shelter Point and Haywire Bay. She said those improvements are partially underway, with a sleeping cabin having been built at Haywire Bay. Shelter Point was scheduled for this year, she said.
“Now we’re saying we can’t implement the recommendations that were in that campground plan because we have a parks and greenspace policy being worked on,” said McCormick. “That doesn’t really strike me as a valid excuse for not moving forward because no policy we are going to adopt is going to conflict with the plan we’ve already adopted for the campground. I don’t see one as affecting the other.”
McCormick said the campground plan is a work plan with positive, definite steps that can be taken in the various parks to make improvements. She said a policy document is more of an overarching blue sky overview that doesn’t direct specific work. She said the campground plan does direct the specific work, so she fails to understand the logic.
“It means we can’t move forward on a plan we’ve already adopted,” said McCormick.
Manager of operational services Patrick Devereaux said the recommendation for the cabins came out of the Pyrch report, which gave an analysis of both campgrounds, how they were operating and what improvements could be made. The cabin at Haywire Bay has been built as a test to see if it would be used, said Devereaux. It was opened in 2019 at the end of the season and was not used in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“The parks and greenspace policy is a more overreaching policy,” said Devereaux. “We’ll have a greater look at the parks overall, not just the campground aspect. That will give us better guidance on what to do at the campground amenities.”
McCormick said she didn’t believe the policy coming forward in the future will impact a document the regional board has already adopted.
“The project should be left in the capital plan to be considered along with the rest of the capital projects for 2021,” said McCormick. “Eliminating it at this time seems very unfair and I think it should go forward for consideration for the overall decision-making on our capital projects.”
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said a cabin had been built at Haywire Bay and Shelter Point is the sister park.
“If it’s at Haywire Bay, then it should be at Shelter Point,” said Gisborne.
Devereaux said it was said the intention was that the cabin at Shelter Point would not be built until the regional district had assessed the one at Haywire Bay and its use. Because of COVID-19 it was not open in 2020 and the regional district has not been able to identify how extensive the use is and what the investment has turned out to be, according to Deveraux.
Manager of planning services Laura Roddan said the board gave direction in March 2020 to draft parks and greenspace policy that includes consideration of all aspects of the parkland acquisition fund. She said the policy is to address the development, operations and maintenance of regional and community parks and greenspace.
“This policy is going to establish procedures and rules for funding the development, operations and maintenance of parks,” said Roddan. “Staff is working on that and it will come forward in 2021.”
Finance committee chair and city director George Doubt said he supported the motion holding off on this project until the regional district has a policy on how that goes in the future.
The finance committee voted to recommend to the regional board that it put the cabin project at Shelter Point in abeyance, with McCormick and Gisborne opposed.
