qathet Regional District (qRD) will take a second look at a proposed subdivision in the Lang Creek area.
At the April 8 regional board meeting, Polaris Land Survey professional land surveyor Michael Rogers appeared before the board regarding the 46-lot phased bare land strata in the Brew Bay area by Lang Creek.
“The intent of the presentation today is to encourage the board to send the application back to staff,” said Rogers. “There are two reasons for this. One is procedural, and the other reason has to do with the land itself and the value of the land.”
At the March 25 planning committee meeting, there was a recommendation that the committee recommends to the board that qRD supports the application for the bare land strata, with conditions. One of the conditions was that the applicant provides dedicated parkland for the subdivision area and pays cash-in-lieu of parkland dedication in the amount of 1.62 per cent of the total land value.
In an interview, Rogers said the whole reason for the regional board presentation was to outline what the official community plan (OCP) shows regarding the dedication of land or cash-in-lieu for the subdivision. He said the work that has been done is based on the OCP for the lands along Lang Creek being dedicated as park.
“It came as a surprise at that last [planning] meeting when the planning committee opted for something that was not consistent with the OCP,” said Rogers. “What the OCP shows is that area, upon further development, would be park.
“All of this is subject to section 510 of the Local Government Act, when it comes to either land or cash-in-lieu.”
Section 510 stipulates that an owner of land being subdivided must, at the owner’s option, provide parkland of an amount and in a location acceptable to the local government, or pay to the local government an amount that equals the market value of the land that may be required for parkland purposes.
“If the local government has adopted an OCP, then it’s local government’s choice, whether it’s cash or parkland,” said Rogers. “In this case, there is an OCP that does speak to parkland. The OCP shows it as parkland.”
At the regional board meeting, regarding the procedural question, Rogers said the OCP shows the land adjacent to Lang Creek as park. He said to get to that designation, there was a previous amendment to the OCP that involves previous landowners, staff and the public.
“All those entities contributed to that area being designated as park – those lands adjacent to Lang Creek,” said Rogers. “When we look at the OCP, there are two principal reasons that we have. One is to guide staff to make decisions, and the other is for the public to look at what local government is going to expect if they are going to develop land.
“Right now, the OCP shows the land adjacent to Land Creek as creek. The question regarding procedure has to do with section 478 of the Local Government Act that states that once an OCP is adopted, committees and board members must make decisions that are consistent with the OCP.”
Rogers said the regional district requesting cash-in-lieu of land raises procedural questions as to the Local Government Act. He said the second reason for the application to go back to staff has to do with park potential and value of those lands in question. He said looking at the lands, from a habitat standpoint, from a cultural standpoint and from an environmental standpoint, there is value in the land being in public hands.
“Lang Creek is one of the few watercourses on the upper Sunshine Coast that has a salmon run,” said Rogers. “Culturally, there are signs that there has been human activity on Lang Creek, right up to Haslam Lake, for thousands of years. From an environmental standpoint, the lands that are adjacent to a watercourse come with species of special nature – ones that contribute to the habitat.
“Those lands are potentially valuable as parkland. We are not talking about a city park, but a nature-type park.”
Rogers said for these two reasons, the regional board is being encouraged to put the application back to the planning committee.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said if the application is moved back to staff, are there opportunities for additional parkland in other locations within the project?
Rogers said a meeting has been scheduled with the regional district’s planning staff. He said he would not speak on what the landowners are willing to consider, but there is a meeting to look at the application, and in particular, the parkland question that has come up.
The regional board carried a motion to refer the item to staff. The motion carried unanimously.
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