qathet Regional District (qRD) directors have supported a request for an application to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) for exclusion of a Texada Island property for a seniors housing development.
At the September 27 regional board meeting, directors considered a lengthy recommendation for the 3.2-hectare parcel of land owned by Selkirk Mountain Forest for the Texada Island Nonprofit Seniors Housing Society to accommodate a seniors housing project at the corner of Gillies Bay Road and Airport Road in Gillies Bay. The board directed staff to work with the landowner to initiate an exclusion application to the ALC, and that the landowner be required to pay a $1,500 agricultural land reserve (ALR) fee plus all costs associated with posting of signs on the affected property, plus advertising in the Texada Island Express Lines and Peak publications.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he supports the work being done by the housing society and understands the challenges of finding a suitable location for seniors housing. He said his concern is that once the door is opened for removing land from the ALR for the purposes of housing, it is hard to close the door.
“If this application was for a non-adhering residential use on the ALR, I would support it,” said Gisborne. “That would allow them to move forward with the seniors housing, maintaining that emphasis on community gardens and it would still have an agricultural scope to it. That is why I don’t support the resolution, but I do support what the housing society is doing.
“We have to recognize the ALR has been around for longer than I’ve been alive and I’m extremely grateful for the elected officials back in the ’70s who made the tough decision to bring in the ALR to protect farmland.”
Electoral Area D (Texada) director Sandy McCormick said she supports the recommendation and did not believe it was the board’s purview to be making decisions or judgments about the ALR.
“All we can do is make recommendations to go to their body for their consideration,” said McCormick. “It’s not up to us to decide if this piece of land has value. That will be up to the ALC.
“This recommendation is about supporting a community group that has risen out of nothing and created a viable housing project that people on Texada desperately need. This is something that will enable the community to move forward to being able to age in place.”
City of Powell River director Cindy Elliott said she supported the project but was worried about how food security is addressed. She said the ALR is supposed to support food security and agriculture well into the future.
“If we don’t have a proper policy around retaining agricultural land into the future, and we continue to erode it away, every time one of these supportable projects comes forward that requires our ALR, we will eventually have none,” said Elliott. “I’m going to vote in favour of this motion but I’m also in favour of a better policy for no net-loss of ALR, so it’s land exchange, basically.”
McCormick said if it was a valuable piece of agricultural land, the owner would not be willing to give it away.
“For us to not support it would be a real disservice,” said McCormick.
The board supported the request for support for the property in Gillies Bay to be removed from the ALR for a seniors housing project, with Gisborne opposed.
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