City of Powell River Council has denied an application for a development variance permit for a property on Boswell Street.
At the August 17 city council meeting, councillors reviewed the application as presented by director of planning services Jason Gow. He said the owner wishes to construct a single-family residential home at Lot 12, which is a vacant property in Westview that was created by subdivision in 1931.
“It remains unserviced and the road dedication that fronts the property is undeveloped,” said Gow. “As part of the due diligence, the owner requested a preliminary works and services review through the [city] engineering services to identify the works and services that would be required for a building permit for a new single-family dwelling on the property.
“Based on the requirements of the city’s infrastructure design and construction bylaw, the works and services required include roadworks along the frontage of the property, a sanitary main extension and sanitary pump, water main extension and a stormwater management plan. Rather than comply with all these requirements, the owner has applied to vary some of the bylaw requirements by way of a development variance permit and that’s why I’m here tonight.”
Gow said the owner has applied to relax the requirements for roadworks and water main extension across the entire frontage of the property. He said the proposal is for no alternative level of road work and that the water main be extended only halfway along the frontage.
“Staff’s recommendation is that council deny the application and require the applicant to construct services as per city bylaw requirements,” said Gow. “This position is supported by both the Local Government Act and the city’s infrastructure bylaw, which takes a user-pay approach. This means that local governments can establish minimum standards and circumstances to require individual property owners to pay for offsite work and services at the time of development.
“This approach also ensures those who benefit from development pay for the costs associated with the development. It also ensures that if the Boswell Street road dedication is extended and developed in the future, costs associated with the frontage are not borne by future taxpayers.”
Gow said planning staff engaged with other city departments regarding the application, which outlined difficulties with the application.
The recommendation was that the application be denied and the applicant be required to meet minimum bylaw standards.
Mayor Ron Woznow asked if Lot 12 was the result of a planning error in the past, and whether the lot should have been serviced accordingly.
Gow said this is a lot that was in proximity to a larger adjacent lot that didn’t develop out at the same pace as the lands around it.
“Keep in mind that the city doesn’t pay for the buildout of roads,” said Gow. “It’s the developers that pay for the buildout of roads. As a subdivision application in 1931, things weren’t the same, and so roads were built out at the time of the building permit.
Councillors voted unanimously to deny the application.
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