The draft official community plan for the Cowichan Valley Regional District’s electoral areas took some heat at a recent meeting, particularly by Cowichan Lake South/Skutz Falls (Electoral Area F) director Ian Morrison.
Patrick Oystryk, a consultant from MODUS, gave a presentation on the draft OCP at the electoral area services committee meeting on Sept. 3 and the committee gave the document two readings, with only Morrison voting against it, and the recommendation to the board is that it now go to a public hearing.
Morrison pointed out that Area F had completed its own draft OCP and it was in its second reading before the process of developing an OCP for all the electoral areas began a number of years ago.
He said, as a result, he and Area F's advisory planning commission decided to put their OCP on hold.
Morrison said he thought the idea behind developing an OCP for all electoral areas was to create an efficient and understandable document that was going to clarify and make the OCP simpler, and the zoning that would come with it.
“Where I sit, this [draft] OCP is not what was advertised,” he said.
“What I’m hearing expressed in my community and from my advisory planning commission is our vision isn’t reflected in this [document]. So what options are available to communities and electoral areas that don’t see their community's vision represented in this document?”
Much of Morrison’s concern centred around the proposed growth-containment boundaries in Area F in the draft OCP.
GCBs identify lands where growth will be focused and where the majority of public investment for infrastructure and services will be directed in each electoral area in the OCP.
In Area F, large greenfield parcels around Honeymoon Bay are in the GCB in the draft OCP, as well as the Paldi lands, which the document said have a tremendous amount of capacity in them as well.
The draft OCP calls for 72 per cent of new development to be within the GCB in Area F, with the rest outside of the GCB.
But Morrison said Area F is a pro-growth area, and most residents don’t want to jam the area’s growth into GCBs.
“We are a forestry community that has access to smaller-lot lands, and one of the things put forward by the community is to have more lands available for multiple housing types along the south shore of Cowichan Lake,” he said.
“I appreciate those electoral areas that don’t want to see another house built in their area and I’m particularly impressed with other directors’ defence of their agricultural communities, but I’m talking about a forested, rural lifestyle [in Area F] that I think is about to be eliminated in this document.”
Oystryk said the CVRD can’t force anyone to develop within the GCB in any of the electoral areas, and the reason why the numbers of having 72 per cent of new development inside the GCB and 28 per cent outside in Area F is based on the capacity of those land-use designations.
“So you currently have high density land-use designations in Honeymoon Bay and Mesachie Lake that can account for up to 72 per cent of all the capacity in those land-use designations,” he said.
“The 28 per cent is in those rural land-use designations, like forestry and agricultural, and all of your capacity can be accommodated within those rural areas. There’s nothing we can do to force anyone to develop anything, so it really depends on economic and other factors.”
Morrison said that gives him some degree of comfort.
“But what I know happens in reality is somebody comes in the door with a marvellous idea to create five lots and the very first thing they’re going to hear is that it’s contrary to the OCP and they’re going to walk away and go to Nanaimo,” he said.
“So I really need to know how this is going to translate on the ground to have people come into my area and will look to (Area F) as a place where they can diversify and enhance my community. I talk to people in the building community and it’s hard enough as it is given the rules and regulations that we have here. I can see the writing on the wall and I can also tell what my next 12 to 14 months are going to be involved in because I think, ultimately, that this is going to become an election issue.”
