Restricted vehicle access to the sinkhole-plagued Sechelt subdivision of Seawatch is now permitted.
According to the District of Sechelt Council’s March 2 meeting agenda, a closed meeting motion from Feb. 16 endorsed the change. While security fencing and a locked gate at Gale Avenue North continues to bar the general public from accessing the area, registered owners of properties that have been behind those enclosures have been offered keys so that they can get inside. That will allow them to check on the lands and homes that they were forced to abandon on Feb. 15, 2019 when the District declared a State of Local Emergency (SOLE), evacuating and closing the subdivision because of safety risks posed by unstable subsurface conditions.
In a letter sent to the impacted owners and attached to the motion set for release to the public on Mar. 2, Sechelt stated that it “does not assert the power to prevent you from entering the subdivision, or from permitting others to do so. Barring further developments, the District does not intend to take steps to prevent you from leaving the gate unlocked, thereby permitting others to enter the subdivision. The District accepts no responsibility for any decisions which you make, or actions which you take, in that regard. If you intend to permit others to enter the subdivision, the District recommends that you seek independent legal advice on potential liabilities which you may incur.”
The motion by Sechelt Council was made necessary to retain restricted access to the subdivision after the province declined to approve its application to extend the SOLE past Feb. 12, 2022, despite extensions being approved weekly since March 2019. The province’s change of heart on the continued renewals followed a Supreme Court of BC decision in January 2022 that stated ongoing renewals without new evidence or a plan to deal with the situation in the subdivision were not reasonable.
The District did not explain what authority was in place between the expiry of the SOLE on Feb. 12 and the endorsement of the motion on Feb. 16 to keep the Gale Avenue North, a public road, blocked.
In its motion, Sechelt is asserting its authority to control use of the public roads leading into the subdivision under a provision in its Highways and Parking Bylaw No. 516. That bylaw allows its Superintendent of Public Works to issue orders “for the placing or erection of traffic control devices, as he may deem necessary for the regulation or guidance of traffic."
Council’s motion prohibits use of its roads within the subdivision by cyclists, skateboarders or users of similar recreational vehicles. Signs at the Gale Avenue North gate advise the public of the risk of entering the subdivision.
Sechelt has also asked that vehicles entering the secured area do so at a slow speed. In an email to Coast Reporter on Feb. 28, communications manager Lindsay Vickers wrote “passenger cars are allowed into the area without a permit. Anything larger would require a permit, which people can apply for.”
