The District of Sechelt's new official community plan (OCP) will go to public hearing on March 1 for the public's input before council adoption.
The public hearing will be held in the community meeting room at the District of Sechelt from 7 to 9 p.m.
The OCP provides general guidelines for future development and land use and is reviewed every five to 10 years. The current OCP was adopted in 1995 and updated in 2003 to consolidate several neighbourhood plans; however, no policy changes were made at that time. District staff, council and community members have been working on drafting a new OCP since early 2010.
Recently the plan was tweaked after a Jan. 25 workshop that showed "significant outstanding issues" on wording surrounding the agricultural land reserve (ALR), the working waterfront, sewers, a Chapman Creek floodplain study and other "housekeeping issues," according to a staff report received by council Feb. 9.
Changes to the OCP in that report included limiting uses in the working waterfront to light industrial, some tourist commercial uses and a limited amount of residential use. Under the heading of ALR, a revision was made to read "retain all land with agricultural potential for long term agricultural use."
Under sewers and package treatment plants, staff felt the wording should stay the same.
A Chapman Creek flood plain assessment will be included with revised wording under the heading of flood plain policies.
Council said they wanted to see a broader approach to streamlining the development process so an implementation item titled "streamline procedures" will be added to the OCP document. Under that heading it's noted that council and staff will review current development procedures and consider changes that will improve service to the public and efficiency of the planning process.
"This will include possible delegation of authority to staff to issue a wider range of development permits," the document states.
And a new policy will be added to the OCP under the subheading improved ferry service.
"More frequent and later ferry sailings are essential to the community and to the future economic viability of Sechelt. Council will continue to work with the province and BC Ferries to obtain service improvements to this essential transportation link," the policy states.
Councillors were eager to move the draft OCP forward to public hearing during their Feb. 16 council meeting.
"At this point council's done a lot of work. I think its time for us to give it back to the community to show them what the community and council have come up with," said Mayor Darren Inkster.
View the full OCP draft online at www.district.sechelt.bc.ca.
