The wheels are turning –– albeit slowly –– for updates to rural Official Community Plans (OCPs) on the Sunshine Coast, which are to focus on housing and sustainable development.
A report added late to the Oct. 10 Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) committee of the whole meeting agenda led to more than 90 minutes of debate and director-generated recommendations to the board about next steps.
The OCP update project is to “renew and harmonize the policies and regulations within SCRD’s OCPs and zoning bylaws with a focus on housing, sustainable development and meeting legislated requirements,” such as the province’s Bill 44 (Housing Statutes, Residential Development Amendments Act) on small-scale multi-unit housing requirements for communities.
Directors referred the project to the Advisory Planning Commission for comment and agreed with a staff suggestion that there be another update for elected officials before public consultation takes full flight and asked that project budget details be in that report, set to come forward Oct. 17.
Still waiting on July 17 public hearing results
Moving forward to public engagement on the project was of concern to some directors, given that the summation of a July 17 public hearing related to riparian area and shoreline protection zoning bylaw changes has not yet been made public. The time it has taken to review the community’s input on those OCP proposals, which had been characterized as “text amendments," had directors unsure if constituents would question how the SCRD public input processes have progressed. Those proposed changes, although explained as bylaw wording updates to bring the area into compliance with other legislation and best practices, were viewed by many rural property owners as adding restrictions to portions of land parcels that could be developed. Staff indicated the summation was slated to come forward Nov. 21.
But a later date for the start of OCP update public engagement, as directors favoured, will also mean a delay to the full OCP update. Staff's plan was to get started with that immediately, as they stated October and November are engagement "sweet spots," with the public past the busy summer season but not yet in the seasonal winter holiday mode.
Gibsons area director Silas White (who as a municipal rep did not have a vote on the matter) stated, “Listening to this conversation, it makes me wonder, as a board, do we want to be striving for best practices or worst practices...If an OCP takes four years, it is out of date by the time it is done."
Bill 44 requirements a 'near impossibility'
The committee also endorsed committee chair and Area E director Donna McMahon's recommendation, “That the board write to the province expressing the near impossibility of planning for growth in our communities in the absence of any road network planning by MOTI [Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure], who are not even required to participate in our planning processes. Rural communities cannot meet the challenges of climate change without a climate change and emergency management strategy for our critical transportation networks.”
After her motion passed, McMahon explained that she was aware of other regional districts also expressing frustrations with various aspects of Bill 44, which in her view “does not adequately consider the rural context.”
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Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the riparian area and shoreline protection changes are to the zoning bylaw and not OCP.
