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George takes a step forward

Town of Gibsons
george
Developer Klaus Fuerniss leaving Tuesday’s council meeting.

The Town of Gibsons — eventually — voted to move forward with the George Hotel project at a special council meeting on Tuesday, May 12.

After receiving the geotechnical review from Horizon Engineering on the potential effects to the aquifer — with changes made to the building design in response to the review by Omicron Architecture — council heard during inquiry period from some of the over 200 residents in attendance and made the decision to accept the current design for the George Hotel.

“It’s been two-and-a-half years since this initial application was before us, and I think it’s still going to be some time yet before we can actually expect to see a shovel in the ground,” Gibsons Mayor Wayne Rowe said.

“I acknowledge that there is concern as to the height of the hotel building and its visual impact on our community,” Rowe continued. “In my view the applicant has clearly expressed that this configuration is, in his view, required for the project to be viable. And this is supported, to some extent, by the Town’s independent economic review.”

Colleen Dixon, architect from Omicron, presented their work in trying to reduce the height of The George over the last two years.

“In our original submission in September 2013 for the residential, we asked for just over 100 feet and the hotel at approximately 120 feet, bringing us to today with our revised requested height at 103 ft. 4 in. for the residential and 124 ft. 4 in. for the hotel,” Dixon said.

“So overall, the height difference — with all our work in squishing the floor to floors and fine tuning the heights of the parkade — we’re asking for is a three-and-a-half foot change from the original submittal for the residential and a four foot change from the September 2013 submission for the hotel,” Dixon concluded.

For Rowe, the greatest concern was losing the interest of Klaus Fuerniss, the developer who, over the last decade, has been consistently stymied in his attempts to build a waterfront hotel.

Convincing council to at least move ahead with this stage of the project proved challenging.

Coun. Jeremy Valeriote introduced an amendment to the zoning amendment bylaw and current hotel design of the hotel after half of council abstained from Rowe’s first attempt at a vote.

“I think, given the feedback that I’ve received and my own personal views, that there is a need to achieve a more modest height for the building,” Valeriote said.

The height of The George, currently proposed at close to 40 metres above sea level, is far above what the Town decided was acceptable for Lower Gibsons in the most recent official community plan (OCP) update.

The OCP, voted in at the end of March, states that buildings are restricted to one to two storeys at the highest elevation and three to four storeys at the lowest elevation. The intention of the OCP is to maintain the character of Gibsons, which many feel The George would destroy.

“From higher up — from Winn Road — you can still see the water, no problem,” director of planning André Boel said. “But from Gower Point Road this will have a bit of a different character, you will be looking up through the [George] plaza. That’s something that staff would like to explore with the architect some more.”

After a lengthy discussion, Valeriote’s amendment was defeated with only Coun. Silas White supporting it, and council later voted unanimously to move forward with the current design with staff pointing out that changes to height could still be made.

“The OCP makes provisions for exceptions, but they have to follow an OCP amendment process for that,” Boel explained. “With the new OCP in place, an amendment will be needed, and that can be processed parallel to the zoning amendment bylaw.”

A major concern shared by proponents and opponents alike for the construction of The George is the question of its effects on the aquifer. The geotechnical survey done by Karim Karimzadegan from Horizon Engineering has determined that the hotel will have no adverse affect on the aquifer.

“At this stage we are confident that with the detail we provided, there is no adverse impact on the aquifer.” Karimzadegan said. “This project, with the recommendation provided, can proceed.”

Using a masters thesis study on the aquifer done at the University of British Columbia, Horizon found that the aquifer takes on water — recharges — near the top of Mount Elphinstone and discharges into the ocean. Since the hotel will be on the waterfront, Karimzadegan sees no problem in terms of contamination to the water supply, even if something goes wrong and there is a breech.

“In terms of where the water comes from, all the water that the Town wells are pumping comes from uphill,” groundwater modelling specialist Jean Cho said.

“So The George site is not going to have an effect on one aspect that people are often concerned about when it comes to ground water, which is: will it affect the recharge — the water that ends up in the water supply.

“Where does the water that we’re pumping come from?” Cho asked rhetorically. “It comes from uphill. The project itself will not have any impact on what kind of water ends up in the [Town’s] system.”

Following the vote to move forward, Fuerniss — who was in attendance — wasn’t exactly celebrating the victory.

“It’s just another step in many other steps to overcome, so I think we are still far away,” Fuerniss said. “After 10 years, you get a little bit skeptical.”