Land swap terms set
The Town of Gibsons and the developers of the George Hotel and Residences have agreed on the terms of a land-swap that would see the Town close the lower portion of Winn Road in exchange for a public plaza to be constructed between the two main buildings of the George complex.
Council approved the terms in a closed session April 18.
The Town will own the plaza surface area, but the developers will own an “Airspace Parcel” underneath, to allow for the construction of a parking garage. They’ll pay $61,600 for it.
A staff report on the terms says the intent of the agreement is “to create a vibrant waterfront plaza for public gathering in Lower Gibsons.”
A covenant will make the developer responsible for maintaining the plaza “in a manner that meets Town standards.”
There are several steps that have to be taken before the agreement goes into effect, including passage of a road closure bylaw, and the issuing of the development permits for the George covering geotechnical, environmental concerns and remediation, and protection of the aquifer.
A group of residents, led by Marcia Timbres, filed for a court injunction last March to try to stop the road closure and land swap, alleging the Town was not following proper procedures. The application remains before the courts.
Correspondence policy
An effort by Coun. Silas White to change the way incoming emails addressed to “Mayor and Council” are handled narrowly got enough support from other councillors at the May 2 regular meeting.
White put forward a motion that “the Town of Gibsons ‘Mayor and Council’ email address be set to auto-forward all incoming correspondence directly to all members of council, and that all other correspondence addressed to mayor and council and received by staff be shared with all members of council in a timely manner.”
He said the Town’s policies aren’t up to date with modern technology and “the expectations people usually have that when an email is sent, people tend to see it right away, and they’ll get a quick response.”
He said the result is that councillors are not seeing everything concerned residents think they are, because the correspondence is taking too long to filter through staff, and some items never reach councillors at all.
The corporate officer is working on a review of the correspondence policy, and Mayor Wayne Rowe and Coun. Charlene SanJenko opposed White’s motion arguing that, given the pending review, it would be premature to change any parts of the policy.
