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Granthams Hall decisions put off until January

SCRD
Lee Turnbull
Outgoing West Howe Sound director Lee Turnbull made the recommendations to postpone any decision on the purchase of additional land for Granthams Hall or the placement of a new septic system on the site until January at the Nov. 20 planning and development committee meeting.

Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors agreed last week to postpone any decision on the purchase of additional land for Granthams Hall or the placement of a new septic system on the site until January.

Outgoing West Howe Sound director Lee Turnbull made the recommendations at the Nov. 20 planning and development committee meeting.

Turnbull said residents who attended a Granthams water users’ meeting last month were in support of acquiring a privately owned lot adjacent to the hall, designated as Lot 1, but did not want the estimated $180,000 cost to be borne solely by Area F mainland taxpayers or the Granthams water improvement area.

“They did not accept that they ought to pay for it themselves,” Turnbull said. “They felt they pay sufficiently into the parks function.”

Residents also expressed a willingness to assist in efforts to upgrade the site, if all the SCRD electoral areas pick up the tab for Lot 1.

“Basically these people were asking you, the board members, to purchase Lot 1 on their behalf,” Turnbull said.

She said the additional lot “would be a valuable extension of the park system” in the area and could be an opportunity to substantially increase parking, as “there’s very little parking in Granthams, period.”

Turnbull accepted a recommendation from CAO John France to refer the development of parkland acquisition guidelines to the recreation and parks services advisory committee, but took issue with a recommendation for staff to prepare a budget proposal to place a septic system on the same lot as the hall.

“To me, that’s contrary to what the community wants,” she said.

Directors voted in favour of Turnbull’s recommendation to postpone decisions on both the septic system location and the purchase of Lot 1 until January, and to inform the owner of Lot 1 of the board’s direction.

At the Oct. 6 water users’ meeting, a consultant presented three sites as options to replace the hall’s failing septic system, describing the risk of contamination to the Granthams waterworks as “exceedingly small” in all three cases.