Sechelt council on Sept. 21 approved a number of changes to the resolution it passed in April regarding SSC Properties – the biggest change being an increase in allowable height from six to eight storeys for two buildings close to Sechelt Inlet Road.
In April, council granted SSC Properties first reading of the needed zoning amendment to allow the build-out of its 170-hectare property in East Porpoise Bay. At that time, it was council’s understanding that the tallest building on the site would be six storeys.
That reading was conditional on having a traffic impact study and landslide analysis completed before a public hearing would be scheduled for the project, and a long list of conditions were attached.
Staff brought a number of “minor edits and technical errors” from the April 6 resolution to council on Sept. 21, asking council to approve the changes attached as Appendix A.
Acting municipal planner Mike Vance said the changes included items like accurately naming parks proposed in the development plan and deleting redundant sections.
The height change, however, was met with concern by council.
Mayor Bruce Milne said the change in height caught councillors by surprise and that they couldn’t understand how a “two-storey jump could be considered a minor technical amendment.”
Director of planning and development Andre Isakov said it wasn’t actually a change to the plan but rather a problem of inconsistency in reports from staff to council.
“The previous bylaw as it was read a first time identified the eight storeys, but the report itself spoke to the six storeys – so that’s the inconsistency,” Isakov said, noting council members may not have noticed the eight-storey height if they were only looking at the report.
“We just want to be clear as to what council has given first reading to.”
Many on council were surprised about the eight-storey designation, saying several changes to reports and attachments in agenda packages caused confusion.
“With something this large we need to understand all the details,” Coun. Noel Muller stressed, “and we need to have them clearly before us in a way that doesn’t change a day or an hour before the meeting.”
Coun. Darnelda Siegers said the various reports were hard for council to follow as they weren’t numbered and revisions weren’t tracked, so she asked staff to pay extra attention to that in the future.
Vance said staff realized the “discrepancies” while getting together all the various studies and reports on the project in an effort to bring a complete package to council so a public hearing could be scheduled.
A motion was put on the floor to amend the resolution passed on April 6 for SSC Properties to include the eight-storey designation and other “minor edits,” and it passed.
Council also discussed sending the project to public hearing, with Siegers wanting to schedule a public hearing within the next few weeks while the proponents concurrently finish their work on studies requested by council. Milne said scheduling a public hearing before all the paperwork is in was a bad idea.
“There’s work that the proponent needs to do that will complete those reports and as soon as that’s done we can move it to public hearing,” Milne said.
“Setting the date in advance of that simply runs the risk that those reports will not be complete and the work that needs to be done will not be done.”
SSC Properties has been waiting to get to the public hearing stage for several months, and in August proponents made a special plea to council to speed up the process. Council said the application was moving along at the proper pace and denied the request.
