The petition claiming to have 2,100 signatures in opposition to the George Hotel and Residences – which was presented at Gibsons council on Sept. 1 – has been debunked by Town resident Joan Beck.
Beck presented her findings to Town council at the meeting on Sept. 15.
“The presenter claimed to have more than 2,100 signatures,” Beck said. “However, on the pages submitted to council there were only 277 from Gibsons residents, 164 from other Coast residents, 113 from other Canadian residents and seven from other parts of the world.”
Beck counted a total of 581 signatures, 20 of which were illegible or had incomplete information.
The remaining 1,549 signatures, Beck said, came from an online petition on Avaaz.org
“This can include anyone signing once or multiple times, with absolutely no verification,” Beck said. “In fact, this petition was started on Feb. 1, 2014 in Gibsons and online on Avaaz over 18 months ago.”
Beck also said the petition contained misleading information about the proposed George Hotel – for example, that the parking garage would puncture the aquifer.
Public consultation
A public consultation meeting for the proposed George Hotel has been scheduled for Sept. 24, at 5 p.m. at Elphinstone Secondary. This will be followed by a public hearing on Oct. 1 starting at 7 p.m. also at Elphinstone Secondary.
No councillors will be present at the public consultation. This was questioned by Gibsons resident Judy Bonkoff during an inquiry period.
“I wasn’t intending on attending that information meeting,” Coun. Jeremy Valeriote said in response. “I find it would be a very awkward position for a councillor to be answering questions on behalf of the proponent.”
Director of planning André Boel updated council on the development agreement for the George Hotel and Residences project.
“Typically, properties with a commercial assessment pay more taxes than residential assessed properties,” Boel said in his report. “Where things become complicated is when a hotel is stratified into separate real estate entities. In that case there are certain conditions where owners can request BC Assessment to apply a residential rather than commercial assessment.”
Boel proposed the use of a restrictive covenant that would give the Town assurances from the applicant regarding the operation of the proposed hotel.
Corporate officer Selina Williams explained this by saying that essentially it would stop the developer from turning the hotel into, for example, time-shares.
Boel also discussed the current terms of the development agreement between the Town and the developer. The terms have been discussed and agreed on in principle with the developer and will be brought back to council for third reading after the public hearing on Oct. 1.
Under the conditions of the development agreement, the developer will be required to contribute a little over $150,000 to affordable housing and a $100,000 amenity contribution. The Town will have full discretion for the use of the latter funds.
Winn Road would also be physically moved to be in line with the plaza of the proposed hotel, if the hotel is built. The Town would take ownership of the plaza for public use and, in exchange, the developer would be allowed to build a parking garage under Winn Road.
The public information session is scheduled for Sept. 24. The next meeting of council is on Oct. 6.
