Sechelt council has approved a development agreement with Chapman Creek Holdings that will allow an expansion at the Big Maple mobile home park to go ahead without a hefty increase in development cost charges (DCCs).
The expansion would add 30 units to the park, but there are several outstanding requirements to be met before council can adopt the zoning and official community plan (OCP) amendments needed for the project.
New, higher DCCs took effect in Sechelt on Feb. 1, 2017 and development applications already in progress had a one-year grace period.
According to planning department staff, if the Big Maple project doesn’t have zoning and OCP changes in place by Feb. 1, 2018, it will cost the developer an extra $469,230. The staff report says those extra costs “would reduce the feasibility of this proposal proceeding” and added that having the project go ahead would also help the Habitat for Humanity development on the other side of Highway 101 and add protections to the Chapman Creek riparian area.
The report also says a development agreement would allow the adoption of the amendments while securing a guarantee that all the so-called “conditions of adoption” are met before the work begins.
Coun. Noel Muller said his vote on the zoning and OCP was likely to hinge on the approved sewage system design. “We’re not going to get a chance, if we do it this way, to see that in advance.”
Community planner Aaron Thompson said Vancouver Coastal Health, which has the final say on the sewer system, has received a design that meets its requirements.
Coun. Alice Lutes said that while she welcomed the anticipated addition of 30 units of lower cost housing the Big Maple expansion would bring, she’s disappointed that it will remain an age-restricted development. “The [higher] DCC alone would increase those by about $15,000 a unit, so it might make a big difference,” she said.
Council voted unanimously in favour of the development agreement. The zoning and OCP amendments, which have already passed third reading, will go to a final vote at a special council meeting Jan. 31 in order to meet the Feb. 1 deadline.
Thompson told councillors that there are three other approvals pending that could trigger higher DCCs if they don’t go through by deadline, but they’re all simple subdivisions that require only staff sign-off without a council vote.
