Some small business owners in Sechelt's newly expanded business improvement area are crying foul and threatening to leave Sechelt over the $525 parcel tax being collected by the Sechelt Downtown Business Association.
Paul Wright, of Coast Progressive Physiotherapy, told council at the April 6 meeting that the annual tax is too high for small businesses to pay, and said it is not equitable, as the entire mall is charged the same $525 parcel tax, but it is distributed among the many merchants in the building.
"As a business owner, I just find this unacceptable, and ultimately it's forcing professionals to consider leaving your community," Wright said.
While councillors sympathized with Wright, they noted there is nothing they can do about the tax until the bylaw instituting it ends in five years time.
OCP hearing
Some slight changes to maps and wording within Sechelt's new official community plan (OCP) will force the OCP back to a second public hearing.
Director of planning Ray Parfitt said District lawyers advised the OCP will have to undergo a second public hearing to avoid a challenge in court at a later date.
Some councillors wanted to seize the opportunity to change a parcel of land dubbed agricultural land reserve up Field Road to an industrial designation in the OCP. The change was meant to encourage industrial businesses to set up shop in the area. But a tie vote on the issue quashed the request.
A new public hearing on the amended OCP will be held in the coming weeks.
Community forest
Coun. Keith Thirkell reported that the Sunshine Coast Regional District recently met with the Sechelt Indian Band (SIB), and the issue of Sechelt's community forest licence came up. The District is currently applying for a 25-year extension of their forest licence, and Thirkell said the SIB raised concerns over future harvesting in the watershed.
"They're also concerned about any logging in the watersheds of Gray and Chapman, but the director for Pender Harbour wondered if that also applied to the watersheds in Pender Harbour that the Band is logging. So that changed the tone of the meeting," Thirkell said.
While the District has the ability to take the watershed cutblocks out of the community forest, Thirkell noted there is nothing stopping other logging companies from coming in to harvest.
Mayor Darren Inkster said if the District were to give up the cutblocks in the watershed, they would want replacement of harvestable forest elsewhere.
"There's no indication of replacement there. We know we can do that, we just won't log it, but we need replacement. We've asked that a number of times," he said.
Dark skies
At their April 13 committee of the whole meeting, councillors accepted a proposal from BC Hydro to replace existing drop lens streetlights that are leased from the hydro company with flat lens lights. The new lights will be installed as bulbs burn out on the existing streetlights.
Currently all the streetlights mounted on wooden poles within the District are lights leased from BC Hydro. These lights are mainly located in Sechelt's older neighbourhoods and along Highway 101.
The project will not cost the District anything and the new streetlights will be dark-sky friendly and more economical to run.
It was noted that the change in lighting fixtures fits nicely with Sechelt's current move towards creating a dark-sky friendly community.
