Sechelt’s planning and community development committee is recommending a temporary use permit for a kayaking outfitter in the Tuwanek area, despite the planning department’s suggestion that it be denied until a more complete application, including a contaminated sites profile, is submitted.
Pedals and Paddles has been operating on the property, which it leases from the development company Publico, for the past five years
Recreational use is not included in the land’s existing zoning, and municipal planner Angela Letman told the Nov. 22 meeting of the committee that they’ve been encouraging the company to apply for the temporary use permit since 2014, when the district received a complaint.
“Once we’ve had a complaint, we have to start looking into things,” she explained.
The land is a former log sort, previously owned by Jackson Brothers and Unifor, and Letman said that means it falls under the province’s contaminated sites regulations and a site profile is needed before any other use can be allowed.
She said a profile should have been completed in 2003 when the property was transferred from Interfor to Publico, but the district has no record of it.
Pedals and Paddles owner Laurie Reid told the committee that there are no properly zoned waterfront properties on that part of Sechelt Inlet, and she and her business partners feel some of the conditions are unnecessary.
“I appreciate that the planning department has a job to do and ensuring public safety is paramount, as it is for Pedals and Paddles… We’ve been on the site since 2012 [with] over 15,000 customers who have come to no harm in this time, and the site is largely used as a parking lot,” she said.
Reid also said the business creates seasonal jobs and economic spin-offs.
In the end the committee recommended approval of a temporary use permit with conditions around washroom facilities, lighting, water and garbage disposal as well as a $10,000 bond “guaranteeing that the site will be decommissioned and cleaned to its natural state after expiry of the temporary use permit.”
