Gibsons council has found a way to allow a new well to be drilled on Chaster Road, but stopped short of extending that option to five other lots in the Gospel Rock area.
At its March 19 meeting, council gave first reading to an amended bylaw that would allow the owner of Lot 31 to apply for a variance permit to drill a well.
The owner applied in 2011 for a well-drilling permit and since then the Town, which has a prohibition on the drilling of new wells, has been exploring ways to connect the property to a water supply.
Director of engineering Dave Newman said staff recently met with the consultants involved in the aquifer-mapping project and they "jumped at the chance to put a well there, to be used as a monitoring well for the aquifer."
Most councillors said they could support the bylaw for that purpose, but questioned why other properties were included.
"I have a real problem extending this to all the other properties," Coun. Lee Ann Johnson said. "If the value is monitoring, I see no value."
Johnson also pointed out -and other councillors concurred - that Lot 31 was the only affected property that has had the same owner since before the current bylaw banning well drilling was adopted.
"To me, if we proceeded on this single lot, to allow this well for monitoring purposes, I can live with that. But not with these other properties," she said.
While the option had been extended to other properties in the proposed bylaw, Newman said each property owner would have to apply for a variance and the decision in each case would be up to council.
Coun. Dan Bouman, however, voted against first reading of the amended bylaw, saying even one well was unnecessary because property owners have the option of using rain-harvesting systems.
"The existing policy has served the town well and I haven't heard a compelling argument that it should be changed," Bouman said.
As for the aquifer-monitoring component, Bouman acknowledged there were holes in the data, but added: "If we asked where would we need more data, it wouldn't be this site."
Newman said he agreed the fewer holes in the aquifer, the better.
"But I was told it's more of a risk to have less data than another hole," he said. "This is definitely one of the areas they would like additional data from."
Mayor Wayne Rowe said he had difficulty "having property owners in town being completely prohibited from doing anything, even building a house on their property."
But in the end Rowe suggested council remove the reference to other lots from the bylaw. "Those property owners in the future might want to come forward with some rain harvest proposals," he said.
The public hearing is set for April 16 at 5:30 p.m.
