It has taken almost two years, dozens of meetings and studies and incremental changes over time, but Gibsons council now has a land use plan for Gospel Rock.
During a special committee-of-the-whole meeting Monday, councillors received the final report from Gospel Rock refinement working committee planner Michael Rosen and approved some final changes before agreeing to send the report to council to be ratified, which will begin the public process for creating a neighbourhood plan.
Rosen said the plan is the result of months of work trying to find common ground between many competing interests for the future of Gospel Rock.
"You can't accommodate all the interests, but you can be aware of all the interests. We listened to all the interests and we tried to find a balance between all the interests," he said.
The plan calls for 839 housing units made up of single-family homes, cluster housing, townhouses and apartments. There is some cluster housing proposed for shouldering areas of the waterfront, though council has agreed to facilitate a possible purchase of that area by community groups and other third parties. The Town is hosting a meeting on the matter at 11 a.m. on Dec. 6 at Town hall.
Another perennial issue with planning Gospel Rock has been road access. The committee's report concludes that access to the development will come via Chaster Road in the short-term and eventually a north/south connector road from Shaw Road will link the neighbourhood with Gibsons Way. The committee placed a cap of 300 housing units on the development until developers can secure a right-of-way with three property owners north of Gospel Rock.
Mayor Barry Janyk, along with Rosen, the rest of council and property owner representative Art Phillips, emphasized many times during the meeting that accepting the land use plan is by no means an indication that work is about to begin on new houses. The land use plan, rather, will be used as a "high-level planning document" for planning staff and council to work from when putting together a complete neighbourhood plan. Every rezoning, subdivision and building permit will still have to be agreed to by council on a case-by-case basis. Janyk described the land-use plan as "stratospheric."
Phillips noted that even with a plan, houses will only go up to meet consumer demand, which will take not years but decades.
"One thing that's very important for the public to keep in mind, the number of units we're talking about right now, realistically, is about a 30 to 40-year buildout - at best," he said.
Janyk said council has not yet designed the public consultation process for the neighbourhood plan, but promised it would be extensive.
Along with motions to take the plan to council, the committee voted to disband the Gospel Rock select advisory committee and the refinement committee, as both groups have fulfilled their mandate.
