Other than asking the owners to move it a short distance away, there is no action that can be taken against a rusted-out vessel being used as a floating lumber mill near McNair Creek Park in West Howe Sound, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) planning staff said last week.
Responding to complaints about the MV Provider, which has been moored for weeks off the end of Dunham Road in the Hillside industrial area, SCRD staff said a Coast Guard investigation found no reason to take action against the vessel.
"While the MV Provider is in a visually poor state, it appears to be seaworthy in that it is floating high in the water with no evidence that it is sinking or of any materials leaking from it," senior planner David Rafael told the planning and development committee Feb. 14. "The vessel is not derelict, as it is in use."
The Provider is moored to a log piling about 75 metres offshore at low tide. Since it lies just inside an SCRD provincial water lease area, the SCRD can request the owners move it outside the lease boundaries.
Staff was directed to ask the owners to relocate the vessel.
Langdale appeal dropped
BC Ferries has dropped its property assessment appeal on 48 ferry terminals, including Langdale, after reaching an agreement with BC Assessment.
SCRD board chair Garry Nohr notified directors of the five-year agreement during the Feb. 14 planning and development committee meeting, noting the assessment on the terminal property will "stay the same" under the deal.
The ferry corporation had appealed the 2012 assessment for portions of the Langdale terminal that were worth about $26,000 in tax revenue to the SCRD.
It was part of a flurry of appeals that followed the B.C. property assessment appeal board's ruling last November in favour of dropping the Horseshoe Bay terminal's assessment from almost $48 million to $20, retroactive to 2010. The deal reinstates the Horseshoe Bay assessment at just over $47 million and withdraws all past appeals.
Dog attacks up
Last year saw an increase in the number of dog attacks reported to the SCRD, said Peter Longhi, chief building inspector and bylaw manager.
In 2012, Longhi said, "we experienced a higher than normal level of dog attacks a total of 18 attacks, nine of which resulted in injury to the dog or the owner. There were also two destruction orders for vicious dogs this year."
Year-end stats also showed 102 complaints of dogs at large and 35 noise complaints.
