As Sunshine Coast Regional District directors and staff approached the SCRD’s offices at Field Road on May 11, they were met by more than 20 protesters.
The group of Halfmoon Bay residents is against the recent decision to not rebuild a community hall at Coopers Green and build a new facility at Connor Park instead.
One of the protesters, Jeff Muckle, said they are members of Friends of Connor Park. He said he’s lived close to Connor Park for more than 30 years and is against having a community hall there. The nearby school has been used as a community meeting place before, so he sees no reason to add another building there.
“I would like to see the board rescind their motion to have the hall at Connor Park and get back to providing it at Coopers Green…” Muckle said.
Friends of Connor Park mailed out a flyer to 1,250 mailboxes in Halfmoon Bay, and have collected around 730 signatures on change.org.
Muckle identified his main concern is environmental, specifically for the white pines located in Connor Park. Other issues he listed include the lack of a master park plan, environmental study, shíshálh Nation input, and traffic increasing on top of the existing school traffic. Unlike the Coopers Green site, Muckle said Connor Park is not central in Halfmoon Bay.
People who made financial donations to the hall project when it was slated for Coopers Green have until June 30 to ask that those be returned or retained for the new project.
In late April, the Halfmoon Bay Community Association board of directors decided to ask for the funds being held in trust to be returned. Those funds include an original $140,000 donation plus interest and other following donations. Community association president Linda McMahon stressed in an interview that they have been given assurances that it would not have a detrimental impact on the association’s relationship with regional district staff.
“It in no way means that we don’t have any faith in the project. It just means that, given the option, we felt that we would ask for it to be returned. We would look and see how the project rolls out and then we would make a decision on re-donating it in the future,” McMahon said.
While the community association is “aware of the hard feelings,” McMahon said they hope as the project proceeds with studies and expert consultations, that some of the public's concerns will be alleviated.
During a committee of the whole meeting later on Thursday, Halfmoon Bay (Area B) director Justine Gabias addressed the protest.
“Thank you for coming, I am happy to see you and thank you for contacting us. The most important part of our work is to listen to you,” Gabias said.
“I understand the confusion and anxiety in the community and I do get that. We need to have a good conversation. We do need to remember we all want the same thing, to provide Halfmoon Bay with a great community hall.”
Four individuals from the audience asked questions or made comments at the end of the meeting. Directors received a staff report that was on the meeting agenda for information, but no additional motions were made. A project budget update is slated to be presented to the committee in July, after responses regarding the donations are assessed. Staff said there are no answers yet regarding changes to the project plan that relates to the $2 million grant from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
With files from Connie Jordison
