Coun. Darnelda Siegers questioned last week whether it was legal for council to deny SSC Properties to hook up to the District of Sechelt sewer system.
On April 6, Sechelt council denied SSC’s request to be included in the Urban Containment Boundary, which would have enabled the 170-hectare property between Porpoise Bay Provincial Park and Sandy Hook to connect to sewer.
But at the April 20 regular council meeting, Siegers said the official community plan (OCP) and the 2000 Liquid Waste Management Plan (LWMP) both call for the SSC property to be hooked up to Sechelt’s new sewer treatment plant.
“Given that we’re not connecting them, I don’t want us to be in a position where we could have a legal challenge,” Siegers said.
The OCP, she added, states that council is to follow its LWMP, so council’s recent decision to deny SSC a sewer connection could require an amendment to the OCP.
“I’d rather have a legal opinion on that,” she said.
Mayor Bruce Milne said the OCP is “just a guideline” that council isn’t bound by and that “the plans and guidelines of 2000 and 2001, which were adopted for a particular development, were surpassed by a number of amendments and new plans and subdivision plans.
“However,” Milne added, “if you would prefer to have a staff report with reference to legal advice on that, I’m sure we can spend a few thousand dollars to do that, and I’ll ask staff to follow up on that.”
CAO Tim Palmer suggested a resolution would be a better course of action, and Siegers crafted one.
She moved that council ask staff to “get legal counsel with regards to the line in our OCP that says the stage 2 liquid waste management plan guides long-term planning for sewage collection and treatment, and whether or not with the motion that’s passed we require an amendment to our OCP.”
Milne recommended council support the resolution so that a staff report could come back to council and then council could decide “how to follow that up.”
Siegers said that while she didn’t agree with the council decision to deny SSC connection to sewer, she brought up the issue because, “I don’t want to see us in a position where we’ve made a decision and it comes back and is challenged by somebody in the community and we haven’t dealt with it up front.
“I’d rather we deal with it and if we need to amend the OCP we do, to abide by the ruling that’s made by council. If we don’t then at least we know, and the community as well knows that we just move forward,” she said.
When the question about seeking legal advice was called, all but councillors Alice Lutes and Doug Wright were in favour and the motion passed.
