Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish will be asking council to reconsider its decision to reject an application for a temporary use permit (TUP) to designate a North Road property as an RV park.
Approximately seven mobile homes already exist on the site, even though the property, located at the corner of Hillcrest and North Road, isn’t zoned for that use.
“I feel that council needs to fully understand the changes that the owner agreed to and the impact that not approving the TUP will have on the lives of the residents, including children, who occupy the seven existing units,” said Beamish in an email to Coast Reporter after the regular council meeting on June 2, when council voted down the application.
Councillors Annemarie De Andrade and David Croal opposed issuing the TUP, while Coun. Aleria Ladwig and Beamish voted in favour, so that the motion was defeated by the tie vote. Coun. Stafford Lumley was not present at the meeting.
“I certainly would not be in favour of forcing people under these circumstances to relocate in our community. It’s tough enough as it is,” said Beamish before the vote occurred.
The TUP was subject to a number of conditions, including the installation of privacy screening, garbage management to deter wildlife, a rental cap of $500 per pad, and security bonds to cover the cost of remediating the site and to look at impacts to the Town’s sanitary sewer system.
The Gibsons Fire Department asked for a fire safety plan and to ensure that fire apparatus is accessible.
Staff had recommended approving the TUP, despite receiving seven opposing comments from nearby residents out of the 10 total responses. People were concerned it would lower property values, and about the unsightly appearance of the park. Concerns were also expressed that the TUP would allow for up to 12 RVs, more than the seven there already.
Neighbours’ concerns and fire risk were the main reasons Croal said he couldn’t support temporarily designating the site as a temporary RV park.
He also cited concerns about pet control, adding that it was unclear whether tenancy rights would conflict with the three-year term of the TUP.
“I’m all for affordable housing ... but I have serious reservations about what the implications of this are going to be,” he said.
De Andrade said she couldn’t support the TUP for similar reasons. “We will bring more people to this RV [park] and then what will we do with them? Say sorry, time’s up?”
The applicant was invited to speak at the meeting and said he wanted to build a large rental apartment building on the site, and that he intended for construction to begin well before the TUP expired in three years. “It’s not going to be a permanent RV park,” he said. “I’m looking to put up a considerable-sized rental building. That’s my goal.”
He also raised the issue of housing security for low-income residents in Gibsons. “There are tons of people living in RVs because they have no other option. And the type of people at my place, they have no other option. They have nowhere to go,” he said. “If they’re not there, you tell me where they’re going, because there’s nowhere.”
Ladwig asked why the applicant wanted to increase the number of RVs to 12 if he plans to remove them in three years. He responded that it’s because he had been turning down requests to rent a pad on a monthly basis “for quite awhile.”
Beamish asked that residents be informed about the three-year term of the TUP, that it be non-renewable, and that the maximum number of RVs allowed be limited to seven, which Ladwig had requested.
The item is expected to come forward at the next regular council meeting scheduled for June 16.
If the TUP is ultimately rejected, CAO Emanuel Machado said the Town will resume its bylaw enforcement and continue working with the property owner “to try to find a positive solution for the site.”
