Gibsons council is sending a property owner back to the drawing board, after hearing arguments to reconsider a staff decision to deny a development permit.
Lot 22 on Burns Road is one of the few in that neighbourhood without a home on it, and the owners want to divert part of the storm water channel known as Goosebird Creek to create enough usable space for a building.
As it stands now, the creek meanders diagonally across the lot, and the owners’ plan calls for it to be rerouted to flow in a straight line across the top of the property, then along the side through a covered channel.
Garry Spencer is handling the development process for his son. He appeared before council Nov. 1 to argue that their plan should be allowed to go ahead, based on previous provincial approvals. He also claimed the Town is overstepping its authority by trying to impose too many conditions aimed at achieving the Town’s goal of rehabilitating the creek instead of sticking to the letter of its riparian area regulations.
“We don’t have to contribute anything [to rehabilitating the creek]. All we have to do is not harm anything,” he said. “The name of the game is not to harm this watercourse.”
Mayor Wayne Rowe asked Spencer if the disagreement boils down to whether the section along the edge of the property should be left open or if it can be covered. “Absolutely,” responded Spencer.
A report from Andre Boel, the Town’s director of planning, said, “In staff’s view, the proposed culverting of Goosebird Creek on Lot 22 Burns Road cannot be supported under the DPA #2 [Development Permit Area #2] objectives and guidelines. Legal counsel confirmed that this was a reasonable position to take.”
The report also said the earlier provincial approvals for the diversion did not include culverting, or covering the section running along the edge of the property.
Boel also told council that he believes a “win-win” solution is still possible that would leave a viable site for building and meet the Town’s objectives. “But supporting a culvert in this scenario sets a precedent for other sites [in DPA #2],” he added.
Councillors voted unanimously to consider the development permit application again, after Lot 22’s owners come back with a new plan, prepared by a qualified environmental professional, that includes revegetation and restoration without enclosing the watercourse.
“If it [leaving the watercourse open] was rendering the lot completely unusable, maybe we would be able to find some kind of compromise, but my understanding is the diversion was meant to make the lot usable, and I feel like we’ve flexed to a certain degree here to make it possible to build a house,” said Coun. Jeremy Valeriote. “I understand the frustration of not being able to get the solution a property owner wants, but I can’t support a covering [over the watercourse] when all the advice we’re getting from our staff and the province says that we really don’t have a lot of justification for covering this [watercourse].”
The Lot 22 development permit application has been playing out in the wider context of the Town’s proposal for a $300,000 project to realign and “naturalize” Goosebird Creek that included altering the course of the creek through Arrowhead Park so it would flow along the northern property line of Lot 22 and through a new “fish-friendly” culvert under Burns Road. Council has since endorsed a committee recommendation to focus for now on drafting a conceptual plan for creek work within Labonte Park (on the Shoal Bay side of Burns Road) that would “address improvements to habitat as well as storm water conveyance.”
