Sechelt’s planning and community development committee is recommending a “Spectrum of Care” Official Community Plan (OCP) amendment move forward to first reading and a public hearing.
The idea of changing the OCP to deal with the Spectrum of Care grew out of the Trellis Seniors’ Services application to build a long-term care home on Derby Road. At the time, Mayor Bruce Milne said council needed to take a broader look at where in the community facilities that offer health care should be located.
The proposed OCP change would include broad definitions of Spectrum of Care facilities to include anything from home support to acute care hospitals.
The current draft says, “Medium to large scale Spectrum of Care facilities should be located near transit, recreational opportunities, and other services, such as shopping and medical centres. Ideally, a Spectrum of Care facility should be integrated with transit, recreational opportunities, and other services, such as shopping and medical centres.”
It also says those facilities should first be considered for property up for redevelopment as opposed to vacant land.
The Trellis proposal was for vacant land zoned RR1 (Rural).
If the OCP goes on to be adopted unchanged, the Downtown Centre zones would be changed to include institutional uses, and assisted living facilities would be considered a residential land use rather than institutional.
It would also reflect a preference to keep Spectrum of Care facilities located within the urban containment boundary and in areas serviced by sanitary sewer.
Coun. Darnelda Siegers said at the committee’s Feb. 28 meeting that the district should make sure it’s clear to the public where zones like Downtown Centre, and Civic, Institutional and Utilities are.
“I don’t know where those are in the community,” she said. “I think, as a community, if we’re looking at doing this bylaw, we would need that information presented.”
Committee chair Noel Muller said he was happy with the work done so far, and was looking forward to hearing from the committee.
“This is an important OCP amendment and something I suspect a lot of people are going to be very interested in. The Seniors Planning Table has done some fantastic work in our community getting us ready for this and we know, in terms of our demographics, this is something that needs to be dealt with.”
The recommendation was due to go to full council March 7, after Coast Reporter’s deadline.
