Gibsons council voted 3-2 to move forward to public hearing on a bylaw updating the official community plan (OCP), with the majority rejecting a laundry list of proposed amendments introduced by Coun. Dan Bouman at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Calling them recommendations made by the OCP steering committee that weren’t part of the draft, Bouman presented nine items to council that he said should be included, ranging from density provisions to an economic study to demographic data, beach asset points and two missing streams.
Coun. Lee Ann Johnson supported Bouman’s request, saying council had not been given the opportunity to consider the committee’s final recommendations.
“It was a very rushed process,” Johnson said.
But Coun. Charlene SanJenko, who sat on the committee with Bouman, Mayor Wayne Rowe and citizen members, said she attended the final meeting last month and felt the committee came to “a fair amount of agreement” in the end.
“At the end of the meeting, I felt that our committee came to an agreement with what we were happy to see at the end of this update, and I stand by that,” SanJenko said.
Rowe said the committee, which represented different views in the community, did not make final recommendations, as such.
“There were some members that had some ideas that they would like to see incorporated, but it wasn’t supported by all members.”
The steering committee, Rowe added, “was just one small part of the process” of updating the OCP, which included extensive public consultation.
Coun. Gerry Tretick said he was surprised to have so many items “dropped on our lap just before second and third reading.”
“At the 11th hour, you, an individual, feel we should suddenly make changes,” Tretick told Bouman. “I don’t buy that.”
Director of planning Andre Boel said some of the provisions that Bouman claimed were removed from the OCP had never been in the plan.
The public hearing is set for Oct. 21 at 5 p.m.
