Developers of Seaglass came to the Jan. 19 Gibsons committee of the whole meeting to seek council’s blessing to extend the foreshore and approve second reading for their six-storey waterfront development on Marine Drive, but they received a cool reception from council.
Developers want to extend the foreshore by three metres in front of their property in order to accommodate the proposed building and a canal meant to deal with storm water. However, a foreshore extension would have to be approved by the Town and the province, as the foreshore is Crown land.
Before the Seaglass delegation started, Coun. Silas White noted he felt the process of pitching the foreshore extension to council before all the conditions set out at first reading were met was “odd.”
“We put forward very clear conditions on first reading of the Seaglass development and it seems there are different opinions of whether that’s been met, and personally I thought that the next time this development came to us would be because those conditions had been met by the professional opinion of our staff and that’s not the case right now. So it seems a little awkward to me,” White said.
Developers argued they had met the four conditions, which were to agree in principle on a cash contribution for affordable housing, to confirm through a hydrogeological peer review that the project would not adversely affect the Gibsons aquifer, to present an updated site plan showing the project located entirely within the proposed property boundaries and to present a storm water conveyance concept that is supported by the Town.
“We believe that we have completed those conditions,” said development consultant Eugene Evanetz.
He said that after several meetings with Town staff spanning months, the developers believed they had an agreement with the Town about how to deal with storm water.
“Certainly the last two or three meetings with staff they have agreed that we will control all the storm water onto our property and exit it into the ocean. We had agreement on that and I don’t understand why that becomes an issue,” Evanetz said.
He said there was also agreement on going forward with an aquifer drilling program.
“I should say that we have Western consultants who have actually provided a report stating that there’s no problem with the aquifer under the Seaglass project, and the only reason another drill program is requested is the Town’s engineer wanted to have a final drill to confirm, although he said it was a very low probability there’s a problem,” Evanetz said.
He said a cash contribution for affordable housing had been agreed upon and that what could be provided by way of an updated site plan has been given to staff.
“We’ve provided a site plan, but of course the issue is that we can’t provide a final site plan because we are making an application and a proposal to extend the property onto Crown land, and until that is satisfied, we can’t provide a final site plan. We have provided all the information other than that to staff,” Evanetz said.
Developer Tim Langenberg said he felt the conditions had been satisfied and that he needed approval for the foreshore extension to make the project possible.
“We really need to get past this issue because this is critical for our project. We can’t go forward without this,” he said.
A staff report slated to be dealt with at the same meeting suggested the foreshore extension was a no go for the Town.
The report recommended council decline the proposal based on possible future issues with sea level rise, the OCP policy that discourages privatization of the public foreshore and the fact that the proponent “should be able to design a project that fits within existing property lines.”
“Staff has strong concerns about setting a precedent where filling in a part of the Crown foreshore is supported merely to create land for private development,” the staff report read.
However, council didn’t deal with any staff reports relating to Seaglass on the Jan. 19 committee agenda, at the request of the developers’ lawyer.
“We actually had a request from your legal counsel to either strike these considerations, these reports today, or basically just to receive them. And so quite frankly, unless staff wants to add anything, I’m going to ask for a motion to actually just receive our staff reports and leave it at that for today,” said Mayor Wayne Rowe.
All were in favour of receiving the staff reports and the delegation was cut short by the mayor.
“We’re only receiving those reports. We’re not doing anything with them today. I encourage you to enter back into close discussions with our staff and we will be hearing from you again on this topic,” Rowe told the Seaglass delegation.
