Sechelt council has agreed to support a grant application to redevelop the parking, traffic and green space around municipal hall and the public library to create an expanded gathering place to promote reconciliation.
The unanimous vote, which occurred at a June 16 council meeting, makes the District of Sechelt a sponsor in the project, while the Journeying Together in Partnership reconciliation group would ultimately apply for the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative grant to cover up to $250,000 for the redevelopment.
The area at 5500 Shorncliffe Ave., known as Block 7, is zoned as C-2 commercial and owned by the District of Sechelt. The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) owns the Sechelt Aquatic Centre building and leases the property.
A Journeying Together in Partnership report, which summarized eight reconciliation project plans for the municipality and on shíshálh Nation lands, noted the “campus of public buildings” – including municipal hall, the library, pool and Seaside Centre – “has developed in phases without the benefit of an overall site Master Plan,” which has led to complaints and problems with traffic and parking.
A master plan would be needed to improve those problems and to free up space to expand the gathering area south of the library, according to the report.
Shíshálh Nation council recommended the district “explore giving the gathering space a she shashishalhem name.”
The capital cost for the project, including a site master plan, is estimated at $236,000 – however, the report said a master plan would “add scope, complications and additional cost.”
At a June 2 council meeting when the idea was proposed, Hackett Park was discussed as an alternative site for the gathering place, with Coun. Matt McLean strongly supporting that option since it’s listed as a central gathering place in the 2018 parks master plan.
At the June 16 meeting, McLean asked Mayor Darnelda Siegers why she still supported Block 7.
Siegers said several grant-funded projects are already underway at Hackett Park, and funding rules don’t allow for grant stacking – using more than one grant to complete a project.
She said key stakeholders RCMP and Sechelt Public Library, which occupy buildings in the vicinity, wish for improvements to the area, and the Sechelt Farmers’ and Artisans’ Market, which is held on Cowrie Street, has also expressed interest in a redesign, with a view to relocating.
“[It] wouldn’t be next year the Farmers’ Market would move, but they recognize their time in that space is limited,” said Siegers, citing the Trellis long-term care facility construction and transit expansion.
She said the project, including a master plan, would allow the district to do the preliminary roadworks needed to consolidate the space.
“Would this give us everything that we need? Probably not,” she said, “but I think this would give us the foundation.”
The redesign could also impact Spirit Square, a public gathering space outside the Seaside Centre and the site of a historical monument constructed by artist Gordon Halloran to commemorate the 2015 wildfire and death of tree faller John Phare.
In her report introducing the project, Siegers said the monument “may need to be relocated and preserved.”
Coun. Alton Toth asked about implications for digging up Spirit Square more generally, suggesting council clear the project with senior government, in case it wouldn’t fund a redo of the space.
Siegers said staff didn’t find any indications revamping it would pose a problem.
Toth noted Spirit Square was funded by the province in the late 2000s to celebrate the 150th anniversary of B.C.’s founding as a crown colony, “so it is ironic and not lost on me the idea of actually ripping out the Spirit Square to facilitate something that is more in tune of reconciliation.”
Other projects presented in the final report with firmer budgets included:
• Rock to Rock Walk interpretive signage along Trail Bay for $106,000, with shíshálh Nation as sponsor.
• The building of a gazebo on the pier at Friendship Park, with a new estimate of $123,000, to be sponsored by Sunshine Coast Rotary.
• The removal of physical boundaries, installation of walkways along the borders between shíshálh Nation land and District of Sechelt lands with two phases costing $106,000 and $157,000, to be sponsored by the Sechelt Downtown Business Association.
• Public art installations at an estimated cost of $16,000
• A community garden, estimated to cost $29,000, financed through fundraising.
• The installation of a carving shed, expected to cost $535,000, financing and project scope to be determined.
