Gibsons strata owners seemed satisfied with a decision to split the new water meter rate in each strata development among all the residents housed there.
Strata owners have been working with the Town of Gibsons the past few weeks to air their concerns and to try to come to an amicable solution. It appears that solution was made at Tuesday's corporate services meeting.
Council was looking at sending one large water bill to each of the strata developments, as installing a meter in individual units was too costly and, in some cases, too difficult a task. With that option, it would then have been up to the individual strata councils to find a way to equitably distribute the cost among their residents.
Strata owners voiced their opposition to that plan at a Nov. 19 meeting with Town of Gibsons staff, saying it would be difficult to collect water usage fees from delinquent unit holders with the one bill system. It was also felt that the collection of water fees should be the duty of the Town of Gibsons, not strata councils.
About 60 members of the public came to Tuesday's meeting to again voice their concerns.
"Obviously, the only totally fair way to bill would be to give each strata unit an individual meter. But failing that, option four is the only fair and equitable solution," strata owner Bev Burgoyne told the committee.
Option four would see Town of Gibsons staff create a billing system for each individual unit based upon equally dividing the total metered use for each strata complex. According to staff, the option would create additional work as individual accounts would have to be set up, tracked and manually billed.
"Option four seems to me to be the most sensible option for the existing stratas," said Coun. LeeAnn Johnson, adding council will have to decide how to meter new strata developments as they are built.
After some discussion, committee members decided to recommend council support option four, to the satisfaction of the assembled crowd.
The recommendation will now go forward to council for further discussion and hopefully a final decision at the next regular meeting of council stated for Dec. 7.
