After a capacity crowd filled an open house meeting Monday night, largely challenging the latest Gospel Rock neighbourhood plan's vision to develop the waterfront, a new idea is emerging: buy it.
The Gospel Rock refinement working committee met for a debriefing Tuesday morning and passed a motion for Art Phillips, the property owners' representative on the committee, to approach the owner of the waterfront lot and explore "various options including acquisition of the waterfront land for the community."
Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk, who floated the idea, said the goal would be to purchase the waterfront land and turn it over to a third-party steward for nature conservancy.
"What if we took areas of the waterfront and also the upland slopes and we put them in some form of protection with a third party?" Janyk asked in a later interview.
Janyk said if there is enough drive at the community level, leadership from the Town and agreement from the property owners, there is a reasonable chance it could work to the satisfaction of all.
"Let's pull all the community groups together and see if there is interest in purchasing the property," he said. "It's going to take the adversarial nature of what's been happening over the last few years and turn it into a collaborative process, which is exactly where it should be anyways. It might work. I don't know, but we have to give it a try."
Janyk said if the community embraces the idea, the Town will likely be one of the first to contribute, but other groups and governments like the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA) and Sunshine Coast Regional District should expect to be approached for help as well.
"They key message here is you've got to find a solution that works for the community, and also works for the property owners. If you can find that compromise, then I think there might be an opportunity here, but to do that, it will mean co-operation and collaboration from all interested parties."
Janyk said a conservancy trust run by a third party or provincial or federal park administrator would be necessary because the Town of Gibsons simply does not have the tools to run a conservation area. He said designating it as a park is simply not practical for the Town's resources or needs.
Janyk said the plan is contingent on successful negotiations with the property's owner and it is far too early to begin speculating about cost or how much fundraising would need to be done.
Other motions passed at the committee meeting Tuesday were for an updated traffic study to be done in response to concerns about traffic the Gospel Rock neighbourhood would generate. Janyk said concerns the development would produce thousands of trips up Mahon Road or Pratt Road per hour are unfounded and the study should help show that.
"We're going to refine the traffic data so that people get a better understanding of what we're talking about should things go to full build out," Janyk said.
The committee also resolved to have the owners bring back a series of design sketches for how development on the uplands area of Gospel Rock might look from various vantage points around town. The goal, Janyk said, would be to have the "least amount of visual impact from all perspectives that we can provide."
Monday night's meeting at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre saw much of the familiar consternation around the future of Gospel Rock in addition to waterfront development. The draft plan, as presented, would allow for about 12 homes to be built on opposite ends of the waterfront.
Gibsons director of planning Chris Marshall stressed that all the land around Gospel Rock is already zoned for single-family homes and that failure to produce a neighbourhood plan will result in the loss of the Town's ability to shape development or save more than five per cent green space.
"It is a democratic process, but at a certain point, the rights of the property owners to develop their properties to the zoning that they presently have will eventually come forward," Marshall said.
Attendees generally agreed there should be some form of a plan for Gospel Rock as opposed to just having single-family homes put up at the developers discretion, but calls for a total ban on development got the loudest applause.
Other issues like density, infrastructure, traffic and concerns over the validity of past environmental reports on Gospel Rock were brought up by attendees as well. There was a general concern that the tradeoffs the Town has made with developers for density and green space have not been to the local ecology or community's advantage.
"I realize that negotiation always has to take place, but I think the Town is in excellent position to get a much better deal here," said Dan Bouman, executive director of the SCCA.
The Gospel Rock refinement working committee is scheduled to meet again on July 12 at 9 a.m. at Gibsons town hall.
