Eighty-five local citizens who attended public meetings and stakeholder meetings held by the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) in June have focused the proposed regional growth strategy (RGS) on two key issues: water and highways.
"Support for proceeding with an RGS was substantiated at three stakeholder meetings through informal voting," wrote consultant Vince Verlaan, facilitator and principal from HB Lanarc consultants, in a press release issued by the SCRD.
In total, two public meetings and three focused stakeholder meetings (on economic, environmental and social issues) were held in June. Water supply and protection was a fixture at most of the meetings, while transportation issues such as highway safety and traffic reduction came up multiple times. Many other issues were raised, including urban design and density, preservation of the agricultural land reserve (ALR) and a perceived bias towards development on the Coast. On the transportation front, efforts put forth by SCRD planners have paid off in securing $225,000 for an intermodal transportation study, recently approved by the Union of B.C. Municipalities from their gas tax grant program. The study could proceed in conjunction with the RGS or independently, said SCRD general manager of community services Paul Fenwick.
Elphinstone resident Suzanne Smart said the public meetings raise valid issues but said they've all been heard before by an increasingly-disinterested public.
"Essentially, what we saw was a severe lack of interest from the public," she said. "People look to their elected officials for decision making. We've studied the issue to death -all that's required now is bold leadership at the board level."
Smart, a member of various planning committees in Elphinstone over the years, made a presentation to the regional district encouraging them to resuscitate the RGS process in 2007. She noted the Vision 2020 plan and others initiated by the SCRD in past years appear to be gathering dust, despite "a great deal of time, money and effort," put towards them. The RGS process began in 2002, when regional issues to be addressed by such a plan were first identified. Support for an RGS surfaced again in 2006, as the Town of Gibsons embarked on a failed restructuring bid, which would have brought areas E and F into the fold. An updated report released in May shows a potential for the Coast to host a population of 71,154, if all residential-zoned areas in the various official community plans (OCPs) are fully built out. The strategy would focus mainly on developed areas of the Coast, not on Crown lands. A second elected officials meeting to discuss the public feedback on the RGS will take place sometime after the Nov. 15 municipal election and before Christmas.
