The West Howe Sound official community plan (OCP) inched closer to third reading on Oct. 13 when Sunshine Coast Regional District directors dealt with two amendments that arose after the public hearing on the plan.
Directors at the planning and development committee meeting last Thursday moved two small changes to amend the wording of a policy regarding the future of the Terminal Forest Products water lease and to remove the future Langdale to Port Mellon bypass route from map three.
Directors felt it was too premature to map out the exact route of a future bypass and the wording change for the water lease is meant to leave room to explore reconfiguring the area to ease any incompatibility between residential and industrial uses in the future.
Staff noted the two amendments do not alter land use or density and can be changed without sending the plan out to another public hearing.
West Howe Sound director Lee Turnbull thanked staff for their excellent work on the OCP and it was forwarded to the board for third reading.
Roberts Creek OCP
Before moving the Roberts Creek OCP to the board for first reading, senior planner David Rafael highlighted the changes.
"One of the main changes has been to have an increased acknowledgement and honouring of the Sechelt and Squamish First Nations, whose traditional territory includes Roberts Creek," Rafael said.
The plan's vision and goals were also expanded to give a more modern view of how the community should be developed.
"Recognizing the strengths of environment, the strengths of the community, but also the desire to acknowledge maybe there's a need for greater sustainability, higher density towards the core if possible, and to maybe build on the strength of the commercial area, but again recognize that its not going to rival Sechelt or Gibsons," Rafael said.
Trying to bring more affordable housing to the area is also of importance in the plan.
There is a section that talks about how to make use of the community energy emissions plan and the need to link the policies of various documents like the transportation strategy plan and the 10 year SCRD master plan when it comes forward.
Roberts Creek director Donna Shugar dealt with numerous wording changes and small typographical errors in the document before the directors agreed to send it to first reading. Following first reading, the new OCP will be sent out for public consultation.
