Chemical storage facility
Sechelt councillors voted at their Oct. 3 meeting to change a recommendation from the public works committee on the contract to design a chemical storage facility for the Water Resource Centre.
The district needs to build the facility to meet WorkSafe BC Regulations around chemical use and storage.
The committee had recommended awarding a contract of up to $47,500 to Brookside MCI to design the new facility, looking at three possible options: locate the chemical storage facility in the existing shop and move other activities; locate it in a new building; co-locate it within the existing maintenance and spare parts shop.
Director of finance Doug Stewart clarified that staff have already rejected the third option, co-locating the workshop and storage facility in the existing building.
“There really wouldn’t be space inside the building to ever house both areas… It wouldn’t be prudent to spend money getting a design on a third option that we’ve already determined really wouldn’t work.”
Council voted unanimously to request designs for the two other options only, which is expected to save about $8,000 in design costs.
Microbreweries and distilleries zoning
Sechelt council has now adopted a new bylaw amendment that will allow microbreweries or distilleries to set up shop in the downtown commercial zone (C2) and allow them to have tasting rooms on site.
The only restrictions in the zoning are that the floor area of the brewing or distilling operation does not take up more than 50 per cent, or a maximum of 110 sq. metres, of the total floor space of the location and that the production facilities effluent be reviewed to see if pre-treatment is required before it can be dumped into the sewage system.
Mayor Bruce Milne said the changes are a good first step and could lead to similar changes in the other commercial zones. “I think everyone is looking forward to realizing some of the positive things we’ve seen in other areas on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.
