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New zoning idea addresses ‘realities’ of living on Coast

Planning advisory groups and the public are going to get a chance to weigh in on an idea for a new zoning regulation that could allow for more hobby farms and home-based businesses on rural properties on the Sunshine Coast.
Rural Dynamic
A proposed subdivision in Halfmoon Bay has led directors to consider a new zoning bylaw regulation called the Dynamic Rural Zone.

Planning advisory groups and the public are going to get a chance to weigh in on an idea for a new zoning regulation that could allow for more hobby farms and home-based businesses on rural properties on the Sunshine Coast.

The idea of a new “dynamic rural zone” was brought to the planning committee last Thursday by Nicole Huska, representing Secret Cove Heights Development Inc., which is seeking to create a subdivision in Halfmoon Bay.

The subdivision would be located on nearly 13 hectares at the end of Stephen’s Way in Halfmoon Bay, north of Highway 101, edging Crown land that was deforested 20 years ago.

The property is currently zoned as Rural Two and designated as Resource under the Halfmoon Bay Official Community Plan (OCP). Those regulations allow for a subdivision with up to three four-hectare lots, each with up to three houses and one auxiliary dwelling, for a maximum of 12 dwellings.

The proposed subdivision would double that density, with the property divided into 12 to 14 lots that would be 0.8 hectares in size. Each parcel would have a single-family house and an auxiliary dwelling. The development would have on-site wells and septic.

On top of that, the proposed dynamic rural zone would allow for hobby farms, would increase the number of employees allowed to work at a property if it had a home-based business, and it would increase the combined floor area of auxiliary buildings. “Landscape buffers” would protect each lot from its neighbours.

Huska, who appeared at the March 14 meeting, suggested the rural zoning designation is needed because none of the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) zoning bylaws are equipped to address “the realities of living on the Sunshine Coast.”

She said the motivation for increasing density and changing the permitted uses originated from her own experience working from home on the Sunshine Coast, and that “new economy models” that rely on e-commerce mean people use land differently.
Her and her spouse live on four-and-a-half acres and are using a smaller portion of that land to develop a market garden. They also run an e-commerce business that involves transforming salvaged maple into guitar tops. Both of them are self-employed.

“These are all things that can be done if you are entrepreneurial, but we are in conflict of bylaw 310,” said Huska. “If we wanted to hire employees to grow our business, we wouldn’t be able to, so this was the purpose of the dynamic rural zone.”

Largely sympathetic to the idea, directors chose a cautious route, opting to refer the report to the Halfmoon Bay Advisory Planning Commission (APC) and all other rural area APCs for feedback. They also asked the applicant to hold a public information meeting regarding the proposed rural dynamic zone and implications – usually that happens only after a proposed development has made it past first reading.

Halfmoon Bay director and chair Lori Pratt commended the proposal, calling it “innovative.” Pratt said she has been in contact with Huska since the application came forward in 2017 – back then it was not supported by the Halfmoon Bay APC because it didn’t fit with the OCP.

Elphinstone director Donna McMahon said, “I love everything about this proposal,” since it’s “reflective of what’s really happening out there,” but was hesitant about its location, citing concern of “sprawling into the resource zone.”

She said a buffer would be needed to reduce conflict between residential land and land used for resource extraction, such as logging. She also said she would prefer to have a regional growth strategy and land use plan in place before making changes that run contrary to OCPs.

For Andreas Tize, director for Roberts Creek, the proposal would see an increase in density without the amenities in place to support it, such as public transportation. “Here we are trying to address climate change and we are creating suburbia,” he said.

Sechelt director Darnelda Siegers, who didn’t have a vote, asked the voting rural directors to consider the definition of rural. “Most people with two acres would consider that to be pretty rural,” she said.

Area A director Leonard Lee was in favour of the concept.

Following more debate about how to move forward, Area F director Mark Hiltz moved to go ahead with the staff recommendation to work with the applicant to refine the application before bringing it back for first reading, but directors voted it down so that they could make another motion for the report to be circulated to APCs across the Coast and for a public information session.