Sechelt Mayor Darnelda Siegers, who referred to the Trellis Seniors’ Services long-term care project as a “missed opportunity” during the 2018 election campaign, had another look at that opportunity at council’s Feb. 5 meeting.
Silverstone is one of three long-term care homes Trellis was contracted to build and operate for Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) in 2016, with a total of 132 beds, which includes publicly-funded long-term care beds, hospice beds and private beds.
Trellis revived the Sechelt proposal last December, after the company couldn’t come to a final agreement with the shíshálh Nation and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) to have the facility built on Nation lands. Earlier, it could not get the go-ahead to build in Gibsons on Town-owned land on Shaw Road after Trellis abandoned its original Sechelt application, citing frustration with delays getting approval.
The proposal presented at the Feb. 5 council meeting is “substantially the same form” as the proposal that went before the last council, according to a planning department report.
The planning department asked council for “permission to proceed” with drafting the proposed Official Community Plan and zoning bylaw amendments. The recommendation passed unanimously.
Getting council’s permission to proceed before going ahead with detailed work on major development projects was one of the changes in an overhaul of the district’s development procedures bylaw started in 2018.
It gives council the option of signaling “go or no-go” before district staff, or developers, invest a lot of time, money or effort into getting a proposal ready for first reading.
Development planning manager Ian Holl’s report notes, “The rezoning application process deals with land use issues. Issues around the provision of health care are regulated by the province,” a reference to the opposition around the project.
Holl’s report says council should look at “an opportunity to consider incorporating staff/employee housing into the proposed development” as well as other community amenity contributions, although it also points out that “council may wish to consider if the Silverstone facility is a community amenity in and of itself.”
