Editor:
Before launching into my criticisms of two recent recommendations by the Sechelt Chamber, let me state that I am a long-time supporter of business associations and the role they play in ensuring that governments act in ways that ensure a healthy environment that supports business success. Two recent recommendations by the Sechelt Chamber fail this mission, in my opinion.
The recommendation to move municipal hall from its current location at the heart of downtown Sechelt in a location conveniently accessible to all, and zoned for such uses, to a location zoned for industrial purposes, and distant from daily activities of commerce and inaccessible to all but car drivers, is at best irresponsible. It is the kind of idea that is sometimes described as “creative” or “out-of-the-box” but is more accurately described as crackpot or oddball.
It is also worth noting that a previous decision by a former council moved our sewage treatment plant from a proposed location in an industrial area near the landfill, a location zoned for the purpose, to a location in a residential area. And now the chamber recommends moving a public office use to that industrially-zoned location near the landfill. Planning and land use clearly isn’t the chamber’s strength.
The second chamber recommendation, regarding short-term rentals, as reported in the Coast Reporter (“STR bylaws need another revamp, says Sechelt chamber,” Jan. 29), seemed to be a vague complaint that the amendments will “severely affect businesses on the coast for many years” without any data or details of any kind on which businesses will be affected and what those effects might be.
Unregulated, STRs are harmful to neighbourhood life, and potentially harmful to legitimate accommodation businesses such as hotels and motels that are located in areas zoned for such uses, and near to the amenities that visitors need and that compound the economic benefits of tourism, such as restaurants, bars, and shops. Were the needs of those businesses considered? How were they weighed? What values guided this recommendation by the chamber?
I am pleased that the mayor of Sechelt is not in favour of moving municipal hall away from downtown and applaud her thinking in that regard. I hope she and council stick to their guns on STR regulation as well.
Vickie Morris, Sechelt
