Editor:
Thank you for Christine Wood’s coverage of Sechelt’s public hearing on Big Maples expansion application (April 7). Unfortunately it did not fully explain the reasons for our opposition. This can be summarized by the question, “Why have bylaws if they are not enforced?”
The first bylaws this development disregard are found in the Official Community Plan which discourages densified development in the Chapman Creek fan and flood plain for ecological and safety reasons. The OCP recommends that this area retain its present low-density RR zoning. The OCP directs high-density developments like Big Maples to clearly identified neighbourhood centres and urban containment centres.
Preliminary preparation for the Big Maples expansion has already destroyed roughly 0.7 acres of wildlife habitat through clearcutting and, according to the Engineering Report, more destruction for topographical regrading will be required to protect new mobile homes from flood. Risk to the underground streams which feed into Chapman Creek and the estuary is unknown because this was not addressed in either the environmental or engineering reports.
On a more personal level, the proposed expansion does not respect Mobile Home Bylaw 37 5.8 which requires a landscaped buffer zone of at least 7.5 metres at all mobile home park boundaries. Neither of the two proposals submitted to the planning department takes this bylaw into account: both require a road to be built directly against our property line to service the new units that will overlook our house and garden. This gives us grave concern for the future livability, and eventual resale value, of our much loved home.
The principle of bylaw adherence affects us all. If Sechelt bylaws can be so easily overturned and ignored, not one of us who live here can count on them for protection or plan for the future with any security.
Barry and Rebecca Pavitt, Sechelt
