Editor:
The proposed dock management plan needs to be revised. More time is needed to create an adaptable plan. The provincial government has mishandled this roll out.
What started as a Pender Harbour plan, has now increased to include the majority of the Sunshine Coast, including all lakes within this area. Many people (me included) did not attend the previous meetings in Pender Harbour as it was a Pender Harbour issue, but now this affects me and many others but we have had no opportunity to attend any face-to-face meetings. This is wrong. This plan is now considered a template for the whole of B.C.
The ban on private boathouses (which has been in the works for some time now) is disappointing.
These boathouses protect boats that need shelter from the elements. Can they just be improved and not banned? Commercial boat houses must allow some light to penetrate through...this is the whole point of a boathouse...to keep the UV rays off of the boat.
Limiting the total pier, ramp, and float to no more than 50m is not acceptable in all cases to reach deep water. Likewise, a 30 square metre limit on floats is unsafe and unacceptable for boats larger than 30 feet. Group/shared dock ownership rather than individual ownership is problematic.
The 2018 report from Wright and Associates on eelgrass and dock shading is based on South Carolina and Massachusetts. Is this relevant to these waters? By all accounts, it appears to me no economic or tourism impacts were considered.
This plan also applies to lakes...a completely different ecosystem than saltwater environments.
I sympathize with the anger as people are losing property value, losing investment in docks/boathouses, losing the ability to moor on your own float, all in an undemocratic situation.
I don’t see any lack of growth under docks because of shading. Wharfs have an abundance of life under them...pile perch, herring, salmon fry, mussels, barnacles, anemones, sea stars, tubeworms, nudibranch, etc.
There needs to be a reasonable plan, but there are too many unknowns for the community to just accept this blindly.
Brian Klassen
Halfmoon Bay
