Editor:
With the upcoming municipal elections, we thought it timely to remind your readers about how the current District of Sechelt Council treats its own citizens.
Your readers will recall that three and a half years ago, a sinkhole appeared on our property, which forced us to evacuate our dream home with our three young children and our dog. The house was deemed uninhabitable by District consultants and was immediately condemned. We have not lived there since. Engineers have since reported that the sinkhole was caused by deficient construction practices and a lack of maintenance of the water management infrastructure at the site.
In March 2015, we filed a lawsuit naming several parties who played a part in the development including the developer, the engineers, the realtors, and the District of Sechelt. Since that time, we have spent 1,300 stressful days and hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting to recover the vast sums of money which we have lost as a result. Representatives from the District of Sechelt have repeatedly advised residents from our community to file lawsuits to reach a “mutually satisfactory omnibus solution.” We followed this advice and quietly honoured the process, believing that we would see a successful outcome.
Unfortunately, it has subsequently become obvious that this Mayor and Council are not interested or willing to resolve this dispute. In fact, they are the single biggest impediment to resolution.
Although we are extremely frustrated with the recent developments in our legal battle, what is happening to us is only a small part of the bigger story. There are 14 families (including us) who own a home in Seawatch. We bought our homes in good faith, many of us hoping to live there to the end of our days. When the geotechnical issues began to appear in 2012, we believed that our elected officials would help us navigate the situation and truly believed they would fight to keep us all safe. Unfortunately, the exact opposite has happened. We are the community that no one wants to talk about. We are the people who can’t make eye contact with council members because they avoid us in public. We are the citizens who are viewed by some Sechelt councillors as not worthy of a fight because we were able to afford a home in this area in the first place. The lack of action, compassion, and fight our elected officials have demonstrated on this issue is a disgrace to this community.
As most Sechelt citizens are sleeping soundly in their beds, our former neighbours lie awake with worry that the heavy rains will cause a new sinkhole to develop, a landslide to start or a rock wall to collapse. What’s worse is that the District’s engineers working on this file have stated that the District’s decision not to repair their own damaged infrastructure is a major contributing factor to the expanding underground cavities, compromising the safety of residents and homes in the area. Engineers have repeatedly warned that if the site conditions continue to deteriorate, more sinkholes are inevitable, and that the possibility of property damage, injury, and death are very real.
The end result has been that road closures are ever expanding as the problem continues to get worse. In addition, this week another sinkhole daylighted on an undeveloped piece of land in Seawatch. Fortunately, no one was injured, and no houses were directly impacted. However, Seawatch is a ticking time bomb. The cavities are everywhere and constantly expanding as water runs through the site every day, even in our driest months. If left alone, there will be a day when our worst nightmares come true – when the earth above one of these cavities collapses, injuring or killing someone.
We wanted to share our story before the municipal election – before we re-elect the same representatives who appear to lack fight and compassion for the residents of Seawatch. We need people who are willing to approach provincial and federal governments to work cooperatively on a solution. We need people who are willing to challenge their lawyers if their advice doesn’t align with what the constituents believe is right. Most of all, we need strong leaders who will do whatever it takes to own the mistakes of the past, take action to right these wrongs, and keep our residents safe.
Thanks to all who continue to support us in this battle. We appreciate it more than you know.
Erin and Ross Storey, Sechelt
