On Wednesday night, North Cowichan councillors will make one of the most critical decisions in the Municipality’s history.
A public hearing will be held prior to councillors determining whether to approve an amendment to the Official Community Plan that would pave the way for a 30-acre, multi-faceted development north of Herd Road, near the new Cowichan Hospital.
The issue is complex with numerous reports from engineers, planners, proponents and other interested parties feeding into the debate. For the developers – John and Elaine Lichtenwald – a decade-long attempt to see their West Vista Terrace project become a reality is emotional and financially perilous.
What is clear at this point is that North Cowichan staff in the planning and engineering departments, as well as chief administrative officer Ted Swabey, are adamantly opposed to a development that would have implications for other developments that are already in progress or planned. They have sounded a warning about dire financial risk for North Cowichan taxpayers if the West Vista Terrace development is approved.
Staff at the municipality argue that the infrastructure has been underfunded for decades and it will require tens of millions of dollars in capital investment to accommodate growth and replace aging water and sewer lines.
“In my opinion we shouldn’t be doing anything but focussing on how we’re going to resolve this problem,” Swabey told council earlier this month.
Allowing an expansion of the Urban Containment Boundary to accommodate West Vista would be foolish, Swabey told council.
“If we unlock more properties outside of the UCB now, it’s like buying a car that doesn’t have an engine. They can’t be developed, yet it’s going to throw a whole kink in how we review where the servicing priorities are.”
Clay Reitsma, director of engineering for North Cowichan, was equally strong in his opposition to expanding the UCB.
“Why you would want to expand outside that boundary … I don’t understand,” Reitsma said.
“We can’t even service the lands that are available within the UCB. Servicing is a major challenge. We’re trying to deal with existing developments.”
North Cowichan is overwhelmed with issues related to development, staff and some councillors agree.
Approving West Vista could be devastating for other projects including ones contemplated or in the works in Chemainus, Coun. Chris Istace says.
“This would cripple our engineering department,” argues Istace, a Chemainus business owner. “It would jeopardize all the other ones.”
For reasons that are not clear, a proposed residential/commercial development on Willow Street in downtown Chemainus has not been able to break ground. Redevelopment of the former Green Lantern Pub is also on hold. Istace says a large residential development being completed by Chris Clement, a developer responsible for the building of dozens of homes in Chemainus, could also be impacted.
At a Committee of the Whole meeting on Nov. 12, two councillors, Istace, Christopher Justice and mayor Rob Douglas agreed with North Cowichan staff’s recommendation that the expansion of the Urban Containment Boundary was a bad idea.
Four councillors, Tek Manhas, Bruce Findlay, Mike Caljouw, and Becky Hogg have supported the development through the various stages leading to Wednesday’s vote.
Coun. Justice was critical of the four councillors who support the development and challenged them to explain their position.
“This staff report is emphatic that it is not in the public interest to expand the Urban Containment Boundary,” Justice reminded council.
“They’re also telling us that expanding the UCB at this time is going to slow down, not speed up development. It would unnecessarily cost taxpayers a lot of money and make rational infrastructure planning very difficult if not impossible.”
Justice said approving the development would put developers and investors before taxpayers.
“And all this for what? The only winners are a few land speculators whose properties will increase in value at the expense of North Cowichan taxpayers.
“I simply don’t understand why the four councillors at this table who are pushing this expansion are so determined to move ahead with something that is clearly harmful to our community. The position doesn’t make any sense.
“Do you believe that staff are wrong. Do you think the professional advice should simply be ignored? Do you know better?
“I hope you can explain this. It can’t be as simple as saying you support development. We all support development. Leadership means choices and you can’t say yes to everything.
If you still support this expansion, if that’s what you want, say so openly.”
The four councillors supporting the development and amending the Official Community Plan, Manhas, Hogg, Findlay and Caljouw did not speak during the Committee of the Whole discussion of the Bella Vista issue.
The public hearing will take place at 7:00 p.m. at the municipal office following the regular council meeting.