After a number of amendments, Qualicum Beach council has approved third reading of the Official Community Plan.
Council went through 21 notices of motions to amend the Town of Qualicum Beach OCP bylaw before approving third reading at its May 28 meeting.
The notices of motions ranged from clarifying wording to the addition of rainwater management plans, changing the waterfront area into a park-like setting and amending the urban containment boundary.
The final motion for the urban containment boundary passed despite councillors Barry Avis and Anne Skipsey voting against it. Skipsey asked for a recorded vote.
The notice of motion was submitted by Coun. Bill Luchtmeijer, who had previously advocated to extend the urban containment boundary at a meeting in February.
The notice of motion was to align the urban containment boundary with the municipal boundary and to provide a written request from the Regional District of Nanaimo that the regional growth strategy be amended accordingly.
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Mayor Teunis Westbroek, who agreed with Luchtmeijer’s notice of motion, said the OCP would become part of the RDN’s regional growth strategy.
But, he said, what could happen as has happened in previous councils is the people elected want to make a change that’s not in the OCP and the change has to go through the RDN.
“I think what this calls for is people pay really good attention to who they elect to council because you have no idea what electoral area directors or municipal directors from Nanaimo, Lantzville, Parksville might decide,” Westbroek said.
“They don’t run on a platform for what they can do for Qualicum Beach or not do for Qualicum Beach, so it’s a shot in the dark to rely on the RDN.”
Westbroek said he doesn’t think the RDN could help the town plan better.
“When I see what the RDN approves for planning — you just look at right outside the Town of Qualicum Beach boundary — that’s urban sprawl at its worst,” he said. “We’re asking them to help us plan better? I’m sorry, I don’t think so.”
Luchtmeijer said the reason for the motion is that as a municipality, the town is “in position where we are not in control of a good portion of our land as far as land use.”
He said people run away “screaming,” saying that control is needed.
“It’s not control. It’s passing the buck to someone else, and I think there’s an opportunity here for the Town of Qualicum Beach to control its own destiny, and what better place to do that than in a visionary document called the Official Community Plan?”
Coun. Neil Horner said Luchtmeijer’s motion sounded like it made “an awful lot of sense.”
He asked opposing councillors why they were opposed to the motion.
Skipsey said her understanding was the town could work with the RDN and it doesn’t mean the regional district dictates what happens in the town.
“I don’t see that this as necessarily a good thing. I think that we work well with our regional district,” she said.
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