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www.comoxvalleyecho.com Friday, March 21, 2014
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Volume 20, No. 23
Timetable set for objections to $1.9m curling rink borrowing
Council will consider implications, ramifications and options in Maple Pool
By Philip Round Echo Staff People who oppose the regional district borrowing $1.9 million to renovate and upgrade the local curling rink now have a timetable to work to for making their views known. But enthusiasts for the plan need do nothing to whip up support, because a fresh bid to get the issue on the ballot in a referendum of all Valley voters this November has failed. Instead, Comox Valley Regional District board confirmed on Tuesday it would use the ‘alternative approval process’ to gauge the opinions of the area’s 47,372 electors. From early May - the exact date will be advertised in local newspapers once it is fixed - official forms will be made available by the regional district both from its office and online, which objectors to the proposed borrowing need to sign. Those forms will have to be returned by Friday, June 13 to be counted, and if 10 per cent or more electors have signed - that would be at least 4,737 petitioners - the board will have to reconsider the plan. It could either drop the idea or, if it wanted to go ahead, move on to hold a full-blown referendum after all. Cumberland Coun. Gwyn Spoule made a renewed plea for the borrowing to go straight to a referendum when she spoke at Tuesday’s board. She noted it could be held to coincide with the civic elections in November to keep costs low. She stressed she personally supported upgrades at the rink, and urged the Comox Valley Curling Club to continue with its own fundraising to help the project. But holding a referendum would be the fairest way of finding out what the wider population thought about borrowing the bulk of the money required, she suggested. Staff had advised the required repayments would work out at just over $4 per house per year, which would be added to tax bills for 20 years. (Continued on page 2)
By Philip Round Echo Staff
A strange bird Jim Grieve and his partner Carole Goodman have been feeding the wintering hummingbirds at their Union Bay home. Lately, they’ve been finding the feeder has been drained every evening, requiring it to be refilled in the morning. “Hummers can’t be that hungry or nocturnal so I decided to set up a
remote bird cam and as you can see, the culprit is a ‘bandit’ Raccoon”, said Grieve. “We hung the feeder high enough to keep cats away from the birds but it looks like racoons are ‘smarter’.
Courtenay City Council will “carefully consider the implications and ramifications of all possible outcomes” of its legal action against Maple Pool Campground following a BC Supreme Court judgment delivered last week. Meeting ‘in camera’ - behind closed doors - on Monday night, there were no firm decisions on the future of the case, but the Mayor and four councillors present agreed to meet again when all seven elected officials are there to discuss the next steps and what options the City now has open to it. That meeting will be “in the coming weeks” according to a statement issued by the City’s chief administrative officer, David Allen. In the meantime, he reaffirms the municipality “will continue to work towards finding a satisfactory resolution to this issue.” As reported in Tuesday’s Echo, Judge Robin Baird has ruled that two residents of Maple Pool can be added as defendants to the enforcement action the City is pursuing against campground owner Jin Lin for not being in compliance with zoning bylaws. The inclusion of the residents broadens the issue to one with constitutional implications, as potential violations of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are now in play. (Continued on page 2)
Regional District set to approve $61m budget By Philip Round Echo Staff Comox Valley Regional District was poised to give final approval to its 2014 budget last night after two months’ of detailed consideration at committee level. The vote was scheduled after the Echo’s deadline, but the spending package and tax requisition to help pay for it were expected to go through.
The recommended total budget amounts to $67.1 million, of which just under $13 million is for ‘capital’ items such as work on infrastructure and buildings. Some of the biggest projects involve the early stages of landfill expansion at Cumberland; advance work on a deep water intake at Comox Lake; progress on the proposed sewer project to serve Union Bay, Royston and potentially Cumberland; upgrades at the sewage treatment plant on Comox
peninsula; improvements to the Black Creek/Oyster River water supply system; and the second phase a multiuse trail across Denman Island to link the two ferry landings. The bulk of the money earmarked in the budget is for operational expenses, including $5.3 million in debt repayments for the year and a $4.3 million transfer to reserves for future project work. What it means for individual property taxpayers depends on where
they live in the Comox Valley. The differences between communities can be put down to what specific services are provided by the CVRD to different areas, and the changes in the budgets for those services. For example, sewage treatment and disposal are provided by the CVRD in the municipalities of Courtenay and Comox, but not in Cumberland. (Continued on page 2)
City seeks blanket prohibition of medical marijuana grow-ops By Philip Round Echo Staff Federally-licensed medical marijuana grow-ops could soon be prohibited anywhere in the City of Courtenay unless potential applicants can successfully navigate through a full rezoning process to give the public a say. On Monday, City Council gave first and second readings to a bylaw amendment that would generally outlaw such a use on any property in
the municipality, including farmland and industrial sites. However, it accepts that as Health Canada regulations are changing from next month, people with plans for industrial-scale facilities who are legally licensed will have the right to make a specific application for rezoning in order to overturn such a local ban - and the council will have to consider it. But the existing bylaws are being tightened up in advance of any such approach to make it difficult for any
applicant to jump through the hoops. The City’s director of development services, Peter Crawford, said the scale of facilities sought by licensed operators would likely be significant to make them commercially viable. “The potential effects of a medical marijuana operation on neighbouring properties, and uncertainties related to odour, noise, traffic, lighting, fire and safety leads to taking a cautious approach to regulating this use,” he explained.
The approach of other local governments to the issue had been studied, and they ranged from outright prohibition to permitting the use in either agricultural or industrial zones. For Courtenay, he recommended a general prohibition in all zones that could be overturned for a particular site only after a full public process and the opportunity given to council to impose strict conditions if approval was contemplated. A public hearing on the proposed
tightening of the bylaw will be held at 5 p.m. on Monday, April 7 at City Hall. Only if the bylaw passes through all its readings would the issue be “cut and dried,” Crawford added, but by taking immediate steps to amend it triggered the right of City Hall to withhold building permits if an application did suddenly emerge in an attempt to get under the wire. pround@comoxvalleyecho.com