SO WHAT HAPPENED? A Tale of Two Land Use Plans
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or the last few years, the Municipality of North Cowichan has been engaging residents in the creation of a new Official Community Plan (OCP) to form a vision for future land use. Ten years ago, the MNC Council of the day pursued a similar path of constructing an OCP for North Cowichan. They asked the public what features of the Valley they most cherished. Responses of the day were described by the facilitators thusly: The importance of the rural setting to the image of North Cowichan as a place cannot be overstated, with virtually all participants citing natural or agricultural landscapes, views to forested
mountains, fields or ocean, travel on rural roads, working farms and forests and the proximity and ready access to nature being among the most highly valued aspects. With this in mind, the 2011 OCP confirms the value of these qualities. (2.1.4.1.c) Any change from the existing visual condition of existing landforms and features (eg, through the clearing of forest cover for a suburban development) should be difficult to perceive from key viewpoints. And yet, the visual condition of Mt. Tzouhelem, one of our pre-eminent landforms, has since then been continually altered by the removal of much of its forest cover, first for a failed golf course, then clearing over one hundred hectares more for a new development. So what happened? The 2011 OCP states: 2.1.4.1.b) Site grading will
The Kingsview development is on the right. You can also see how a slope off Genoa Bay Road was also devastated.
be minimized to protect native vegetation and drainage patterns. And yet, time and again, we see developers scraping the surface of the land clean of all topsoil, trees, and every last bit of vegetation, hindering natural regeneration. These ‘moonscapes’ are sometimes left desolate for many years. So what happened?
Recognizing that development on steep slopes poses a risk of landslide and erosion, BC’s Local Government Act (919.1) requires municipalities to protect development from hazardous conditions such as So What Happened? A Tale of Two Land Use Plans continued on pg 48
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