The future of a parcel of rural land above Maple Bay Road, near Quamichan Lake, has become a lightning rod for many of its neighbours.
The small piece of property, less than one kilometre in diameter, was deemed as a “future development area” in the Municipality of North Cowichan’s Official Community Plan that was established, with a significant amount of public input, during a seven-year period in the 2000s.
That means that the property was categorized as an area to be considered for expansion at a later date “if and when” the areas the OCP zoned as “growth centres” in the municipality reach their development capacities, sometime in the future.
But Christopher Justice and Nigel Dinsdale, who live close to the property, said they were shocked to recently learn that since then, and with no public consultations that they were aware of, North Cowichan decided to drop the “future development area” category not only on that piece of property, but all areas within its jurisdiction with that designation and change them to “urban growth centres.”
Justice said that means the property, and all other land in North Cowichan that was considered as future development areas, could potentially see the rural land, which currently has a number of heritage homes on acreage, developed to urban densities, which could see duplexes, condos and detached suites built on them in high-density neighbourhoods.
He said that, in fact, the municipality has already received a proposal for such a development on a section of the property in their neighbourhood.
“Many of the neighbours are now horrified that the exact properties that the OCP was designed to protect, considered rural and heritage, could soon see high-density housing right on their doorsteps in this quiet area,” Justice said. “It just seems crazy. It was clear what the public wanted in the consultations to help develop the OCP. If these plans are implemented, it would signal the end of suburban land forms in North Cowichan, and all we’ll have left is high-density urban areas and rural areas right next to each other.”
Dinsdale said many people are very concerned about the changes to the OCP and encouraged North Cowichan’s council to allow more public input into what is perceived by many as an ongoing effort by the municipality to change the OCP out of the public’s eye.
“We were never notified of these changes and the vast majority of the people in our area don’t want it,” he said.
“We have started a petition that we’ll present at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Oct. 11 where this issue will be discussed, and we encourage as many members of the public as possible to attend as well.”
Al Siebring, a councillor in North Cowichan, said council’s decision to drop the future development area designation on properties in the OCP and change them to urban growth centres was part of an effort to deal with demands for city sewer services in the Bell McKinnon area.
He said all the statutory requirements were met by the municipality to make the changes to the OCP, including notifying senior levels of governments, local school boards and First Nations, and public consultations were held.
“But we never heard from anybody with these concerns,” Siebring said.
“I think the reality is that it took so long to develop the original OCP that many people grew tired of it and were not paying attention when we asked for public input into these changes.
“But, with all these concerns being brought up, council has decided that we should have another look at the new boundaries and that will be the focus of the meeting [on Oct. 11].”
The meeting will be open to the public and begins at 9 a.m. at the municipal hall.
