Cortes Island will be taking a look at what land might be suitable for future industry.
The Strathcona Regional District board voted at its August meeting to direct staff to conduct a review of the official community plan (OCP) for Cortes to identify and predesignate land for possible future industrial use.
“The Advisory Planning Commission (APC) suggested we do an update to the OCP,” Area B Director Noba Anderson said.
Cortes is also in the process of updating its zoning bylaw.
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As a practice, OCPs set out a broad vision for how land is used, while the accompanying zoning bylaw sets out more details around what can actually take place on land based on its zoning designation.
In a report to the regional district, Anderson wrote that as she understands it, when the first zoning bylaw was created, industrial zoning was extended to properties at the time that already had some kind of industrial use, such as a sawmill or gravel pit, though these were not located through any kind of community planning process.
During last OCP from 2012, she says, there was no clear direction about designations for housing, industrial, commercial or other uses.
“The community was very reluctant to predesignate lands for anything,” Anderson said.
The OCP, she says, does not presently give direction in terms of locations if someone wants to do something differently with land.
“In the review of [the] OCP many years ago, I really advocated for the community to be more proactive in its land-use designations,” she said.
What precipitated this discussion now, Anderson says, was that a couple of potential industrial businesses were interested in buying land but there had been no clear indication of community wishes toward types of industrial activity. They did, in fact, encounter opposition in a neighbourhood, so Anderson suggested the matter be brought forward to the Advisory Planning Commission. The APC, in turn, made it recommendation for the SRD to review.
Anderson says the role of the current review is to ask the community on Cortes where it wants particular activities, as opposed to leaving a business owner to figure out where they might be able to set up operations. She does not expect the actual review to happen quickly but more likely end up as part of the following year’s work plan.
“It’s a placeholder to say, ‘Hey, this is actually regional district work rather than a business owner[‘s] work,'” she adds.
