Ucluelet residents will have the opportunity to provide more input on the Official Community Plan (OCP) that went to public hearing on May 13.
During the May 25 regular council meeting, mayor and council directed district staff to schedule an OCP public input session for mid to late September 2021.
“I believe the planning department has done a heck of a lot of work, and as someone who likes to write, I will just state that if you do not have a draft, you cannot edit it. So this was the draft,” said councillor Jennifer Hoar.
Mayor Mayco Noel articulated the themes that came up during the well-attended 2.5-hour long May 13 virtual public hearing. He flagged concerns over “dotted red lines” or potential trails crossing private property, in particular the concerns coming from the Nakagawa and Kimoto families that own property at Spring Cove.
“I did write a letter to both of those families. I would recommend that we remove those trails from the OCP given the context that these are family properties,” said Ucluelet’s manager of community planning Bruce Greig.
Councillor Kemps voiced her opinion.
“I would like to see the red lines through developed property removed. It just makes me really uncomfortable,” said councillor Lara Kemps.
Councillor Marilyn McEwen concurred.
“My comfort level would be to remove all those dotted red lines. If one was going through my property I probably would be writing a letter of complaint too,” said McEwen.
While councillor Rachelle Cole noted she was in favour of the OCP foresight, she reinforced the communities’ desire for face-to-face dialogue.
“We can’t go one step further on this until we can meet and have fulsome dialogue in an open room. I personally am not comfortable without being able to look someone in the eyes,” she said.
Mayor and council went on to discuss access and right of way to Lyche Road and concerns related to the future growth of Onni lands and Weyerhaeuser lands.
“Thank you again, Mr. Greig. We appreciate the work you have put in to this document. We are all really proud of what’s in here. A couple little changes and some housekeeping items and we’ll get to it in September,” said Noel.
READ: Ucluelet council sends Onni Group back to the drawing board
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