The Village of Pemberton’s mayor and council officially adopted an Official Community Plan amendment for the Nkwúkwma Sub Area Plan and a zoning amendment for the development last week, despite disagreement over the project.
While the motion to adopt the plan and rezoning passed, councillors were split on the decision, with Councillors Katrina Nightingale and Jennie Helmer voting against, and Couns. Laura Ramsden, Ted Craddock and Mayor Mike Richman voting in favour. The crux of disunity between council was about process, the need for housing, and what Pemberton would lose if they did or didn’t move forward with the plan. The housing development, Nkwúkwma, is a 450-unit housing proposal by Skénkenam Development Limited Partnership, a partnership between the Lil’wat Nation’s Lil’wat Capital Assets and the Pemberton Benchlands Development Corporation.
Before the vote, council reiterated the key points discussed during a public hearing and subsequent special council meeting May 14. Council chose to defer a vote during the special council meeting to consider what they had heard at the public hearing, and their opinions didn’t change in the span of two weeks. The biggest concerns were about traffic congestion and emergency response, the impact of growth on infrastructure, and the Official Community Plan, which is paused, and how that influenced the sub-area plan.
Ramsden touched on the traffic issue, and recognized it will be part and parcel of becoming a growing municipality. She also acknowledged the growth would be over a 20-year period, not overnight.
“It’s a negative that’s worth the positive,” Ramsden said.
Richman noted traffic studies show Portage Road can handle more vehicles, but that doesn’t mean residents are happy about increased traffic.
Helmer reiterated her concerns over the hillside development containing many future residents driving cars up and down, which is not in line with reducing carbon emissions. Nightingale re-stated emergency evacuation concerns with wildfire risks in the here and now.
Planner Cameron Chalmers noted the bylaw in question covers "safe and resilient" access prior to the first satge of development, which would “likely” include an emergency access. Another option would be twinning the road, and by the time of third build-out, the development would have to reconsider traffic and look at alternative access routes.
“Staff believe the bylaw you’re entertaining does contain policy that directly addresses the need to provide safe and resilient access even though we may not have every detail yet at this stage. We’re comfortable with the options that are there,” he said.
For infrastructure concerns, Richman noted council is working on asset management via a new water treatment plant. Exploring options for new water sources, RCMP, health-care and education are outside the scope of council’s powers, but the VOP actively engages in discussions with the school district and province to advocate for the village’s needs, he added.
Ramsden suggested increasing population could result in a bigger tax base for funding infrastructure and services, which Helmer strongly disagreed with, highlighting the current strain on services from existing growth and the need for increasing Pemberton’s taxes to deal with said growth.
Nightingale argued that while much of the paused OCP principles have been incorporated into the sub area plan, it wasn’t respectful of the process to move forward ahead of the OCP.
“For me, it’s the respectful thing to complete that OCP through the integrity of a process before we make any substantial decisions,” she said.
Ramsden stressed that while the OCP process was important, the need for housing people is paramount.
Craddock noted while the OCP is on hold and some community members have taken issue with the development, many council members ran on housing platforms in the last election, and no other development projects have stopped because the OCP is on hold.
The mayor reiterated the Benchlands is zoned for single-family residential, and the developer can proceed without council’s approval of the sub-area plan and rezoning.
“It’s not a threat, it’s a reality that without the rezoning they can go ahead and build single-family homes and on top of that, the current reality with the [new provincial housing] legislation is not only could they go ahead with single-family homes, but they could build duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes wherever appropriate. So that density can happen in a big way anyways,” Richman said.
“Through this amendment, we are securing a huge investment in our infrastructure from the proponents. We are getting a $1.8-million investment in recreation…through the amendment, we secure improvements to Eagle Drive, we secure conversations around the emergency access and egress through the amendment.”
