Village of Pemberton (VOP) council voted to discharge a covenant on the Tiyata Village at Pemberton lands during its council meeting, held via Zoom, on April 21.
The move was made to help facilitate a sale from the current landowner to "a not-for-profit entity that seeks to develop the land for non-residential purposes," according to consulting planner Cameron Chalmers' report. However, council made the move after receiving assurance that it would be able to renegotiate the covenant with the new landowner, which the VOP is "not at liberty to share details of," according to a spokesperson.
The land in question is Lot 3, which is adjacent to Highway 99.
"The reason for the discharge is some of the surplus lands at Tiyata have been largely unresolved in terms of their future development potential," said Chalmers, who noted that the request came in early last week. "The vendor and the purchaser have reached an agreement for a development, which has not been made and hasn't been disclosed yet.
"It's a different form than what's slated in the covenant."
The covenant, made when the land was known as the Thuro Logging Ltd. site, obligated the developer to gift a community garden and a site for non-market housing, though Chalmers said upon reviewing the site, that those do not seem like reasonable uses for the land.
"I did go and walk the site and have driven past it regularly. I'm not certain that that's an optimal site for a number of reasons for either of those uses," he said.
If the landowner eventually wanted to pursue residential development on the site, council would require a rezoning and a new covenant with either the same or new amenities could be negotiated, Chalmers said.
"If a rezoning comes in, we would be in a position, absolutely ... to secure whatever amenities we saw fit, including affordable housing or rental housing or something similar, and we would be in a better position to deliver something," he said.
Coun. Amica Antonelli was the lone representative to vote against the proposal. She raised several questions, including wondering why the land the Village accepted for those amenities is no longer suitable for those purposes.
"The covenant is our tool for securing these items and I don't feel it's in the best interests of the community to release that tool," she said. "My preferred approach would be to have a much better understanding of how are we going to secure these amenities, such as below-market housing, for example.
"If that place wasn't suitable, what's the substitute? Because that's an important amenity for the community.
"I would feel much more comfortable working with the developer and working with the new purchaser to come up with a suitable covenant now."
Antonelli added that with the closing date still to come, it wouldn't be a good idea to release the covenant mere days after receiving the request without researching further background information.
CAO Nikki Gilmore reiterated that the village could negotiate a new covenant should a rezoning application come forward, and removing it at this time was important to help facilitate the sale.
"We're trying to meet a request that has been placed before us and is quite timely," she said.
Antonelli's motion to refer the request back to staff to work with the developer and the purchaser failed to find traction, while the motion to discharge the covenant succeeded.
Five Year Financial Plan vote bumped back
Council declined to give first four readings to the Five Year Financial Plan 2020-2024 and instead will hold a special meeting next week to discuss the plan further.
Information regarding the Five Year Financial Plan 2020-2024 was not included in the original council package released on Friday, April 17, though there was a note that it would be released on April 20.
However, councillors did not receive the report until after 9 p.m. on April 20, and with a morning meeting the following day, Coun. Ted Craddock said there simply wasn't enough time to digest the information and ensure that council could ask all the right questions. While manager of finance and administration Lena Martin presented a thorough rundown during the meeting, council opted to hold a special meeting on Tuesday, April 28 at 9 a.m.
The meeting will be publicly accessible via Zoom. Instructions on how to join are available at https://www.pemberton.ca/public/download/files/114052.
