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Controversial subdivision goes to ALC

Pemberton council divided over one-acre lots on agricultural land

A controversial proposal to subdivide land at 7476 Prospect in Pemberton has been forwarded to the province’s Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) for review.

The property, owned by Pemberton residents Bob Menzel and Susan Perry, has been the subject of a proposal to subdivide the approximately 29-acre site into nine one-acre lots for homes and leave aside 20 acres as a “common farming area.” The land lies within the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), an area where agriculture is a priority use.

Menzel and Perry’s proposal was previously approved by the Village of Pemberton’s Agricultural Land Use Committee (ALUC) but council voted not to forward it to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) at its June 3 meeting.

Councillor Jennie Helmer, who vehemently opposes the proposal, said that one acre is not enough to farm on and that the proposal could make it difficult to till the land itself. She and Mayor Jordan Sturdy, two of only three council members present at the June 3 meeting, voted not to send it to the ALC.

The proposal was brought back to the VOP last week when Councillor Mark Blundell, who was not present for the June 3 meeting, asked that council consider the proposal again.

At its Aug. 12 meeting council voted to forward the proposal to the ALC, with Helmer and Sturdy the dissenting votes. Helmer reiterated her concerns that one acre is not enough to farm upon, while Blundell, not wanting to contradict the advice of the village’s ALUC, voted in favour.

Sturdy did not support the proposal, but he did support a “friendly amendment” asking that the land’s drainage be improved for agricultural purposes.

“I was pretty certain that the motion was going to succeed,” Sturdy said. “So if it’s going to succeed, let’s make it as good as we can make it.”

VOP council also received an interim report at the Aug. 12 meeting regarding a proposed extension of its boundaries. The meeting included a presentation from John Steil, a principal with Vancouver-based design firm Stantec.

Steil is working with the VOP on a proposal for boundary expansion that could see 20 new areas absorbed within Pemberton’s boundaries. Those areas include the Rutherford Power Plant on Highway 99 as well as settlement areas near Mosquito and Ivey lakes.

In total, the amalgamated areas could bring as much as $200,000 in annual taxes to VOP coffers, tax revenues that currently go to the province of British Columbia, according to Sturdy.

Those taxes could be a boost for a community that has been “tax poor” for a long time, according to Councillor David MacKenzie.

Steil delivered an interim report to council that followed a public meeting in early July where a packed house of Pemberton residents gathered to deliver their opinions on the expansion.

Lisa Ames, a member of the ALUC, asked council after the meeting if the report would be made public.

Sheena Fraser, Pemberton’s manager of administrative services, said that it would be made public on the website once the webmaster returned from vacation on Monday, Aug. 18.

Council also approved a development permit for Frontier Plaza, a mixed-use development to be located on three lots on Frontier Street. Councillors asked architect Andrew Terrett whether there would be a canopy over the sidewalk near the building that could help protect people from rain and snow and allow them to look more closely at retail areas on the building’s ground floor.

Sturdy said that a glass and steel canopy could bring opportunities for cafés and window shopping, while Helmer wondered if a covered walkway could be used to guard pedestrians against snow.

Terrett said he had not considered a glass and steel canopy over the building’s property line but added the building’s roof has been designed as a flat roof to guard against snow dump.

Council ultimately approved the permit with an amendment to look into the possibility of a canopy as well as bear-proof garbage bins, park benches and a bicycle stand on the property.

Emergency 911 service also came up at last week’s meeting amidst discussion about adopting it in the Village of Pemberton. Residents can access 911 emergency services on their mobile phones, but must contact other numbers if they wish to report emergencies from other phones.

That problem could be solved if council contracts its dispatching needs to EComm, a company that runs dispatch services for various communities out of a hub in Vancouver.

This was concerning to Pemberton Fire Chief Russell Mack, who said in an Aug. 12 report to council that outsourcing dispatch services to EComm could be ineffective because of its dispatchers’ lack of knowledge about the community.

“Valuable time will be wasted trying to explain to people, with little or no knowledge of the area, where they are and what they need,” he wrote.

Mack recommended in the report that all 911 calls concerning fires in the community be rerouted to Pemberton dispatchers. He added that a central dispatch model works well in urban areas but that problems can be encountered in rural settings because of a lack of local knowledge and geography.

Councillors accepted Mack’s concerns and ultimately voted to adopt a Squamish-Lillooet Regional District bylaw that would establish 911 service in the southern half of the SLRD.

Before adopting it, however, council attached an amendment asking that costs be “appropriately apportioned” among the areas that would be paying to adopt the service.