Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Pemberton rezones land for independent school

Council passes fourth reading of Ravens Crest Hillside property

The door is now wide open for an independent private school to be developed in Pemberton.

Pemberton council approved fourth reading of two bylaws at its July 26 meeting that will allow a 250,000 square foot school with classrooms, an auditorium, gymnasium, student residences and accessory buildings to be built on the Hillside property, about four kilometres from Pemberton's town centre.

Pemberton councillors had to pass two bylaws in order to allow it: first, an amendment to Pemberton's Official Community Plan to permit an exception to limited urban-type development, and then a zoning bylaw to change the property to E1, an educational zone.

"It shows some confidence for a potential operator that there is a zoned site for a school," said Caroline Lamont, the village's manager of development services.

The proponent, Ravens Crest Developments, still has to acquire both a building permit and development permit in order to build the school, as well as meet conditions under what's known as a Section 219 covenant, which sets out provisions in terms of how the subject land can be used, or how a building can be erected on a subject property.

As the applicant, Ravens Crest Developments agrees to a series of restrictions on the use of the land and a series of conditions that are required in order for the zoning to be finalized.

Those conditions include a traffic impact analysis concerning the intersection of Pemberton Farm Road East and Highway 99, as well as a preliminary servicing plan for the property and granting a statutory right of way over a portion of the land to be used for a Friendship Trail, a 1.5-metre wide trail that will allow passage between Pemberton and Mount Currie.