A group of waterfront property owners above Salt Spring’s Baker Beach have appealed an Islands Trust staff decision to deny a permit for their shoreline erosion mitigation project — and the island’s Local Trust Committee (LTC) will deliberate Thursday, July 10 whether to uphold that decision or grant the project permission.
A consultant team has delivered, as expected, a highly technical response to staff’s itemized concerns with the project, largely surrounding water quality and habitat impact on the popular island beach.
Much of the appeal centres on directing trustees’ attention in greater detail to documents already submitted, arguing they should satisfy staff concerns over conflicts with Salt Spring’s Official Community Plan (OCP). Across several points, the appeal takes exception to staff’s interpretation and characterization of the work proposed as the permit was denied — such as referring to the proposed sediment material to be added as “fill” and suggesting the project would create “additional land” in the sense used in the island’s OCP.
“We respectfully submit that the proposed material placement should not be categorized as fill in the regulatory sense implied by the guideline,” reads the appeal document in part. “The intent and functional effect does not create additional upland or extend property boundaries . . . and the intended elevation is transitory by design; it is subject to tidal reshaping by wave energy [and] aligns with the Province of British Columbia’s endorsement of beach nourishment as a low-impact, nature-based strategy for mitigating coastal erosion.”
The decision to deny the permit fell to staff rather than trustees since authority for marine shoreline DPA permit issuances had been delegated to them, through a 2022 bylaw passed by the current LTC, characterized as an effort to “improve process efficiency, reduce the size of LTC agendas and provide greater certainty to the applicants.”
Trustees are now tasked to either uphold staff’s decision, or amend it, wholly or partially. If that decision is further delayed, the appeal notes the approved window for in-water work within the site’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans area ends Sept. 1, which would push any efforts there to next June.
The LTC meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. at Meaden Hall.