By JOHN MONEY
I thought it might be a good idea to delve into the history of our official community plans (OCPs) and land use bylaws (LUBs) as there are many residents in the islands who were not here when this planning process started.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Gulf Islands property market was to a great extent recreational, and quite a few large small-lot subdivisions appeared, creating what were glorified campsites or a spot for a travel trailer or cabin and an outhouse. As ferry service improved, some of these lot owners were increasing their small cabins into a retirement home with a septic field and makeshift water sources.
The provincial government of that day decided to put a 10-acre freeze on the Gulf Islands until each and every island produced an OCP and LUB, and no lots smaller than 10 acres would be created through subdivision until the islands had produced OCPs and LUBs and had them signed off by the Minister of Municipal Affairs.
The various regional districts in the Gulf Islands were tasked with the job to provide community planners to the island communities to help them produce plans.
The planners went out and held town hall meetings in each community and explained what was required in an OCP and appointed a planning committee in each community made up of a balance of community members. The planner would be there to help when needed.
After their crash course in planning, each community planning committee started with a series of town hall meetings, listening to everyone’s ideas about maximum densities, lot sizes for various zones, setbacks, special and fragile areas, roads, transportation, farms, commercial properties, forests and forest harvesting, to name a few.
Armed with all these thoughts and the help of a planner, these committees created a draft OCP and took them to town hall meetings, changing them after each meeting until finally producing a plan that had the consensus of the community.
The OCP then went to the Minister of Municipal Affairs for its consensus and any required changes, then it went back to the community to look at the changes to finally get the blessings of the community and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and then it was signed off by the minister to become law.
Once that was done, the planner created a LUB and the committee took it back to more town hall meetings to get consensus. When the LUB was completed and signed off by the minister, the 10-acre freeze was lifted on each island and development had to conform to the new bylaws from then on.
As the Gulf Islands were spread over many regional districts and were tied to different towns or municipalities, the residents started lobbying for better local representation that wasn’t tied to a city or a large municipality.
After much lobbying, the government formed the Islands Trust to supply planning services for the 13 different OCPs and LUBs. There would be two elected representatives from each island, creating a planning committee of the two elected people and one appointed by the B.C. government, making a committee of three on each island to implement the OCPs and LUBs with the help of an Islands Trust planner. The government appointee was tasked to watch out for the provincial interest, creating two votes for the community and one for the provincial scenario.
This system worked well and then the government tasked the Trust as a whole to produce and supply the third person on each Trust Committee, instead of the government appointing them.
I cannot emphasize too much how long the proper community process was that went into creating these valuable documents. To see them lost to overreaching bureaucracy is a tragedy. Our OCPs and LUBs that each community made should be allowed to continue serving us. A policy statement that will not allow our local bylaws to continue to develop and grow to meet our communities’ needs and not the needs of the planners cannot be allowed to stand.
I am speaking from experience as I was appointed to the original planning committee for Saturna Island and then later was elected as one of the Saturna trustees, in which capacity I served for 21 years. I also spent six of those years on the Islands Trust Executive and chaired many Trust committees on other Gulf Islands.
In my opinion, the Trust has slowly morphed into an organization that seems to have become completely preoccupied with environmental organizations and First Nations and is attempting to create a policy statement that removes the power from the elected people, giving that power to the planners and First Nations.
If you agree with me that we need land use government that respects the voters, residents and taxpayers in the Gulf Islands and each of their OCPs and LUBs, please speak up and let your voice be heard.