Islands Trust staff have decided not to grant a permit to a shoreline erosion mitigation project above Salt Spring’s Baker Beach — delivering a setback to proponents who say they will appeal to the island’s Local Trust Committee (LTC).
Waterfront property owners above that beach confirmed they had received notice of staff’s decision regarding their proposed “nature-based” climate adaptation plan, centred on erosion mitigation that minimizes hard armour concrete seawalls in favour of non-uniform rock clusters, revegetation and application of sand and gravel “beach nourishment” material at the toe of an eroding slope.
Alongside a still-under-review application for a licence of occupation from the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship to do work within the Crown land at the shore, the Islands Trust requires a permit for the project, since the land lies within a development permit area (DPA) laid out by Salt Spring’s Official Community Plan (OCP).
Rather than trustees directly, the recent decision fell to staff 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.”
Staff’s objections to issuing this permit were, perhaps predictably, technical; the decision to deny rested largely upon a checklist tallying whether guidelines for development within the DPA were consistent with the OCP’s language. Planners felt the proposal conflicted with two OCP objectives and five of its guidelines for the relevant DPA — and the memo outlining that rationale presented an object lesson in the importance of every word in a bylaw.
For example, one guideline for permit issuance noted shoreline stabilization should be limited to that necessary to “prevent damage to existing structures or an established use on adjacent upland” — and while the synopsis of the geohazard assessment report prepared for the project noted that the single-family dwellings involved were at a “low” risk of landslide damage, planners argued it did not specifically indicate that risk rating would improve should the project go forward. Instead, in that summary, the geoscientist noted the current “high” risk of “ongoing and progressive” erosional impact to the marine environment should mitigation not take place.
Elsewhere in the report, the geoscientist notes “the erosion of surficial material — over the long term — could impact the [single-family dwelling],” and indeed recommends mitigation efforts. But, according to the staff report, “it is unclear what damage to the existing structure that the proposed [activity] is preventing.”
The balance of the remaining objections ranged from those which could likely be overcome by additional technical information, such as plans to mitigate potential impacts on water quality and fish habitat, to some that were possibly insurmountable; one guideline specifically states shoreline should not be filled in to create additional land, and staff argued the project’s proposed deposit of hundreds of cubic metres of aggregate materials — across more than 500 metres of shoreline — would do just that.
That “nourishment” material had worried a large group of islanders, who feared for wildlife at the beach and reached out to the LTC last year as the project’s application with the ministry became public.
The Islands Trust staff memo outlining the decision not to issue a permit was dated May 8, and added to online documents at the Islands Trust’s website shortly after.
Affected landowner Ethan Wilding had petitioned the court in early April, hoping a judge would compel a decision from the LTC one way or another. An answer to that legal action, comprising a lawyer’s notice that a detailed response was pending, was filed May 7 and a Notice of Hearing was filed May 9 — setting a June 9 court date for the matter in Vancouver.
Meanwhile, project proponents — who recently posted an updated video at bakerbeach.ca — have 30 days from receiving their notices from staff to file requests for reconsideration, which will appear on an upcoming LTC meeting agenda for trustees to address.
Prior to the permit decision being made public, Penelakut Tribe council member Kurt Irwin initiated a May 13 gathering of affected homeowners, neighbours and other interested Salt Springers on Baker Beach to hear how the proposed modification of the beach would affect Penelakut rights and the local ecosystem.
According to the Penelakut Tribe, speakers included Irwin, elder James Charlie, councillor Ken Thomas and Robert Sam from Penelakut, beachfront property owner Brad Fossen and UBC professor and ecologist Tara Martin, who lives on Salt Spring.