
The SRD planning meeting in Mansons Hall did not go as planned. I don’t think the group was opposed to further densification, as much as people just wanted to talk. I think we need to hear insight from some of our respected community thought leaders before placing stickies on a map to indicate where we think development should happen.
One of the island’s environmental thought leaders* suggested that prior to deciding where any stickies should go, we should conduct a study of Cortes Island’s water systems. On Quadra they are monitoring the rainfall, streamflow and a number of wells. They are also mapping the island’s wetlands. Here on Cortes, we hope to study the island’s aquifer but have not yet found the funding.
We are in the midst of a housing crisis, there are people on Cortes who need places to live and Cortes has opted in to the provincial government’s Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act. There is a requirement that local governments update their zoning bylaw to accommodate small-scale, multi-unit housing requirements by June 30, 2024. Hence the sudden rush to get our stickies on the map.
During the meeting, one of the SRD staff explained that the opportunity for small rural communities to opt in will come up every year. So there is a choice: (1) we could wait until the study of the island’s aquifer is finished, (2) or proceed with the zoning bylaw update and then, assuming the aquifer study is completed at some point, update it when the new information is available. The questions with option 2 being: how long will it take before we get that update? And will a ‘later fix’ be as good as ‘doing the job properly in the first place.’
Moving on to when we start placing stickies.
Just before the meeting began, another community thought leader* told me about three properties that MIGHT be ideal for development. He has decades of very specific local knowledge, which shows up in things like his reference to one of the properties having once belonged to Weyerhaeuser. (He was on Cortes at the time.) I don’t know if they would all pass a more thorough evaluation, but I would have put stickies on each of those properties as ideal candidates for further exploration. If the group at large had heard from him, I suspect dozens of stickies would have been put there. Problem: his knowledge was not communicated to the group.
Helen Hall* said that FOCI has a map of the island’s sensitive ecosystems and cultural sites. I would like to know how up-to-date the data on sensitive ecosystems is, but I would also have put green stickies (for areas with sensitive ecosystems) on each of those areas. If FOCI’s knowledge was made public I think you would have seen dozens of green stickies on those areas. Problem: Where are they?
I do not know how many other residents have the specific local knowledge we need.
A former Regional Director* (who is also a community thought leader) mentioned these areas are identified in the old Official Community Plan, but this was drawn up in 2012 and some conditions may have changed.
This is definitely the case with some of the properties adjoining Basil Creek in Squirrel Cove, where there have been some water issues over the last two years. An expert in this field told me this sounds like a shallow aquifer issue (streams, shallow wells), rather than what for lack of a better name I am going to call Squirrel Cover’s aquifer. He also said that the first step toward solving this problem is ‘to really map that creek, and understand where the seepage flows are feeding that creek.’ (Access Mapping Wetlands on Quadra And What It Means On Cortes) This is an area where I would put a green stickie until the problem is resolved.
As I doubt this bit of local knowledge is in the old OCP and I don’t know how many other parcels don’t look as good in 2024 as they did in 2012, I would suggest a new colour code for stickies coming out of this document: yellow for caution. It undoubtedly contains good leads, but before proceeding I would like to know if they are still viable.
To use my votes as an illustration: if I first heard from some of our respected local knowledge holders I would probably have followed their lead and put dozens of stickies on the map. Without that input, my only sticky was green and in Squirrel Cove.
Top image credit: A log cabin in the woods (actually in Europe, not Cortes Island, but there are cabins in our woods) – Photo by Ted Moravec via Flickr (Public Domain)
*Footnote: One of our thought leaders does not like to be highlighted (as if her opinion was something special) and another chose not to share his knowledge about specific parcels, so I decided to withhold all of their identities except Helen Hall, who was speaking for FOCI.
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