Groups of people gathering around maps and notice boards in a large well let hall.
Development, Housing

Sept 12 Zoning Bylaw Review Meeting in Mansons Hall

Close to 60 Cortes Island residents turned out for the Zoning Bylaw Review Meeting in Manson’s Hall on Thursday, September 12th. The following article consists of audio clips of the main speakers, taken at the meeting, and an interview with Regional Director Mark Vonesch the following morning.   

Mark Vonesch: “Leading up to it, I think there was a little bit of tension in the air. ‘What’s going to happen?’ ‘How are we going to change our zoning in a way that’s good for Cortes and  protecting what we have here, but also making room for more housing  and addressing the housing challenges that we face?’”  

“I think the key takeaway is this is a process that we’re still in the middle of. There’s still lots of opportunity for input. We’ve had four meetings leading up to this. Last night’s meeting was about presenting the summary of the findings from the previous meetings, and giving us a sense of what the Zoning Bylaw draft is going to look like.”

Photos of Planning meeting in podcast and at top of page taken by Bill Weaver

“The biggest shift, based on the input from the community, is that people are looking to increase density on rural residential lots.”

 Annie Girdler, a planner with the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), explained, “We’ve also added the potential for an additional dwelling unit on lots greater than one hectare. Previously a residential property was permitted a single dwelling and one secondary suite or an additional dwelling unit.  The proposed change is that this property would now be allowed to have a secondary suite AND an additional dwelling unit.”

Another proposal is to increase in the maximum size of additional dwellings from about 650 to about 840 square feet.

Meredith Starkey, Manager of Planning and Parks for the SRD, stated, “The secondary units were previously called ‘Granny Flats’ in some places because it’s intended for your parents, in-laws or a renter or a couple etc, but our world is changing. There may be more families who want to live in a secondary dwelling. So, that’s certainly a possibility.”     

Annie Girdler: “We’ve also added a new provision on clustered housing and how to accomplish that. We’ve also removed regulations that are not in the SRD’s jurisdiction to enforce. Lastly, we’ve consolidated or removed zones that were either not in use or they were duplicate zones.”

“The current Zoning Bylaw is from 2002,  and as a legislated document, there’s several requirements under the Local Government Act that a Zoning Bylaw has to meet.  Many of those requirements are new since 2002. So a review is necessary to ensure that our bylaw meets provincial requirements and is legal.”

“The goal is to bring the Zoning Bylaw into better alignment with your Official Community Plan (OCP). We’ll also be removing or correcting outdated regulations, updating some of the terms with new language that’s consistent, and also addressing some of the modern challenges, which we’ve heard a lot about.”

Mark Vonesch: “Even with these changes right now, they’re suggesting we still have 26 different zones on the island, but I think we had more than 30 before that. So they’re amalgamating some of them,  using definitions and wording that’s more aligned with provincial definitions, which makes a lot of sense, and then simplifying it. Just making it more like a user friendly document so people can actually look at it and be like, oh, this is what this means, this is what I’m allowed to do with my property.”

Annie Girdler: ”Our goal for this phase of the project is to hear your feedback as a community. It’ll give us a chance to either confirm that the provisions look how they should, or revise as necessary if we were way off. This revision process will be ongoing, and then we’ll move on to the regular bylaw referrals process which will involve consultation with other government agencies, other levels of government, and First Nations.  Once that phase is  complete, we can move on to the bylaw adoption process. At that time we will have a formal public hearing and that will be the last opportunity to provide public input on a draft bylaw.”

Current Zoning Map of Whaletown – courtesy SRD
Currents Zoning Map of Squirrel Cove – courtesy SRD
Current zoning Map of southern tip of Cortes – courtesy SRD
Click here to access Current Zoning Map

There were a number of issues raised during the question period. 

Someone asked if the proposed bylaw was based on the one that was rejected in 2018. 

Annie Girdler: “This content is based on the feedback we’ve heard from our last four meetings, which started in 2023.”

There were concerns that greater densification would result in a larger population.

Annie Girdler: “One thing to note on density is it’s not prescriptive.  Just because we have zoned for one property to build six houses does not mean they’re ever actually going to build six houses. If we were to reach the maximum build out for our existing Zoning Bylaw, I think it’s 1100 more houses to be built on this island. That’s at the current Zoning Bylaw. Even in very high growth areas, when they allow more density, usually high growth is 15 percent of the build up, if that.  It’s different everywhere. Not to say that Cortes would behave like an urban centre, not at all, but typically we never see any community reach its maximum zoning build up.”  

Cortes Currents: When you said that we could have 1,100 more units even under the current zoning, are those mostly additional units in areas that are more difficult to access?

Annie Girdler: “It’s a combination of everything. So it may be that someone has  a 50 acre property and their current zoning permits  one additional house per 4 hectares,  but they’re choosing not to build that because they already have their house.  It could be any number of reasons why someone has chosen not to build to their maximum build out. We don’t know what those reasons are.”

Mark Vonesch: “So right now, technically, there’s room for 1100 more dwellings.  That was based on what would happen if people maxed out their zoning right now.  It shows that there’s already a lot of opportunity for it, but  that’s not really a true picture because a lot of these places are inaccessible.”

“One of the biggest takeaways for me is that as we do some changes to our Zoning Bylaws  and increase opportunities for more housing, we’re not going to see a sudden huge influx of population and huge changes. These kinds of things really change slowly over time. We’re just opening the door a little bit and making it easier for landowners and people to have housing.”

“My big push for housing from the beginning has been that so many people in Cortes – who live here, have jobs here, are already contributing to our economy and are a part of our community – are already in unstable housing. They have to move out in the summers, or they’re living in unsuitable housing.  I think that making things available for the people that are already here is the 1st step in solving our housing crisis. I’m not looking at  a drastic increase in population. I think a few more people wouldn’t hurt us, but really this is about creating housing for people that are already here.”

There are already properties on Cortes that have more than the number of houses permitted under current zoning regulations.  Thus, there may be a sudden increase in the number of registered houses if the new zoning proposals are adopted.  

(Starkey commented that enforcement on Cortes is largely complaint driven and the SRD does not receive many complaints.)  

A number of people expressed concerns about increasing the population on Cortes when we do not know how much water is available.  A former Salt Spring resident cited his experience of living on an island whose aquifer was overtaxed.

Mark Vonesch: “I think that’s a really valid question. A lot of places around the world, and other communities in BC have  just been like, ‘let’s develop everything. Go, go, go, go more, more, more, more.’ Now we’re seeing people running out of water, especially in a lot of Southern Gulf islands.  I have friends on Gabriola Island that had to ship in water three times this summer because their wells are dry. We don’t want Cortes to get to a place where we’re running out of water.”

“One of the things that’s really important is understanding our aquifer health, our watershed health, and that we’re modelling that based on climate change predictions because we know the trend is that we’re going to have drier summers. We’re going to have less rain and that’s concerning. We can’t just develop willy nilly without understanding the baseline of what’s happening with our water.”

“I know that the Cortes Housing Society has put in a grant application to do a comprehensive aquifer health and watershed study on the island. I think there’s going to be  some good announcements for that very soon.”

Someone asked if Klahoose First Nation has to conform to the Bylaws. 

Meredith Starkey: “It depends  on the tenure of the site itself.  If we’re talking about reserve lands, or treaty lands that are considered federal (like QXMC’s Squirrel Cove project), then they are not beholden to the Zoning Bylaw. If it’s land that is owned by the Klahoose but it is not treaty or not reserve land (like Gorge Harbour Marina), it is beholden to the Zoning Bylaw.”

Mark Vonesch: “It was a positive meeting. Obviously with Cortes, there’s diverse opinions in the room, but it was respectful. People listened to each other. There were lots of questions.”

“I think people are relieved to know that they’re going to take all this feedback. They’re going to come back to us with an actual Zoning Plan Bylaw Draft,  a whole document that we can look at. Then there’s going to be more opportunities for input. There’s going to be  an official public hearing, which I’ll be chairing, hopefully by the end of the year.”

“Then it goes to the board and, because it’s a land use planning decision, the ultimate voting for this bylaw will be made up by the four rural directors: Robyn Mawhinney, Gerald Whalley, John Rice, and myself. I’m really confident that we’re going to get the changes that we need and that are good for Cortes, both preserving what we have, maintaining our rural character and addressing the serious housing challenges that we have.” 

Links of Interest

Non Residential Zones:

Correction made Sep 17: The original version of this article contained screenshots of the 2012 Land Designation Map, the SRD has provided a copy of the current Zoning Map which was adapted to fit this page.

All photos of the Zoning Bylaw Review Meeting by Bill Weaver; SRD Poster Boards from the Sep 12 Meeting in Mansons Hall; 2012 Zoning Map from SRD website

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