Tag Archives: Cortes Advisory Planning Committee

Housing, Politics

Cortes Island Zoning Bylaw Passes

The Strathcona Regional District Board passed the Cortes Island Zoning Bylaw. 

Regional Director Mark Vonesch gave an overview of the process at the Wednesday, November 19, 2025, board meeting:

“We’re at the last stage of potentially passing the Cortes Island zoning bylaw. It’s been almost a two year process of community consultation, both online and in person. It’s gone to the Advisory Planning Commission on Cortes, and it’s gone through a public hearing at the beginning of September. We had 140 plus folks attend that hearing, which is amazing. The reason I deferred it a month was that you have 200 pages of comments on this, and I wanted to take the time to read them all and to really assess what people’s challenges and also what they like about the bylaw before making my own personal recommendation.”

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Politics

Mark Vonesch’s First Year In Office: Things ‘Accomplished’ and ‘In Process’

Mark Vonesch is very passionate about Cortes Island and his activities as Regional Director. If this were a video, rather than a radio broadcast, you would see this it in his facial expressions. There is a hint of this passion in the words he chose and the tone of his voice. 

Cortes Currents asked him for a recap of this past year and what to expect going forward into 2024.  

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Politics

How Community Decisions Were Made

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The process behind a revision of Cortes Island’s Community Plan has been cited as an extreme example of how community decisions were made. According to the most recent (2012) version, “During the winter of 1983 and the spring of 1984, the APC (Advisory Planning Commission) and other community volunteers proceeded to assess the current community feelings concerning zoning regulations through an extensive questionnaire, including the tabulation and reporting of the results to the community, conducting seven question and answer evenings in homes throughout the island …”

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Politics

The SRD Has Significant Cortes Issues To Address

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By Roy L Hales

Some progress was made at the June 27 Strathcona Regional District Board Meeting. When the bylaw for Cortes Island’s proposed Hall service tax finally passed,  Chair Babchuk announced she wanted to do a happy dance. Cortes Island’s 2019 Advisory Planning Commission has finally been appointed. Frances Guthrie, Mike Manson, Carrie Saxifrage, Sam Mayer, Brittany Baxter, and Kristen Schofield-Sweet have all previously served on the APC. The bylaw for the proposed hall tax passed and, assuming that there are no hold-ups with the Ministry for Municipal Affairs, we are likely to see a referendum this fall, but the SRD has significant Cortes Issues to address.

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Politics

Cortes Referenda Are Moving Forward

There was a surprise waiting in minutes of the February 28th session. After all the spectators went home, the Strathcona Regional District Board briefly reconvened in public to make an announcement. The Cortes referenda are moving forward for consideration at the next board meeting.

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