Tag Archives: Cortes Island Housing

Housing

Housing Society To Offer Event Series

From March through July of this year, Cortes Housing Society — in partnership with FolkU — is presenting a series of monthly forums featuring guest speakers and community discussion. These forums will address the vexed issue of housing — both price and availability — which remains a serious problem for the island.

The invited speakers have expertise in various aspects of this problem, and some will be sharing results from successful projects in other communities. Cortes Currents interviewed Sadhu Aufochs Johnston, executive director of the Housing Society, to find out more about this event series.

Continue reading Housing Society To Offer Event Series →
Housing

What They Heard: The Cortes Housing Report

The ‘What We Heard Report,’ from Cortes Island’s Housing Forum and the subsequent Housing Survey, has been released. 

“This is a really exciting document for Cortes. The intention of this forum that we did with the Cortes Housing Society and the Housing Survey was really to listen to Cortes and understand what the housing challenges are. We already had a pretty good idea from previous reports and information, but this really gave us a good sense of what the challenges are and then what do people want us to move forward with?” explained Mark Vonesh, Regional Director for Cortes Island. 

Continue reading What They Heard: The Cortes Housing Report →
Housing

Folk U: Housing, Emergency Management and Resilience

On January 12th, FolkU Friday was guest-hosted by Sadhu Johnston, who facilitated a discussion about rural resilience and emergency response. Joined in the station by Kate Maddigan, Eli McKenty, and Rex Weyler, this is a fascinating conversation about the confluence of emergency management and ecological protection, natural disasters and climate change, and the ways government, community, neighbourhood, and individual all play significant roles in rural resilience.

Continue reading Folk U: Housing, Emergency Management and Resilience →
Housing

Burnaby: Higher fines may be coming for short-term rentals

Editor’s note: An increasing number of communities are enacting regulations around short term rentals. Cortes Island has a 3% tax on short term rentals. Some residents need the revenue that STRs provide in order to survive, but 63% of the respondents to the Cortes Island Housing Survey said people should only operate short term rentals on land that includes their primary residence (I.E. – no off island owners). 21% voted against this.

Lubna El Elaimy, Burnaby Beacon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

During the special committee of council’s meeting on Dec. 6, committee members voted to send a letter to the attorney general and minister of municipal affairs to increase the maximum daily penalties under the Local Government Bylaw Notice Enforcement Act (LGBNEA) for owners of short-term rental (STR) accommodations. 

Continue reading Burnaby: Higher fines may be coming for short-term rentals →
Housing, Politics

SRD Zoning Bylaw Open House

On Monday December 11th, four SRD staff came to Cortes to hold a local zoning hearing at noon, followed by a three hour open house starting at 1pm. Cortes residents were invited to provide input to assist SRD in revising and updating the zoning bylaw for Area B.

SRD was represented by Senior Manager Aniko Nelson, along with Planning and Parks Manager Meredith Starkey and Planners Annie Girdley and John Neill. They brought with them several large signboards, and placed them at tables in the hall. The first table explained what a Zoning Bylaw is; subsequent tables were focussed on four main topics: Water Zones (foreshore, waterfront, harbours), Cannabis Production and Sale, Housing Density, and Short Term Rentals.

There was no formal presentation. On each table, a large sheet of paper presented various options for zoning law revision, and attendees were invited to vote for their favourite options by applying coloured stickers, as well as writing comments directly on the sheet. SRD staff also provided official forms for written feedback, which were gathered in a large “ballot box”.

Continue reading SRD Zoning Bylaw Open House →