Tune in on May 31st for the third collaborative monthly housing forum presented by the Cortes Housing Society and Folk University. Themed “Community Land Trusts”, this forum featured guest panelists John Davis, Sandy Bishop, and Lisa Byers and a following community discussion. This is a recording of the third monthly housing forum in mid-May, hosted over Zoom, with 28 people in attendance. Hear us chat about community land trust initiatives on islands in the US, Canada, and internationally, and about how these ideas could be applicable to Cortes.
Editor’s Note: The central question in two of the rezoning applications mentioned below is whether future owners can remove the covenants from land they purchase. This is an important issue on Cortes, Quadra and any other community where there are land covenants.
The potential rezoning of three Quadra Island properties was discussed at the May 22 SRD Board meeting. Rick Schellinck has received approval to hold a public meeting regarding his proposal to rezone 64 hectares at Gowland Harbour for future development. Two applications to remove covenants from properties, so they can be subdivided, were denied.
Regarding the second item, Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney had previously told the Electoral Areas Services Comittee, “A covenant is defined as a formal, solemn, and binding agreement and, overwhelmingly, the message that I have received from Islanders is that covenants are promises to the community, lasting promises, which must continue to be respected. These properties came with the covenants attached to the title. The purchasers of these properties knew that they existed. While the idea of adding one lot to island inventory isn’t necessarily bad, discharging covenants was seen by many as opening the door to more such future applications and a lessening of the formal binding nature which covenants are meant to hold.”
At their May 22 Board meeting, the Strathcona Regional Distrct (SRD) passed 3 important monetary decisions for Cortes Island.
Firstly, the SRD will be increasing the annual fee for waste collection by $10 a year. This will be paid through our property taxes.
Regional Director Mark Vonesch explained, “we’re basically being forced to do this because Recycling BC changed their support for the solid waste collection fees so that we’re having to make up that loss through increasing our fees, which we’re going to be doing over the next couple of years.”
A new exhibition in the Cortes Island Museum looks at the island’s housing from pre-colonial times up until the present. ‘From the Ground Up: Cortes Island Dwellings And Their Histories’ combines photographs and artifacts from the museum’s collections, stories and images from the community and a display from the Cortes Housing Society. Melanie Boyle, Managing Director of the Museum, took Cortes Currents on a tour of the exhibit.
Cortes Community Housing purchased a property with two houses at 671 Sutil Point Road. This will be the first property to go into the island’s new land trust, formed in response to Cortes Island’s housing forum last December.
“The housing society has been active on Cortes for 6 or 7 years and made a lot of progress in buying Rainbow Ridge. Having that acreage for housing and community needs is a really great opportunity and sets us apart in many ways from some of our other island neighbors like Quadra, for instance, where they’re working to acquire land,” explained Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of Cortes Community Housing.
