Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee regular meeting, July 21, 2022

[0:00:00] Voice 13: Thanks, Louisa. Yeah, I'm Jordi. I'm the Acting Island Planner for the Salt Spring Office, and I'm going to speak about By-law 526, which is farm worker housing.

[0:00:15] Voice 13: So I'm just going to bring up a slideshow here. If you give me one second.

[0:00:32] Voice 13: So I'm assuming all of you can see that. Just to give you a brief rundown of the agenda for tonight,

[0:00:38] Voice 13: I'm going to start off with the introduction to this bylaw 526, which we're referring to as the farm worker housing bylaw.

[0:00:47] Voice 13: Do about 10 minutes here.

[0:00:50] Voice 13: It's going to take us probably about a quarter after four.

[0:00:52] Voice 13: And if you have any questions or comments on bylaw 526, I'd be happy to take those.

[0:00:58] Voice 13: Pending the interest, I suspect a lot of you are here to discuss bylaw 530.

[0:01:02] Voice 13: So if there are no questions or comments, we can move ahead.

[0:01:05] Voice 13: head but at the very latest we're going to start bylaw 530 at five o'clock so just keep that in

[0:01:13] Voice 13: mind and also just note that this is a an open house meeting so if you have comments that you

[0:01:24] Voice 13: would like to be part of the official submission those should be sort of written comments directed

[0:01:28] Voice 13: directed to the local trust committee and that can be sent to ssinfo at islandstrust.bc.ca

[0:01:36] Voice 13: or it can be dropped off or mailed to our office. You can call the number here too if you have

[0:01:42] Voice 13: questions about submissions. Comments or concerns highlighted in this open house will likely be

[0:01:52] Voice 13: generally reflected in a subsequent staff report but the verbatim comments won't be reflected so

[0:01:57] Voice 13: So if you would like a particular submission made,

[0:02:00] Voice 13: that it should be done in one of these ways.

[0:02:04] Voice 13: So without further ado, By-law 526 is a farm worker housing by-law.

[0:02:12] Voice 13: So why is Islands Trust undertaking this?

[0:02:14] Voice 13: At the end of last year, the Agricultural Land Commission

[0:02:17] Voice 13: made changes to their regulation that implemented some residential changes.

[0:02:22] Voice 13: It still relies on local governments to make changes to their land use by-law permission.

[0:02:27] Voice 13: Commission. So that's what we're doing through this bylaw. It also incorporates some technical

[0:02:34] Voice 13: changes to the Saltzman Island land use bylaw, and those are related to changes within the

[0:02:40] Voice 13: Agricultural Land Commission regulation as well. And that's related to things like the

[0:02:46] Voice 13: number of agritourism accommodation spots that you can have. I can get into more detail

[0:02:49] Voice 13: if you'd like, but that's fundamentally what the bylaw is trying to do. And another reason

[0:02:57] Voice 13: that this is being implemented in the way that it is, is that Unstrust is heard consistently

[0:03:02] Voice 13: from the Salt Spring Island farming community that additional farm worker housing is needed

[0:03:06] Voice 13: to support farm work. So what does this proposed bylaw do? It would implement a change to the

[0:03:16] Voice 13: definition of farm worker dwelling to include seasonal or casual employees of a commercial farm

[0:03:24] Voice 13: farm operation, and that's as opposed to permanent employees. It also allows farm worker dwellings

[0:03:32] Voice 13: to be used for family members, which is something that we heard is required for sort of farm

[0:03:37] Voice 13: succession planning. So beyond the change in definition, it would allow farm worker

[0:03:46] Voice 13: dwelling units on properties that are zoned agriculture one, and sorry, that should say

[0:03:51] Voice 13: agriculture too. It also makes some technical changes, as I referenced earlier, that are

[0:03:59] Voice 13: related to ALC changes around farm processing and agritourism accommodation units. I can get

[0:04:09] Voice 13: into more detail if there are questions on that as well. Broadly speaking too, it does implement

[0:04:15] Voice 13: a 500 square meter floor area limit on single family dwellings across all zones, so that's

[0:04:21] Voice 13: not specific just to a1 and a2 and there was a rationale as to why the bylaw was drafted this way

[0:04:28] Voice 13: which i can get into if people are interested but we don't see a lot of these types of

[0:04:35] Voice 13: applications anyway and then it also provides an option for larger farms outside of a1 or a2

[0:04:44] Voice 13: zoning to utilize subdivision potential to build extra housing without subdividing or rezoning

[0:04:51] Voice 13: and this was in response to a lot of concern or feedback we heard from the farming community

[0:05:00] Voice 13: about the need to try to support farms that are not within the ALR. So who is affected by this

[0:05:10] Voice 13: bylaw? The farm worker housing and technical updates relate to properties that are within

[0:05:16] Voice 13: agriculture one and agriculture two zoning and those farms with or those

[0:05:22] Voice 13: properties with farm tax status the 500 square meter limit on dwellings would

[0:05:27] Voice 13: apply to new single-family dwellings in all zones and then the additional

[0:05:32] Voice 13: dwellings on large farms which is the sort of subdivision potential

[0:05:36] Voice 13: utilization would apply to properties outside of a1 a2 and ALR with with but

[0:05:45] Voice 13: but there is a requirement that they be large enough to have some subdivision potential.

[0:05:51] Voice 13: Before I get into next steps, I just wanted to reiterate that there is this restriction

[0:05:58] Voice 13: on the use of this farm worker housing for farm workers or family.

[0:06:03] Voice 13: And that is going to be required through a commercial farm operation on the property

[0:06:11] Voice 13: as in it has farm status under the Assessment Act.

[0:06:17] Voice 13: So, with that, the next steps in this bylaw would be to go to public hearing, which has

[0:06:25] Voice 13: been scheduled for August 18th.

[0:06:28] Voice 13: Beyond that, assuming the LTC would like to advance this bylaw, it would go to third reading.

[0:06:34] Voice 13: It needs to be adopted by the Islands Trust Executive Committee following that, and then

[0:06:39] Voice 13: finally come back for Local Trust Committee adoption.

[0:06:42] Voice 13: option. So still a few steps to go through here. But we're sort of in, we've got into second

[0:06:49] Voice 13: reading. So the next step is some more consultation and hearing. I think I'll leave it there. If

[0:06:58] Voice 13: people have questions or comments, I'm more than happy to take them to get into more detail if

[0:07:03] Voice 13: anyone's interested. Or as I said before, that if most people are here to talk about 530, we'll

[0:07:10] Voice 13: we'll uh we'll move on to that but uh perhaps by a show of digital hands we could start to

[0:07:15] Voice 13: take any questions or comments i'm gonna stop sharing so we can see a bit bit better here

[0:07:20] Voice 13: i see a thumbs up from maxine if that's a question comment yep and i think i see michael

[0:07:40] Voice 6: okay i wanted you to be able to see me can you hear me i

[0:07:44] Voice 13: can yes uh

[0:07:46] Voice 6: you said that this applied

[0:07:47] Voice 6: Apply to all zones? Do you mean all zones on Salt Spring?

[0:07:51] Voice 13: Just the 500 square meter, which is about a 5,000 square foot limit on single family dwellings.

[0:07:58] Voice 6: This is a new rule. There's a no limit on house size on Salt Spring in all zones?

[0:08:05] Voice 13: This bylaw would implement that, yes.

[0:08:07] Voice 13: And this was seen as the easiest way to implement the ALR restriction on single family dwelling size, which is 500 square meters.

[0:08:17] Voice 13: um so it is a regulation it's not a definition which means that if someone wants to build

[0:08:24] Voice 13: something larger than 5 000 square feet they could apply for a variance as opposed to um

[0:08:29] Voice 13: trying to rezone but there's

[0:08:30] Voice 13: a bit i

[0:08:32] Voice 6: thought that this law this bylaw had to do with farming

[0:08:35] Voice 6: yes

[0:08:36] Voice 13: but

[0:08:38] Voice 6: you're saying that it inserted in there is one little line that actually affects every

[0:08:43] Voice 6: zone on the island not just farming zones that's

[0:08:46] Voice 13: right and that's due

[0:08:48] Voice 13: to the uh 500 square meter

[0:08:52] Voice 13: limit that the agricultural land commission has imposed on um single family dwellings so it's it

[0:08:59] Voice 13: was thought to be the easiest way to incorporate that limit within the bylaw because we don't

[0:09:06] Voice 13: actually see that many um single family dwellings that are built larger than that but if someone

[0:09:12] Voice 13: wanted to build something larger than they could apply for a variance i think did michael did you

[0:09:26] Voice 13: have a call yeah

[0:09:27] Voice 18: can you hear me i

[0:09:30] Voice 13: can so

[0:09:31] Voice 18: my question is um you know it's very uh laudable

[0:09:36] Voice 18: to have more dwellings for farm workers on farms but how are you going to prevent these

[0:09:44] Voice 18: new buildings or old buildings being used for airbnb well

[0:09:50] Voice 13: uh it's gonna have to come down to

[0:09:53] Voice 13: the same way we enforce on it currently which is through uh bottle enforcement which is extremely

[0:09:59] Voice 18: problematic and ineffective so in fact you could be just facilitating more airbnbs

[0:10:08] Voice 18: yes

[0:10:09] Voice 13: so i mean the the permission from the agricultural land reserve was granted

[0:10:15] Voice 13: um irrespective of any farming on the property um there's no requirement from the alc that the

[0:10:23] Voice 13: property be farmed to have this additional dwelling. So what this bylaw does is at least

[0:10:29] Voice 13: require, you know, to have farm tax status under the Assessment Act before you can build this

[0:10:35] Voice 13: structure. But you're right, the ability to utilize it in an unlawful way is certainly

[0:10:43] Voice 13: a risk. And the only other option that was considered was to require a covenant

[0:10:53] Voice 13: that restricted its use um but that was seen as perhaps being a little too burdensome um for

[0:11:02] Voice 13: property owners to reg to register sort of uh between the the cost and the the legal costs

[0:11:09] Voice 13: associated with registering developing register in the covenant um i

[0:11:14] Voice 18: would think that would be

[0:11:15] Voice 18: relatively minor compared to the cost of building a structure i

[0:11:19] Voice 13: would say that there's there wasn't

[0:11:21] Voice 13: consensus in the feedback we got from in particular the agricultural alliance they

[0:11:26] Voice 13: were sort of i think of mixed minds about what that would accomplish so an earlier version of

[0:11:32] Voice 13: the bylaw did have that um requirement but it's been dropped um but if you know if there's strong

[0:11:40] Voice 13: feeling that that should be included it certainly is something that could be

[0:11:44] Voice 13: could be reworked into it

[0:11:46] Voice 18: i think it's important yeah um

[0:11:53] Voice 13: i think i saw wayne

[0:11:57] Voice 13: and then meg i

[0:11:58] Voice 12: have a few concerns one is okay so the agricultural land commission

[0:12:02] Voice 12: basically made those changes to apply to the land on the agricultural land

[0:12:06] Voice 12: preserve right yes all our land so now we've expanded it out to anywhere where agriculture

[0:12:12] Voice 12: is allowed and because i worked on the agricultural and rural watersheds i have a real concern that

[0:12:20] Voice 12: here we go again encouraging people to farm in areas where like rural watershed was put in to

[0:12:27] Voice 12: to protect the waters of Salzburg Island.

[0:12:31] Voice 12: So what I'm finding for all the research I ever did

[0:12:35] Voice 12: is when you end up with a lot of farms

[0:12:38] Voice 12: in zones that aren't even allowed to have agriculture,

[0:12:43] Voice 12: because BC assessment does not check to see zoning

[0:12:47] Voice 12: before they give farm status.

[0:12:51] Voice 12: Okay, you can check that out with them,

[0:12:53] Voice 12: but I've talked to them a couple of times on that,

[0:12:55] Voice 12: because I have real concern that they do that.

[0:12:56] Voice 12: and so you end up with farms in areas where they were actually supposed to be protected

[0:13:03] Voice 12: and without getting specific areas just people i don't want to point fingers but there's a lot of

[0:13:08] Voice 12: them out there that have farm status in areas where agriculture isn't even allowed because

[0:13:14] Voice 12: there was reasons why they wanted to protect that area and they didn't want based agriculture so

[0:13:23] Voice 12: So my concern is you took away the covenant where you had it in the first bylaw, at least then you know that the covenant, that it's something that has to be abided by.

[0:13:36] Voice 12: And I don't see why you can't have a covenant that's like when we were working on to do with at the end of the lake, we had to have come up with a covenant.

[0:13:47] Voice 12: And we wrote a lot of wording to get it, but it was going to be like a template.

[0:13:50] Voice 12: So, why can't you have a template covenant that you can use on these properties when they come in there to say that they want to do this?

[0:14:03] Voice 13: Sure.

[0:14:03] Voice 13: So, yeah, just a couple points of clarification.

[0:14:09] Voice 13: So, this ability to construct farm worker housing does only apply to properties in the agricultural land reserve that is owned A1 or A2.

[0:14:23] Voice 13: So, that's the only area.

[0:14:25] Voice 13: area. So that's farmland designated. The ability to construct additional dwellings on farms outside

[0:14:37] Voice 13: of the ALR is dependent on the property size and the ability to have subdivision potential.

[0:14:48] Voice 13: Currently, in the bylaw, there is a provision that allows multiple dwellings on very large farms

[0:14:54] Voice 13: over 20 hectares if two of the three dwellings are deriving livelihood from agriculture so this

[0:15:03] Voice 13: provision in the proposed bylaw was

[0:15:05] Voice 13: intended to sit to allow the utilization for farms outside of

[0:15:12] Voice 13: borrow here not to be on the right of it somebody muted or somebody needs to be muted here um

[0:15:19] Voice 13: Um, so, sorry,

[0:15:24] Voice 8: lost

[0:15:29] Voice 13: my train of thought there.

[0:15:29] Voice 13: Um, this was in response to the consistent, um, feedback we received from agricultural

[0:15:37] Voice 13: community, primarily through the agricultural alliance of the need to better support farm

[0:15:42] Voice 13: worker housing for farms outside of ALR that are not, you know, zoned primarily for agriculture.

[0:15:49] Voice 13: Um, I do hear your concern.

[0:15:51] Voice 13: Absolutely.

[0:15:52] Voice 13: Absolutely. I will say, too, though, that agriculture is a principal use permitted on rural zones.

[0:16:00] Voice 13: So it is a fairly widespread permission.

[0:16:03] Voice 12: Yeah, it's not permitted in CD3. It's one zone I'm thinking of.

[0:16:06] Voice 13: Right.

[0:16:07] Voice 9: Which is Jackson Division.

[0:16:09] Voice 12: So there's a perfect example.

[0:16:11] Voice 12: So if you looked at how many properties up there have farming and agriculture isn't allowed and they have farm tax status.

[0:16:17] Voice 12: now you're saying because they have farm tax status they can now do other things under this

[0:16:26] Voice 12: bylaw that they weren't allowed before potentially

[0:16:30] Voice 13: i don't think it's quite as clear-cut as as

[0:16:33] Voice 13: allowing that to happen because cd3 is not like they'd have to recognize their subdivision

[0:16:39] Voice 13: potential if they had any to do additional there's pretty big

[0:16:42] Voice 12: lots up there right

[0:16:44] Voice 13: um

[0:16:45] Voice 13: And

[0:16:45] Voice 12: the minimum lot size is four hectares.

[0:16:49] Voice 13: Right.

[0:16:49] Voice 13: That process, without going into too much detail,

[0:16:53] Voice 13: would require covenants on those properties.

[0:16:59] Voice 13: If people want to go into the detail of that particular section,

[0:17:02] Voice 13: I can bring up the bylaw and we can go through it

[0:17:04] Voice 13: if there's interest in doing that.

[0:17:06] Voice 13: But I'm not sure if it's...

[0:17:10] Voice 13: Or Wayne, you and I could have a conversation offline

[0:17:13] Voice 13: about if there are areas of the island

[0:17:16] Voice 13: them that you're of particular concern um i'm not sure if and so and then just to reiterate i'm

[0:17:30] Voice 13: hearing a lot of support for this covenant idea i think wayne i've seen a couple comments uh in

[0:17:36] Voice 13: the chat as well supporting the covenant so um it looks like wayne i don't know if he's oh yeah

[0:17:43] Voice 13: he's frozen so i think it was meg next

[0:17:45] Voice 20: hi hi can you hear me i can hi

[0:17:48] Voice 20: there um just a couple

[0:17:49] Voice 20: questions about the 5,000 square foot limit. That does seem, I didn't understand your explanation

[0:17:56] Voice 20: of why that was included in this particular bylaw. It doesn't seem related. And I'm wondering

[0:18:03] Voice 20: on what basis, it seems like an arbitrary size, and also on what basis would a variance be granted?

[0:18:12] Voice 13: Sure. So the 500 square meter limit came because with some of the recent changes that the ALC has

[0:18:18] Voice 13: made they did implement that flora restriction on dwellings as well right because and i think

[0:18:25] Voice 13: it came out of you know these sort of mansions that were being built on farmland in the lower

[0:18:30] Voice 13: mainland so there is a restriction on the size and it seemed a little bit difficult to implement it

[0:18:37] Voice 13: in a elegant way uh to sort of then have to break out the agriculture zone uh single family dwelling

[0:18:45] Voice 13: permissions are limited to 500 square meters, whereas other single family dwellings in other

[0:18:51] Voice 13: zones would not be subject to this, it seemed like it was going to get pretty confusing.

[0:18:56] Voice 13: And looking at the number of building permits that we've gotten in the last three or four

[0:19:01] Voice 13: years for 5,000 square foot homes, it seemed to have limited effect on the number, on the

[0:19:09] Voice 13: types of buildings that we're typically seeing.

[0:19:12] Voice 13: you know I don't know what the justification would be I suppose it would be on a case-by-case

[0:19:18] Voice 13: basis as to why you would need a 5,000 square foot plus home but that was seen as being the

[0:19:23] Voice 13: better solution to implement this ALC limitation on single-family dwellings than trying to really

[0:19:28] Voice 13: start to break out the bylaw.

[0:19:31] Voice 20: Well it seems to me if you're going to have a bylaw like that you

[0:19:35] Voice 20: You should provide some sort of rationale in the bylaw for the basis on which a variance would be granted so that it's not just arbitrary, whoever's reviewing the application, you know, giving them just the power to decide what's valid and what's not valid reason for having that extra square footage.

[0:19:55] Voice 20: And secondarily, it doesn't seem to me that there's reasons for limiting the size of dwellings

[0:20:01] Voice 20: on agricultural land that are more or less obvious, but it doesn't apply to non-agricultural

[0:20:09] Voice 20: land.

[0:20:10] Voice 20: So I just don't see the logic there.

[0:20:13] Voice 20: I mean, there are many things that are done just for agricultural land, and I don't know

[0:20:19] Voice 20: why this wouldn't be another one.

[0:20:20] Voice 20: on. There is a potential rationale, whereas there's really zero rationale to make it apply

[0:20:25] Voice 20: to the entire island.

[0:20:29] Voice 13: Sure. I mean, typically, I mean, bylaws don't contain that type of criteria

[0:20:34] Voice 13: for variance approvals, and that would be at the discretion of the local trust committee

[0:20:38] Voice 13: who are your elected officials. And beyond that, I mean, I think there is a rationale for the 5,000

[0:20:45] Voice 13: square foot limit but i think that there is the the comment made that it doesn't track with this

[0:20:52] Voice 13: bylaw i think is is noted as well but if you would like as i say if you would like that to be

[0:20:56] Voice 13: an official submission to the local trust committee that you write that in saying that

[0:21:03] Voice 13: they should remove that provision in the bylaw if you strongly disagree with it

[0:21:06] Voice 20: and and thanks

[0:21:08] Voice 20: and what's the vehicle for doing that exactly uh

[0:21:10] Voice 13: it is the best way to do it is to send it to

[0:21:14] Voice 13: ssi info um i'll just bring this up quickly again maybe

[0:21:19] Voice 20: you could put

[0:21:19] Voice 13: it in the

[0:21:20] Voice 20: chat sure

[0:21:21] Voice 13: i can do

[0:21:21] Voice 13: that okay

[0:21:22] Voice 13: um so yeah if you send an email to this address okay address

[0:21:31] Voice 13: to the trustees it will be

[0:21:32] Voice 13: circulated great

[0:21:34] Voice 20: thank you oh

[0:21:43] Voice 13: yeah jen's got it there perfect thanks jen

[0:21:44] Voice 20: thank you um

[0:21:47] Voice 13: so i see

[0:21:51] Voice 13: Maxine's hand up

[0:21:53] Voice 13: and then I think Wayne

[0:21:54] Voice 13: Excuse

[0:21:55] Voice 18: me, can you tell me how you get

[0:21:58] Voice 18: the hand thing? I can't see it

[0:22:00] Voice 13: I think if you

[0:22:02] Voice 13: if you go to reactions

[0:22:04] Voice 13: at the bottom

[0:22:05] Voice 13: and then

[0:22:07] Voice 13: it should say raise hand there

[0:22:08] Voice 13: Okay

[0:22:09] Voice 13: So I think I saw Maxine's

[0:22:12] Voice 13: hand and Wayne

[0:22:14] Voice 13: I think

[0:22:17] Voice 13: I think you're still muted there Maxine

[0:22:22] Voice 6: If there's someone who hasn't spoken yet

[0:22:24] Voice 6: they should go before me uh

[0:22:28] Voice 13: no i think it's back to you and wayne oh and michael

[0:22:33] Voice 6: okay here's my

[0:22:34] Voice 13: question yeah

[0:22:35] Voice 13: when

[0:22:36] Voice 6: i heard this discussed before i was under the impression so please correct me

[0:22:41] Voice 6: if i'm wrong that this bylaw would allow two accessory buildings on farm properties that is

[0:22:47] Voice 6: is three total, and I just thought that that only applied to land that was either zoned A

[0:22:56] Voice 6: or was in the ALR. So please straighten me out.

[0:23:03] Voice 13: Yes, so the main provision of this bylaw

[0:23:06] Voice 13: would allow a farm worker dwelling unit on land within the ALR zoned A1 or A2.

[0:23:14] Voice 13: It also allows a secondary suite, which is allowed by the Agricultural Land Reserve or the Agricultural Land Commission as well.

[0:23:22] Voice 13: So, you could have the main dwelling, a secondary suite, and a farm worker housing.

[0:23:28] Voice 13: It does not allow for anything above and beyond that still requires additional application to the ALLC.

[0:23:37] Voice 6: So, does that size, what are the sizes that apply?

[0:23:42] Voice 6: lie um

[0:23:43] Voice 13: the sizes would be between 1.2 hectares and two hectares an area a 56 square meter cottage

[0:23:54] Voice 13: or sorry farm worker housing um which is the sort of 602 square foot if you're

[0:24:01] Voice 13: greater than two hectares it allows 90 square meters and 186 square meters on lots greater

[0:24:08] Voice 13: greater than 40 hectares for

[0:24:12] Voice 6: the for the second one for

[0:24:15] Voice 13: the farm worker farm worker dwelling

[0:24:16] Voice 6: farmer and does it so farm worker housing means they have to be working on the farm

[0:24:21] Voice 6: at least temporarily or part-time or something yeah

[0:24:24] Voice 13: it's it's so it's casually part-time employed

[0:24:27] Voice 13: in the commercial farm operation or it also uh can be used by family members so

[0:24:36] Voice 6: let's say someone

[0:24:37] Voice 6: has one additional residence do they have a choice whether to call it a secondary suite or a

[0:24:47] Voice 6: farm worker housing the

[0:24:48] Voice 13: secondary suite has to be contained within the principal dwelling

[0:24:51] Voice 13: so

[0:24:54] Voice 6: then they can't call it farm worker housing if it's in our

[0:24:57] Voice 13: if it's if it's if it's separate

[0:24:59] Voice 13: from the main single family principal dwelling it is a farm worker housing dwelling it's not a

[0:25:07] Voice 13: a secondary suite must be within

[0:25:08] Voice 13: the principal dwelling

[0:25:09] Voice 6: okay okay um

[0:25:18] Voice 13: i think sorry i think

[0:25:20] Voice 13: wayne or michael i'm not sure your other hand up first yeah wayne you go ahead

[0:25:28] Voice 12: okay so my concern

[0:25:31] Voice 12: is you're saying basically the feedback from the other agricultural um groups was not to have a

[0:25:38] Voice 12: covenant on there but if you go back to why we have the agricultural advisory planning commission

[0:25:44] Voice 12: which wanted basically it to be so it has to be have farm tax status and they wanted a covenant

[0:25:52] Voice 12: on there so what i don't understand is we formed a committee that got rid of the environment

[0:25:59] Voice 12: committee and all these other committees that we had before our alliance trust and for us both to

[0:26:04] Voice 12: have representation on the agriculture advisory committee to kind of cover those things now all

[0:26:09] Voice 12: of a sudden we're not paying any attention to the agricultural advisory planning commission

[0:26:12] Voice 12: we're listening to the agricultural alliance and the other ones doesn't quite sit right with me

[0:26:22] Voice 12: and the other concern i have is is that we're basically i give you an example right now there's

[0:26:26] Voice 12: one just got farm status first thing they did moved in a tiny home skirted it in so you really

[0:26:32] Voice 12: can't tell it's on wheels and then they turned the other place that was their seasonal cottage

[0:26:36] Voice 12: into an airbnb so tell me how are you going to prevent that thing from happening and how are

[0:26:44] Voice 12: you're going to make sure that the worker and i think this tiny home is i know the person is not

[0:26:48] Voice 12: the farm worker and i have no i don't have a concern about that because of the housing situation

[0:26:53] Voice 12: but what i have a concern about is if this is going to be a thing that basically gets out of

[0:26:58] Voice 12: control and airbnb ends up being it's just another way to have more airbnbs because i don't see how

[0:27:05] Voice 12: you're going to regulate they can't regulate the airbnbs right now yeah

[0:27:12] Voice 13: i mean i mean you know

[0:27:14] Voice 13: No, you're not wrong, Wayne.

[0:27:15] Voice 13: I mean, I don't have a good response to that

[0:27:17] Voice 13: because I would say that short-term vacation rentals

[0:27:22] Voice 13: are the biggest area of bylaw compliance

[0:27:25] Voice 13: and enforcement activity on the island, right?

[0:27:28] Voice 13: So there is that risk that these units, if built,

[0:27:33] Voice 13: would be used unlawfully.

[0:27:38] Voice 13: But then that's up to enforcement activity

[0:27:41] Voice 13: to try to regulate.

[0:27:42] Voice 13: But

[0:27:44] Voice 12: they've already tried to regulate the Airbnbs and all the other VRBOs and all the other ones already and haven't been successful.

[0:27:51] Voice 12: So how are they going to be successful on basically these new buildings that can be allowed?

[0:27:57] Voice 13: Well, without going into too much detail, I think part of the issue with enforcement on STVRs, short-term vacation rentals, is the fact that bed and breakfasts are permitted in many zones.

[0:28:10] Voice 13: So it sort of can be a fine line between what's a bed and breakfast and then what veers into a short-term vacation rental, whereas this should be a bit more clear-cut.

[0:28:20] Voice 13: This is a farm worker dwelling unit.

[0:28:21] Voice 13: This is not to be used for Airbnb.

[0:28:24] Voice 13: But, you know, the other issue that we've heard is that, you know, some farms want to be able to use these structures for agritourism accommodation, too.

[0:28:33] Voice 13: So, you know, I'm not saying it's not an issue.

[0:28:40] Voice 12: yeah i think

[0:28:41] Voice 12: that's just that's just asking for but we already know there's lots in doing already

[0:28:46] Voice 13: yeah so i mean the only other added layer of of control would be the idea of this covenant i mean

[0:28:51] Voice 13: that's sort of the only other tool that we would have to try to restrict this use um so i'm hearing

[0:28:58] Voice 13: i mean i'm i'm hearing lots of comments in support of this covenant i think i saw a comment

[0:29:03] Voice 13: that questioned the need for it but overall i think uh overall i think i'm getting the sense

[0:29:10] Voice 13: that this group is in support of reinstituting the covenant.

[0:29:15] Voice 13: So that will be reflected in the report to the LTC

[0:29:21] Voice 13: when it comes up for third reading.

[0:29:24] Voice 13: But as I say, if you have strong feelings about that,

[0:29:29] Voice 13: I would suggest that you make the submission to SSI Info

[0:29:34] Voice 13: to the trustees directly.

[0:29:35] Voice 12: Yeah, I will do that.

[0:29:37] Voice 13: Thanks.

[0:29:38] Voice 13: Thank you.

[0:29:39] Voice 13: and so uh michael yeah

[0:29:42] Voice 18: i'd just like to make an observation that um i mean i've lived here

[0:29:46] Voice 18: for an awfully long time and i know that a lot of the farm the properties that have farm status

[0:29:55] Voice 18: it's done for tax purposes and they do the minimum possible amount of

[0:30:00] Voice 18: farming just to qualify for that it's a money making or money saving device and i don't know

[0:30:06] Voice 18: if geordie you guys are aware of that it's something that those of us lived here for a

[0:30:12] Voice 18: long time know know about and the giving these people the possibility of a new income stream

[0:30:20] Voice 18: from airbnbs is a very serious very serious consideration i think i think that's all i have

[0:30:27] Voice 18: to say yeah

[0:30:30] Voice 13: i would um i would uh tend to agree with you that the farm tax status is a imperfect

[0:30:36] Voice 13: way to go about regulating this it's sort of you know the one one low hurdle to jump in a way um

[0:30:45] Voice 13: and there's you know there is no requirement that that be maintained you know someone could

[0:30:50] Voice 13: could obtain it and then let it lapse or if if the property is sold subsequently that they don't

[0:30:56] Voice 13: maintain that so there are there certainly are risks absolutely i wouldn't minimize

[0:31:00] Voice 13: those um so

[0:31:03] Voice 13: um i think i have a i do have a good sense of of the concerns uh that i'm hearing around uh

[0:31:11] Voice 13: the likelihood that that at least some of these are going to be used unlawfully

[0:31:17] Voice 13: um i see peter has his hand up i don't hear anything from peter

[0:31:30] Voice 13: Peter, and then Christine has her hand up as well.

[0:31:36] Voice 13: Peter, I don't know if you're able to unmute

[0:31:37] Voice 13: or might go to Christine.

[0:31:41] Voice 17: Sorry about that.

[0:31:42] Voice 17: Nope, there

[0:31:43] Voice 13: we go, Peter.

[0:31:43] Voice 13: Hi, Peter.

[0:31:46] Voice 17: I like the idea of some kind of control

[0:31:48] Voice 17: through a covenant,

[0:31:50] Voice 17: but is a covenant allowed on ALR land by the ministry?

[0:31:55] Voice 17: And secondly, if it is,

[0:31:57] Voice 17: what would be covered by the covenant?

[0:32:04] Voice 13: I don't think there's,

[0:32:05] Voice 13: this is perhaps not uh i don't say uninformed but initial referral of the bylaw to the alc

[0:32:15] Voice 13: and the ministry of agriculture didn't raise any red flags with this idea of having the covenant

[0:32:20] Voice 13: so i don't think there's an issue with island stress requiring this covenant because the ability

[0:32:26] Voice 13: to implement this regulation is at the discretion of the local government there's no you know it's

[0:32:30] Voice 13: not a a right that is a farm use that cannot be prohibited it certainly can be prohibited so i

[0:32:36] Voice 13: don't think there'd be an issue with trying to regulate it and the covenant um would just be

[0:32:42] Voice 13: you know section 219 covenant that would restrict the use and i don't know i haven't sort of gone

[0:32:50] Voice 13: down the the path of trying to draft one and get legal review on it but it would essentially

[0:32:55] Voice 13: restrict just have to restrict the use to basically what the definition of of the structure

[0:33:01] Voice 13: is in the bylaw right that it's got to be some be used by someone that's employed in the farm

[0:33:08] Voice 13: business or a family member but you know there are issues with enforcement of covenants too

[0:33:15] Voice 13: not to say that they're a perfect tool for achieving the type of outcome that we're trying

[0:33:20] Voice 13: to see here because they still at the end they still require enforcement and you know the penalty

[0:33:28] Voice 13: for violating it would have to be to take the property owner to court ultimately to get them

[0:33:32] Voice 13: to comply most likely which is you know a costly endeavor as well um i think christine was next

[0:33:44] Voice 5: great can you hear me i

[0:33:46] Voice 13: can okay

[0:33:47] Voice 5: so i just want to speak in favor of covenants i've worked with

[0:33:51] Voice 5: conservation covenants a great deal in the conservation arena, both on agricultural land

[0:33:58] Voice 5: as well as on conservation loans. And I would really advocate for covenants in 526 as well as

[0:34:10] Voice 5: 530, particularly for the reason related to short-term vacation rentals. It would give the

[0:34:17] Voice 5: the Islands Trust an extra legal handle, right, in enforcing against STBRs. And I would also urge

[0:34:26] Voice 5: that, or maybe emphasize that covenants can be written up very flexibly. And for example,

[0:34:38] Voice 5: covenants can require a landowner to report to the Islands Trust rather than the Islands Trust

[0:34:46] Voice 5: having to go out and put its staff resources into monitoring.

[0:34:51] Voice 5: And so I would just look at, encourage the staff and also the trustees to look at ways

[0:34:59] Voice 5: to streamline the administrative process and costs that the Islands Trust would incur with

[0:35:08] Voice 5: a covenant on these lands and on the bylaw 530 lands, whatever they end up to be.

[0:35:18] Voice 5: That's it. I wanted to

[0:35:19] Voice 5: put a plug in for that.

[0:35:22] Voice 13: Thanks, Christine. Thanks for the comment.

[0:35:27] Voice 13: I see Elaine, hand up.

[0:35:30] Voice 13: And then Peter, I'm not sure you still have your hand up.

[0:35:32] Voice 13: I don't know if you'd like to speak again,

[0:35:34] Voice 13: but then we'll go to Peter after. Elaine?

[0:35:37] Voice 19: Hi, it's actually myself and my husband, Tim.

[0:35:39] Voice 19: We share an email, so we only have one link.

[0:35:43] Voice 19: We have done Airbnb before,

[0:35:45] Voice 19: and Airbnb requires you to sign a document

[0:35:49] Voice 19: that you will follow all local bylaws and pay all taxes.

[0:35:54] Voice 19: So are we not as a community able to add a tax

[0:35:57] Voice 19: that Airbnb would collect

[0:36:00] Voice 19: that would make it prohibitive to have an Airbnb?

[0:36:05] Voice 10: Or at least fund local community housing projects.

[0:36:14] Voice 13: Yeah, it's a good point.

[0:36:15] Voice 13: I mean, it's perhaps a little bit outside the scope of this conversation or what I'm comfortable discussing.

[0:36:23] Voice 13: I don't think that we have that taxation authority to collect it.

[0:36:28] Voice 13: I believe that there's been some advocacy on the part of the current Salt Spring Local Trust Committee to ask the CRD to look at licensing of Airbnbs.

[0:36:42] Voice 13: and and that sort of with

[0:36:46] Voice 10: this with this new um kind of thing that we're talking about with

[0:36:51] Voice 10: the new bylaw um

[0:36:53] Voice 10: what i'm asking is can there be multiple uh units on one property

[0:37:01] Voice 10: given a minimum size or whatever can there be um a wagon wheel of uh effect around a central

[0:37:12] Voice 10: building with small houses

[0:37:16] Voice 10: in this framework?

[0:37:19] Voice 19: Will the by-law allow for

[0:37:21] Voice 19: more than one ADU?

[0:37:26] Voice 13: So for this by-law,

[0:37:29] Voice 13: no, it doesn't allow for that sort of flexibility.

[0:37:33] Voice 13: It sounds like what you would be describing on agricultural land would require

[0:37:36] Voice 13: a non-farm use application to the Agricultural Land

[0:37:40] Voice 13: commission first.

[0:37:43] Voice 13: It

[0:37:43] Voice 10: would apparently need to be

[0:37:45] Voice 10: on agricultural land.

[0:37:46] Voice 19: One of the

[0:37:46] Voice 19: bylaws doesn't have to do with agricultural land.

[0:37:49] Voice 19: We're not discussing...

[0:37:52] Voice 13: I'm not sure

[0:37:53] Voice 13: if you joined perhaps after.

[0:37:55] Voice 13: We're just discussing 526

[0:37:57] Voice 13: right now and then shortly we'll move to

[0:37:58] Voice 13: 530, which is a more

[0:38:01] Voice 13: sort of general housing bylaw.

[0:38:03] Voice 13: Okay.

[0:38:04] Voice 10: I'd like to ask a question too.

[0:38:06] Voice 10: Okay.

[0:38:08] Voice 13: So...

[0:38:12] Voice 13: Maybe I'll just ask again then if anyone has any comments on 526.

[0:38:16] Voice 13: I see Kathy.

[0:38:18] Voice 13: Hi, Kathy.

[0:38:20] Voice 4: Hi, can you hear me?

[0:38:21] Voice 13: I can.

[0:38:22] Voice 4: I wonder if in the application process for building new farm worker housing,

[0:38:28] Voice 4: if the Islands Trust or the Agricultural Land Commission Committee

[0:38:33] Voice 4: looks over the siting of such housing so that it can also be encouraged

[0:38:39] Voice 4: to be in places that are less um uh fertile for agriculture so it's not giving farmland and

[0:38:47] Voice 4: putting um a cottage you know where there's the best view because it's a nice open field but

[0:38:52] Voice 4: that's of course active farmland yeah the

[0:38:55] Voice 4: process the

[0:38:57] Voice 13: um the islands trust wouldn't

[0:39:02] Voice 13: doesn't have any requirements around sort of like total disturbed area of farmland

[0:39:06] Voice 13: I believe there is a maximum amount of farmland that you can disturb for this housing purpose under the ALC regulation.

[0:39:16] Voice 13: I don't recall what it is off the top of my head, but I believe, yes, there is a limit to how much can be disturbed for this before you have to then apply for, I think it's a fill use, I guess, for the construction of the dwelling.

[0:39:30] Voice 13: But that would be at the discretion of the ALC.

[0:39:34] Voice 13: there's nothing in this bylaw that would limit that but

[0:39:38] Voice 4: that maybe could be a part of a covenant

[0:39:40] Voice 4: yes yeah yeah okay thank you thanks

[0:39:46] Voice 13: kathy um anybody else for 526 good comments good questions

[0:39:55] Voice 13: appreciate that um oh i'm just going to check the chat here in case someone's uh okay so

[0:40:04] Voice 13: So maybe one more call, anyone, for 5.26.

[0:40:09] Voice 13: If not, we can move on to 5.30.

[0:40:14] Voice 13: Okay.

[0:40:15] Voice 13: Thanks, everyone.

[0:40:19] Voice 7: Thank you, Jordi.

[0:40:21] Voice 7: Jordi did a great job in explaining and discussing the file of 5.26.

[0:40:28] Voice 7: I'm here to introduce 5.30 and to receive comment.

[0:40:33] Voice 7: And if you have any questions, I'm going to try and use the share feature

[0:40:37] Voice 7: chair just bear with me for

[0:40:39] Voice 8: a second hope you can see it yeah we can see that okay good

[0:41:07] Voice 8: is

[0:41:08] Voice 7: this still good i did some i click on something

[0:41:13] Voice 7: yeah we

[0:41:14] Voice 13: can we can still see

[0:41:15] Voice 13: okay

[0:41:16] Voice 7: that's great i think a lot of you are very much aware of 530 and it is a bylaw to allow

[0:41:23] Voice 7: accessory dwelling units in quite a few zones and the intent is to help alleviate a tight

[0:41:30] Voice 7: rental market supply and to provide additional housing option. And this was something very much

[0:41:38] Voice 7: strongly recommended by the Housing Task Force. And the South Spring Local Trust Committee gave

[0:41:45] Voice 7: the bylaw first reading on April 19th, 20 of this year, and requested staff to proceed with

[0:41:53] Voice 7: with the formal referral, which we sent it out

[0:41:55] Voice 7: to all the agencies and community group and First Nations.

[0:42:01] Voice 7: The first bylaw was revised based on comments

[0:42:06] Voice 7: and based on also LTC's recommendation.

[0:42:09] Voice 7: So what we are talking about now

[0:42:12] Voice 7: is actually the revised version of it.

[0:42:15] Voice 7: And accessory dwelling units, also we call it ADUs,

[0:42:19] Voice 7: includes a different all types of accessory drawing units which include

[0:42:26] Voice 7: secondary suites tiny homes garden suites and seasonal cottage just

[0:42:32] Voice 7: anything that is detached basically and it's can be placed in or adjacent to an

[0:42:39] Voice 7: existing or new dwelling units on the same lot ADUs doesn't include

[0:42:45] Voice 7: include recreational vehicles or detached units

[0:42:48] Voice 7: that's on wheels.

[0:42:51] Voice 7: Building permit is required for all ADUs

[0:42:53] Voice 7: to address all the water supply,

[0:42:56] Voice 7: septic and sewer requirements.

[0:43:00] Voice 7: You might not be able to see this one very well,

[0:43:03] Voice 7: but it's on the bylaw and basically just highlight

[0:43:06] Voice 7: which the zones that allow for accessory dwelling unit

[0:43:12] Voice 7: and also

[0:43:13] Voice 8: secondary suites.

[0:43:20] Voice 8: We have similar

[0:43:21] Voice 7: steps, and likely 526 will go at the same time as 530.

[0:43:24] Voice 7: Right now, it's tentatively, the public hearing is already set, August 18th.

[0:43:30] Voice 7: The location is going to be confirmed, I believe, even by the end of this week.

[0:43:35] Voice 7: So if you check online, the location should be listed.

[0:43:38] Voice 7: And third reading is tentatively set up to be on September 6th.

[0:43:43] Voice 7: And then we would like to forward it to the executive committees for their consideration on September 20th and also have their first reading for LTC to adopt the bylaw.

[0:43:59] Voice 7: And if you go online to Add & Stress website, go to Salt Spring and click on projects right here.

[0:44:07] Voice 7: You click on it and it should open up a list of projects.

[0:44:11] Voice 7: You scroll down until you find Housing Action Program on AD News, then it will give you

[0:44:19] Voice 7: the detail of the bylaw.

[0:44:21] Voice 7: We tried to post a most recent version online.

[0:44:25] Voice 7: I don't have a lot to present because I know there are lots of questions.

[0:44:30] Voice 7: And just a couple of comments before I start taking in questions.

[0:44:34] Voice 7: I'm going to take some notes for my benefit so I can keep track.

[0:44:42] Voice 7: and even though this is recorded so bear with me if I'm not looking at the screen because some of

[0:44:49] Voice 7: the points I want to capture right away and the other thing I also want to make is that I have

[0:44:55] Voice 7: been with Island Trust for less than two years so I've limited technical knowledge not as good as

[0:45:03] Voice 7: and as strong as Jordi so he's standing by if there are some zoning bylaw questions I don't

[0:45:11] Voice 7: have the answer he's going to jump in and help me so with that being said um who likes to first start

[0:45:18] Voice 7: to

[0:45:18] Voice 8: comment or have questions hi christy hi

[0:45:38] Voice 5: louisa um i have some questions about um temporary use

[0:45:43] Voice 5: permits

[0:45:44] Voice 8: um as

[0:45:49] Voice 5: i think you know i've expressed my concern about the breadth of this bylaw

[0:45:53] Voice 5: particularly in terms of its potential long-term impacts.

[0:45:59] Voice 5: And I've repeatedly suggested to the trustees

[0:46:04] Voice 5: that some sort of phased process with evaluation take place.

[0:46:10] Voice 5: And I've wondered why a temporary use permit process

[0:46:15] Voice 5: might not be applicable for several reasons.

[0:46:21] Voice 5: to step into this carefully,

[0:46:27] Voice 5: to give the trust an opportunity to evaluate

[0:46:31] Voice 5: before opening the barn door really wide,

[0:46:36] Voice 5: and perhaps to develop, if possible,

[0:46:40] Voice 5: a streamlined process around TUPs related to housing.

[0:46:46] Voice 5: housing. And I'm curious about whether that is possible. I don't know. I'm not terribly

[0:46:56] Voice 5: familiar with BC land use law and also the Islands Trust restrictions around massaging

[0:47:06] Voice 5: things like a temporary use permit application and streamlining it for certain purposes and

[0:47:12] Voice 5: even reducing fees or covering fees and even allowing only a certain number before a review

[0:47:21] Voice 5: would take place. So I'm curious as to whether that has been explored and if you can shed any

[0:47:27] Voice 5: light on those questions.

[0:47:30] Voice 7: We don't usually have an accessory used to go through TUP because if it

[0:47:39] Voice 7: the accessories according to the principle, we should allow that. And the TUP, that is not really

[0:47:45] Voice 7: how we use the tool for TUP. It's really not allowed. And so, for example, someone wants to

[0:47:51] Voice 7: do something that's more of a commercial nature in an industrial zone, maybe we will give them

[0:47:58] Voice 7: three years to give an example that maybe they're illegally operated. We give them a TUP until they

[0:48:07] Voice 7: They find a location to move, and then they can reestablish in the right zone or go through rezoning.

[0:48:13] Voice 7: And so TUP, it's also very much prescribed in the Local Government Act.

[0:48:22] Voice 7: So it's not something that we can streamline.

[0:48:24] Voice 7: And so if we're allowing, I think the rationale, if I recall, in the discussion with Local Trust Committee,

[0:48:36] Voice 7: If we're going to support affordable housing and we're going to allow it, we should, like you said, streamlining, right?

[0:48:44] Voice 7: So try not to make it so complicated.

[0:48:46] Voice 7: If it is permitted, we permit it.

[0:48:48] Voice 7: So that is the rationale behind.

[0:48:52] Voice 7: We did propose to phase it, do kind of like a pilot area.

[0:48:59] Voice 7: My understanding is local trust committee feel there is a housing crisis out there.

[0:49:04] Voice 7: and we need to address that and also it actually costs a lot of money to build an edu and we're not

[0:49:17] Voice 7: going to see a lot of people start doing that and it's just kind of in a sense self-regulating it

[0:49:24] Voice 7: just because of that and there are other elements that you know coverage what area percentage a lot

[0:49:33] Voice 7: of it can make it pretty challenging for some of the properties. So it's not going to be flooded

[0:49:39] Voice 7: with a lot of the ADUs. Although that this is kind of like a one school of thought. And that's,

[0:49:47] Voice 7: yeah, I know it doesn't really answer your question. And I do understand, you know, facing it.

[0:49:54] Voice 7: But it's really hard to pick a certain area to face it as well.

[0:49:58] Voice 7: So,

[0:49:59] Voice 5: Louisa, I just want to add a couple of things. Thank you. I'm particularly concerned, as I think I said, about the long-term impacts of this potential bylaw, since it isn't final yet.

[0:50:21] Voice 5: And when I look at climate change and immigration patterns likely changing as a result of that, and the climate that we have being very, what should we say, attractive, potentially more and more so down the road to a lot of people,

[0:50:44] Voice 5: I'm really concerned about the future of Salt Spring in particular.

[0:50:48] Voice 5: And it's been at least my experience that down zoning at a future time, loading that onto the shoulders of a future local trust committee is a really big responsibility and maybe not even possible in a community to down zone when you've opened up a lot of zones.

[0:51:18] Voice 5: And so I'm curious about whether you've seen downzoning work well and work well at this sort of level, right?

[0:51:28] Voice 5: So

[0:51:29] Voice 7: the term downzoning has different meaning compared to the layman's view of what downzoning means. Downzoning, from a lot of the regulatory perspective, is actually rezoning. You rezone something that's of high density to lower density.

[0:51:47] Voice 7: city yeah why is down zoning uh and this is not doing that this is allowing every property that

[0:51:54] Voice 7: already are allowed to have single family unit we can add an accessory dwelling unit

[0:52:01] Voice 7: so

[0:52:03] Voice 5: so louise and maybe i'm using the wrong term what i'm referring to is that at a future date

[0:52:08] Voice 5: if a local trust committee wants to close the barn door again oh i see yeah yeah

[0:52:13] Voice 7: yeah i mean

[0:52:14] Voice 5: that is a very big deal, right? That would be a very big deal. And so I'm wondering,

[0:52:20] Voice 5: would there be a mechanism for it? And have you ever seen that happen at this wide spread a level

[0:52:26] Voice 5: in a community? Yeah,

[0:52:27] Voice 7: you're quite correct. Because of development right issue, once you

[0:52:33] Voice 7: permitted something, it's really hard to not permit it again. My experience and just for

[0:52:43] Voice 7: for information.

[0:52:44] Voice 7: It's largely from the U.S., so I just moved back to Canada.

[0:52:48] Voice 7: So I'm not very familiar with the BC legislation,

[0:52:52] Voice 7: but I do am very familiar with a lot of the issues.

[0:52:55] Voice 7: And U.S. certainly have huge issue

[0:52:58] Voice 7: with affordable housing and homelessness.

[0:53:00] Voice 7: And as far as when something is already allowed

[0:53:04] Voice 7: and then you want to not allow it,

[0:53:06] Voice 7: sometimes local government utilize the moratorium

[0:53:10] Voice 7: and it has to be justified.

[0:53:11] Voice 7: and for example like in my last job there was just way too many mini storage like they're not

[0:53:19] Voice 7: pretty they take up prime commercial land so what the city did was just issue a moratorium

[0:53:26] Voice 7: and to lift it we have to draft another language file to justify and make it you know just have to

[0:53:35] Voice 7: reevaluate the standard at the time but it can be done okay thank you sure i'm sorry i don't know

[0:53:45] Voice 7: who raised to him first but i i'm looking at my screen it looks like it's feeling

[0:53:49] Voice 8: yeah

[0:53:50] Voice 7: okay

[0:53:56] Voice 8: actually elaine and

[0:53:57] Voice 19: tim hi

[0:53:58] Voice 8: now

[0:54:01] Voice 19: we have concerns about what the limitations are what what uh we're

[0:54:10] Voice 19: We're opening it up, basically, up until now, if you had three acres, you could have a secondary unit.

[0:54:17] Voice 19: And now you don't have to have three acres.

[0:54:18] Voice 19: Is the basic change, or is there a possibility of if you've got one unit, you could now have two?

[0:54:26] Voice 19: Or is there anything written in it about that at all?

[0:54:30] Voice 7: I'm not sure if I understand your question, but the bylaw basically says it depends on the size of your property.

[0:54:39] Voice 7: And if you are under 1.2 factor, then you can have something of a 56-meter square.

[0:54:47] Voice 7: So we did not allow it before, but the second revision, we did open the opportunity for smaller lots to have an accessory dwelling unit.

[0:54:58] Voice 7: But what is your question? You're saying…

[0:55:02] Voice 7: Can I have two?

[0:55:03] Voice 8: No.

[0:55:05] Voice 7: So the bylaw is clearly saying you can have either just a secondary suite or

[0:55:10] Voice 7: ADU. You cannot have both. And if I have five acres, can I have two?

[0:55:15] Voice 7: No. If I have 10 acres? It's not about the size. It's about, like, you can have five acres,

[0:55:21] Voice 7: but if you have, it's just a single family. It's still its own single family. So you can have only

[0:55:28] Voice 7: just one single family it can have a larger adu which is what is said in the bylaw okay you want

[0:55:36] Voice 7: to go through a subdivision process if you want to have all the different single family okay thank

[0:55:43] Voice 7: you do you

[0:55:44] Voice 7: have a question

[0:55:44] Voice 10: so you'd need to subdivide a property to have multiple residences

[0:55:49] Voice 10: on it yeah

[0:55:51] Voice 7: and it has to be allowed in your zone depends on the zone there are minimum size for

[0:55:57] Voice 7: for each zones, so you want to check with the office

[0:55:59] Voice 7: if you want to subdivide.

[0:56:01] Voice 7: Yeah, okay, thank you.

[0:56:04] Voice 7: Thank you, Maxine, are you next?

[0:56:11] Voice 6: This is supposed to be a public information meeting,

[0:56:15] Voice 6: supposed to be giving information to the public.

[0:56:17] Voice 6: A lot of people have come to this meeting

[0:56:19] Voice 6: who have no background in this at all.

[0:56:22] Voice 6: And I think it's important to explain

[0:56:25] Voice 6: that there's two sets of rules we're talking about here.

[0:56:28] Voice 6: One is for properties that are currently allowed to have cottages, that means detached structures.

[0:56:36] Voice 6: And there's a very similar but separate set of rules for other properties.

[0:56:42] Voice 6: And that both of these apply, if I'm correct, to almost every residential zone on Salt Spring.

[0:56:49] Voice 6: So I want to check that that's correct.

[0:56:52] Voice 6: I would like to ask you if there are any residential zones to which this bylaw does not apply.

[0:56:57] Voice 6: And I would like to ask you how many properties will now be allowed to have two residences, either a suite or a cottage?

[0:57:10] Voice 7: So I'm going to go back to the bylaw here to show you.

[0:57:16] Voice 7: The bylaw itself should answer some of your questions.

[0:57:25] Voice 7: I hope you all have looked at the bylaw.

[0:57:29] Voice 7: If you haven't, I can put it on the screen.

[0:57:33] Voice 7: Let's see.

[0:57:34] Voice 8: I'm going to share the screen here. So can you see the bylaw on the screen?

[0:57:55] Voice 8: So basically, you

[0:57:57] Voice 7: talk about cottages and different things, but this bylaw,

[0:58:02] Voice 7: under the definition of accessory dwelling unit, essentially allows you to do anything that is

[0:58:08] Voice 7: detached it can be garden house it can be a secondary suite it could be some jurisdiction

[0:58:16] Voice 7: called secondary suites but it's really adus or cottages so we decided to just kind of combine

[0:58:23] Voice 7: everything allow any type it could be cabin could be anything except uh if it is on will

[0:58:30] Voice 7: it's not allowed when you talk about the zones so which are not allowed is the one that doesn't

[0:58:37] Voice 7: have the diamond on it and so ADUs are allowed in quite a few of the residential zones and a lot of

[0:58:46] Voice 7: these are actually multi-family zones that's why we're not allowing detached ADUs and secondary

[0:58:55] Voice 7: suites in the residential zone R is the residential R1 to R12 and then the table the second table

[0:59:03] Voice 7: table shows for rural zones. And so most, almost all the rural zones and also City 3

[0:59:13] Voice 7: and Forest 1 comprehensive development and Forest 1 allow secondary suites. And so as

[0:59:23] Voice 7: accessory dwelling units, there are some rural zones that is not included. So that is the

[0:59:29] Voice 7: to answer your question of which zone is not allowed.

[0:59:34] Voice 7: So it's only not

[0:59:36] Voice 6: allowed in multi-family zones.

[0:59:40] Voice 6: Pretty much.

[0:59:41] Voice 6: Yeah, pretty much.

[0:59:43] Voice 6: So the only-

[0:59:44] Voice 6: And how many are we adding the possibility now

[0:59:49] Voice 6: for people to live on Salt Spring?

[0:59:50] Voice 6: How many residences?

[0:59:54] Voice 7: I don't really know.

[0:59:57] Voice 7: We did a quick map analysis.

[1:00:00] Voice 7: but it hasn't been yielding the correct data.

[1:00:03] Voice 7: So at the moment, it's just look at what is the zones that allow.

[1:00:08] Voice 7: Maybe someday before, hopefully before the public hearing,

[1:00:12] Voice 7: we'll get some idea.

[1:00:14] Voice 7: But mapping doesn't really say true, doesn't give you the true data.

[1:00:19] Voice 7: This is just an assumption,

[1:00:21] Voice 7: seeing how many single family lot potentially can have the ADUs.

[1:00:27] Voice 7: use, but it's not saying they will all

[1:00:30] Voice 8: have the ADUs. Do you have any other questions?

[1:00:44] Voice 8: I do, but I think I'll

[1:00:46] Voice 6: let other people ask questions and then you can come back to me again.

[1:00:53] Voice 8: Okay. We're on Wayne now. Wayne, thank you. Hi, Wayne. Wayne, I

[1:01:11] Voice 7: think you're on mute.

[1:01:13] Voice 7: Sorry. I just noticed that.

[1:01:15] Voice 12: Well, they muted me. I had unmuted.

[1:01:17] Voice 12: said you're whatever somebody muted me but anyways that's fine um so on bylaw 530 and

[1:01:25] Voice 12: rural watershed one and two we didn't have secondary suites allowed if you look back

[1:01:31] Voice 12: at why rural watershed one and rural watershed two was put in was for protection of the water

[1:01:37] Voice 12: so here now we're allowing secondary suites we don't allow seasonal cottages which i think is

[1:01:41] Voice 12: good um there's a lot of illegal ones that were built without building permits in the watershed

[1:01:47] Voice 12: we know that from all the tours we did over the years so my concern is is that here you're going

[1:01:53] Voice 12: against the bylaw the island's trust policy statement 4.4.2 which says you can't increase

[1:01:59] Voice 12: density or intensity in any area that has an old water quality or quantity problem and we seem to

[1:02:05] Voice 12: be skirting around this all the time so my concern is we're not doing a good job protecting our water

[1:02:11] Voice 12: And also, I noticed in the bylaw, if you look at the feedback from the Island Health, they explain about the Drinking Water Protection Act and the drinking water regulations, which came out in 2003, and how it affects if you have more than one user on the same line.

[1:02:27] Voice 12: And all of a sudden, we've got no note in there.

[1:02:29] Voice 12: So the people aren't going to be aware of that.

[1:02:31] Voice 12: that's all it's just basically say well it wasn't really our job it's on health's job but it isn't

[1:02:36] Voice 12: their job because it's your job to put things in there to notify people to educate them so they

[1:02:42] Voice 12: know that they don't get in trouble with island health and i think that's missing because there

[1:02:47] Voice 12: was a comment came back from island health explaining that and it disappeared um i have

[1:02:53] Voice 12: a real concern that all of a sudden you've taken and you're saying secondary suites are allowed in

[1:02:58] Voice 12: rural watershed and rural watershed one and two when they were supposed to be our highest protection

[1:03:02] Voice 12: and a2 was our highest protection for agriculture land so all of a sudden you're basically throwing

[1:03:08] Voice 12: everything out the window and for all of us that worked for many years to try to protect the water

[1:03:12] Voice 12: you basically said well that doesn't mean anything now we can just do this and put a secondary suite

[1:03:18] Voice 12: in so does that mean i can take and connect a building already on my property with a breezeway

[1:03:27] Voice 12: heated breezeway and say it's a secondary suite because it has a separate entrance it can be part

[1:03:33] Voice 12: of your property without actually building one in your own residential house but have it connected

[1:03:41] Voice 12: to your house so it'll be part of your house uh

[1:03:44] Voice 7: i'm going to turn to uh geordie to help me but

[1:03:48] Voice 7: i believe you cannot have a breezeway i don't remember which section of the land use bylaw

[1:03:54] Voice 7: law that talks about uh

[1:03:58] Voice 13: yeah there is a section in the land use bylaw that is intended to prevent

[1:04:03] Voice 13: that uh arrangement from occurring that says you can't have two suites rooms that are separated by

[1:04:10] Voice 13: a breezeway or unenclosed space or garage um i mean it's not a perfect regulation there have

[1:04:16] Voice 13: been ways that people have yeah there's lots of discursions yeah but no i mean generally speaking

[1:04:23] Voice 13: the secondary suite is supposed to be contained within the principal dwelling unit but yeah

[1:04:27] Voice 13: i think that you know there there could potentially be a building arrangement that

[1:04:34] Voice 13: would have the secondary suite added after the fact that might be somewhat removed from

[1:04:40] Voice 13: not removed but you know related to the principal dwelling as opposed to directly in it

[1:04:46] Voice 13: so

[1:04:48] Voice 12: you're allowing and okay so you don't allow seasonal kinds of 56 square meters

[1:04:52] Voice 12: the 602 square feet we were talking about earlier but now you can have a seasonal secondary suite

[1:04:58] Voice 12: of 90 square meters and and so i have real concern how are we saying that we are basically

[1:05:06] Voice 12: not going to cause more usage of our water and draw our lakes down and whatever

[1:05:12] Voice 12: because that's what world watershed one and world watershed two were put in for to protect

[1:05:16] Voice 12: the surface water sources right

[1:05:20] Voice 7: we certainly heard a lot of the comments on the concern with

[1:05:23] Voice 7: with the water use.

[1:05:26] Voice 7: And in terms of your comment on the information note,

[1:05:29] Voice 7: I would like to take a look at that

[1:05:31] Voice 7: and we can certainly add it back.

[1:05:33] Voice 7: Is the one that regarding water

[1:05:35] Voice 7: that you're talking about, right?

[1:05:37] Voice 12: Yeah, the Drink Water Protection Act

[1:05:38] Voice 12: and Drink Water Regulations.

[1:05:39] Voice 7: Yeah.

[1:05:44] Voice 8: Okay, thank you very much.

[1:05:46] Voice 8: Thank you.

[1:05:48] Voice 8: Peter.

[1:05:51] Voice 8: Peter, we called you.

[1:05:56] Voice 17: Yeah, I have written to the Local Trust Committee

[1:06:02] Voice 17: before about um this is not the right way to do something to fix the housing situation

[1:06:08] Voice 17: this is not the right way to do it uh i think the crd is doing quite a good job in

[1:06:13] Voice 17: increasing the number of um affordable housing also from a greenhouse gas emissions point of view

[1:06:21] Voice 17: um encouraging developments away from the villages um again it's going to have a negative

[1:06:27] Voice 17: into effect on our climate action plan.

[1:06:30] Voice 17: But what I did want to raise is the whole issue,

[1:06:33] Voice 17: and it's been raised a couple of times just now,

[1:06:38] Voice 17: and that is the number of potential,

[1:06:42] Voice 17: the uptake from passing this by-law.

[1:06:46] Voice 17: In my day on the trust, and it's a long time ago,

[1:06:49] Voice 17: but we had a buildup, a buildout calculation done.

[1:06:53] Voice 17: what would be the build-out if all undeveloped land on the island

[1:06:58] Voice 17: with the current zoning were to be developed.

[1:07:01] Voice 17: And I think that's where the number 17,000 had come from.

[1:07:06] Voice 17: There is no limit on the number of people on the island.

[1:07:13] Voice 17: The limit is on the zoning capacity.

[1:07:16] Voice 17: And I think what needs to be done,

[1:07:18] Voice 17: and I think the public needs to know, is what would be the impact?

[1:07:21] Voice 17: Well, what is the build-out now with the current zoning, because there has been some development,

[1:07:28] Voice 17: there's been some protection of land, so what is the build-out now in terms of number of

[1:07:38] Voice 17: dwellings and number of development units currently?

[1:07:41] Voice 17: And what would be the build-out if this bylaw 530 went through?

[1:07:45] Voice 17: I suspect since 17,000 is probably a low limit, but probably not far from that, that the build up with this, if it was taken up by everybody that had the permission to do it, you'd be pushing somewhere in the 20,000, 25,000.

[1:08:03] Voice 17: I think the public needs to know that that's the danger we're facing, passing the bylaw and leaving it open for a huge increase in development.

[1:08:11] Voice 17: on it, totally contrary to the aims of the trust and totally contrary to, I think, the

[1:08:16] Voice 17: intent of the OCP.

[1:08:19] Voice 17: Thank you.

[1:08:20] Voice 8: Thank you.

[1:08:30] Voice 8: Is it Meg?

[1:08:33] Voice 16: It's Meg next.

[1:08:37] Voice 3: Hi there.

[1:08:38] Voice 3: I have a question on, I'm not totally clear on how this applies to existing seasonal cottages

[1:08:49] Voice 3: and the ability to have them as a home-based bed and breakfast.

[1:08:54] Voice 3: Can you explain if there's any changes there?

[1:09:02] Voice 7: It should not impact seasonal cottages if you are already in existence.

[1:09:08] Voice 7: And like I said, right now, some people can, under this bylaw,

[1:09:11] Voice 7: can actually turn their seasonal cottages into long-term rental.

[1:09:15] Voice 7: um and bed and breakfast it's we didn't change any of the this is not about bed and breakfast

[1:09:24] Voice 7: so it's not impacting it you still need to comply with the uh existing regulations for bed and

[1:09:31] Voice 7: breakfast okay

[1:09:33] Voice 3: thank you and so the this accessory dwelling unit that language um because it wasn't

[1:09:40] Voice 3: clear to me because if it's replacing the terminology seasonal cottage with this new

[1:09:47] Voice 3: definition accessory dwelling unit how and then that accessory dwelling unit specifically says

[1:09:52] Voice 3: that you must not operate it as a bed and breakfast it wasn't clear to me how that

[1:09:59] Voice 3: is not being effective.

[1:10:04] Voice 7: So if you already are doing bed and breakfast and if you're in compliance

[1:10:09] Voice 7: clients with the current code, it should not impact that. Seasonal cottages, we no longer

[1:10:15] Voice 7: identify whether it's seasonal cottages or full-time cottages, and the intent is to allow

[1:10:22] Voice 7: seasonal cottages to be able to convert into long-term rental. Let me just take another look

[1:10:31] Voice 7: at the bylaw and point out so

[1:10:37] Voice 3: would my uh for example currently you know uh less than 56 square

[1:10:43] Voice 3: meter uh seasonal cottage um will that be in the future called an accessory dwelling unit

[1:10:51] Voice 3: or does it yes and

[1:10:54] Voice 7: if you have and and again uh everybody can jump in uh if i'm incorrect

[1:10:59] Voice 7: Correct. I believe if you're operating seasonal cottages, you fall under the existing language for temporary, is it temporary use? Not temporary use, temporary, what's the term? Sorry, I'm looking at the zoning bylaw here, where it's a maximum state of, was it 45?

[1:11:21] Voice 7: five jody can you maybe jump in and help me out with this one here my computer just froze

[1:11:29] Voice 7: sorry about that sorry

[1:11:33] Voice 13: the what the what was the question the around the duration of stay

[1:11:39] Voice 13: uh

[1:11:40] Voice 7: how is the cdu impact seasonal cottages um i'm sorry i i can't look at my Bible my computer

[1:11:53] Voice 7: If it just froze.

[1:11:54] Voice 13: Well, the way that I read the bylaw is that the accessory dwelling unit not to be operated as a bed and breakfast home-based business.

[1:12:01] Voice 13: Is that the correct language that we're referencing here, Louisa?

[1:12:07] Voice 3: Yeah, yeah.

[1:12:07] Voice 3: Because when I look at the new bylaw, it says the term accessory dwelling unit replaces seasonal cottage.

[1:12:14] Voice 3: And then it says bed and breakfast home-based businesses are not allowed in an accessory dwelling unit.

[1:12:20] Voice 3: So it

[1:12:22] Voice 13: could continue as a lawful non-conforming use, but it's not permitted to be used as a bed and breakfast, because the intent in this bylaw is to provide long-term housing.

[1:12:35] Voice 3: Right, yeah.

[1:12:35] Voice 13: So how does

[1:12:36] Voice 3: that apply to an existing cottage that we have

[1:12:41] Voice 13: as

[1:12:42] Voice 3: a bed and breakfast?

[1:12:43] Voice 3: Yeah, you'd

[1:12:43] Voice 13: have to continue that use, and then it would be considered lawful non-conforming, right?

[1:12:49] Voice 13: But it wouldn't be permitted under the proposed bylaw.

[1:12:53] Voice 3: Even if we're under the, like, the, whatever, 602 square feet?

[1:13:00] Voice 2: Yeah, because...

[1:13:01] Voice 3: Like, we're not looking to make a big one, right, with the new size changes.

[1:13:06] Voice 3: We're looking to just maintain what the old bylaw allows for.

[1:13:11] Voice 13: Right.

[1:13:12] Voice 3: Right.

[1:13:12] Voice 3: So is

[1:13:13] Voice 13: that, am I

[1:13:13] Voice 3: correct in understanding that that is actually no longer going to be allowed in the future or am I misreading it?

[1:13:21] Voice 13: No, you're not misunderstanding it.

[1:13:23] Voice 13: And this was an issue that came up with the bylaw 512, which was the full-time rental cottages, which initially had a similar restriction, which was removed because of people's desire to operate bed and breakfasts out of them.

[1:13:36] Voice 13: So there is this tension between allowing vacation use of these accessory buildings versus the intent of the LTC through this bylaw, which is to provide long-term housing for people.

[1:13:51] Voice 13: So I would say, yeah, if you have concerns about your ability to continue to operate a bed and breakfast, that you should make that submission to the local trust committee through the SSI info.

[1:14:01] Voice 13: So I'm not sure if you were part of the meeting when that came up.

[1:14:06] Voice 13: But if you would like to make a formal submission to the local trust committee about this bylaw, that you should make your concerns to the trustees.

[1:14:17] Voice 3: Yeah, that is a pretty big concern.

[1:14:20] Voice 3: Like we bought this with the ability to do this lawfully and to have that law changed midway.

[1:14:28] Voice 3: you know we're a young family with children and this is part of our livelihood and i know we're

[1:14:34] Voice 3: probably a minority amongst this group um but um that's essential for us it's an expensive place

[1:14:40] Voice 3: to live and this is part of our livelihood and how we can afford the increasing mortgage prices

[1:14:46] Voice 3: and everything like that but

[1:14:49] Voice 7: as jordy pointed out you you are already in business so you're

[1:14:55] Voice 7: are legally non-conforming it's a different legislation that would be governing grandfather

[1:15:02] Voice 7: well

[1:15:02] Voice 3: actually can i just add a point we're actually in the middle of building

[1:15:07] Voice 3: our cabin um and you know it's quite costly as i'm sure you know to to build and um you know

[1:15:16] Voice 3: we're not doing this uh you know to just provide long-term housing at this point in time while

[1:15:24] Voice 3: while we're young and able-bodied and able to run it as a home-based bed breakfast.

[1:15:27] Voice 3: So that's certainly something we'd look at down the road.

[1:15:30] Voice 3: But yeah, having it change sort of midway is not very encouraging for us

[1:15:37] Voice 3: because we're going to great expense to do this.

[1:15:42] Voice 7: So thank you for your comment. I appreciate that.

[1:15:45] Voice 7: And I'm sure you're not the only one who currently have legal seasonal cottages.

[1:15:50] Voice 7: changes. I put a note to make sure I maybe take a look at that and see how we're going

[1:15:57] Voice 7: to manage that. But the intent is the focus is really for ADUs to focus on long-term rental

[1:16:05] Voice 7: housing. And certainly the intent is not to impact existing legal use.

[1:16:12] Voice 3: Right. So I wonder if that's something where with the new specifications on size, if it's

[1:16:20] Voice 3: already something that's bigger than that 56 square meters and that is called an accessory

[1:16:26] Voice 3: dwelling unit but the old ones that were previously lawfully permitted at the less

[1:16:33] Voice 3: than 56 square meters should still be permitted to have a home-based bed and breakfast as is the

[1:16:41] Voice 3: current bylaw yeah

[1:16:44] Voice 13: i think the intent and that's a good that's a good comment megan i think it

[1:16:47] Voice 13: It sort of, you know, highlights the tension that is felt with the way that people need to be able to use their seasonal cottages to support income, as you've said.

[1:16:59] Voice 13: I think the intent with the way this bylaw was drafted was to try to simplify the language around

[1:17:05] Voice 13: accessory dwelling units, recognizing that the seasonal cottage definition that people would

[1:17:11] Voice 13: only use them on a temporary basis is pretty outdated and not really relevant to the way that

[1:17:17] Voice 13: these additional dwellings are used these days.

[1:17:20] Voice 3: Sure, I get that. Yeah, but it does exclude a lot

[1:17:24] Voice 3: of people who are lawfully operating or would be operating a home-based bed and breakfast.

[1:17:30] Voice 3: So I think, yeah, that should really be looked at again so that people who are lawfully doing it shouldn't be then unlawfully doing it because the law has changed.

[1:17:43] Voice 7: Right. Is there any other question, Meg?

[1:17:54] Voice 3: I think that's all for now. Yeah, I'll let someone else go.

[1:18:00] Voice 7: Yeah, I don't disagree. The seasonal cottage one has been a bit of a challenge.

[1:18:05] Voice 7: I would certainly take another look at it and see.

[1:18:09] Voice 7: Ron?

[1:18:13] Voice 8: Yes.

[1:18:16] Voice 8: Thank you, Louisa.

[1:18:18] Voice 1: First, I'll just start with a comment,

[1:18:21] Voice 1: and that is that I think we heard that

[1:18:24] Voice 1: you don't have any numbers on the potential number

[1:18:28] Voice 1: of new dwellings that this bylaw will unleash.

[1:18:33] Voice 1: Now, it may or may not get taken up quickly,

[1:18:35] Voice 1: but it's likely to get built out over the years either way and I'm frankly astounded that the

[1:18:44] Voice 1: bylaw would get as far as first and second readings let alone third without those numbers

[1:18:50] Voice 1: having been researched and presented to the public so I would say that job one between now

[1:18:58] Voice 1: and August the 18th is that you provide good numbers if you can't get precise numbers give

[1:19:05] Voice 1: give us a ballpark showing the minimum

[1:19:08] Voice 1: and the maximum that you have estimated

[1:19:11] Voice 1: so that we have that information out

[1:19:15] Voice 1: for the public to assess at the time.

[1:19:21] Voice 1: I'd also say, now I agree with most of the others

[1:19:26] Voice 1: who've expressed concerns about illegal Airbnbs

[1:19:28] Voice 1: because given the ineffectiveness on cracking down

[1:19:32] Voice 1: on lawful Airbnbs so far,

[1:19:35] Voice 1: Naturally, we have no confidence that people who don't follow the wording of this bylaw

[1:19:42] Voice 1: and don't rent to long-term tenants, which is highly likely because the only way you

[1:19:49] Voice 1: can make a thousand square foot building pay, which is going to cost you about half

[1:19:54] Voice 1: a million to build, is to rent it out Airbnb.

[1:19:58] Voice 1: Airbnb. So that is indeed the main problem, I think, that local working people and people who've

[1:20:06] Voice 1: lived here and live here full time can't find affordable rental housing. But there's also

[1:20:13] Voice 1: another problem, and that is all the empty houses, many of them big, that have been built all over

[1:20:19] Voice 1: the island, most of them owned by people who don't live here or who only come here for a few weeks a

[1:20:27] Voice 1: year. These houses are either empty all the time or empty part-time and there's about a thousand

[1:20:36] Voice 1: of them. So somewhere in that thousand there must be hundreds that could be made available

[1:20:42] Voice 1: and the best way to encourage that would be to bring Salt Spring right away into the catchment

[1:20:49] Voice 1: of the empty home tax and the speculation taxes that the provincial government set up and which

[1:20:57] Voice 1: they've just recently expanded. Just this morning on the news our MLA Adam Olson said that he would

[1:21:05] Voice 1: like to see the Gulf Islands brought within these taxes and he's going to be talking to the BC

[1:21:12] Voice 1: government. Now has the trust or have our trustees already approached the relevant ministry to

[1:21:19] Voice 1: request that salt spring be brought within those uh taxes to discourage buildings sitting empty

[1:21:27] Voice 1: while others have nowhere to live

[1:21:30] Voice 7: i'm not sure about that um but i i heard about it but i'm not

[1:21:36] Voice 7: sure um whether our ltc has any conversation or not you're

[1:21:45] Voice 1: not sure well you know many people

[1:21:50] Voice 1: have sent letters of comment into the trustees over the last few months right this is this has

[1:21:55] Voice 1: has been brought up by many, many people, just like the STVR thing. And instead of the bylaw

[1:22:02] Voice 1: trying to close these loopholes that have been pointed out, the bylaw has actually grown laxer

[1:22:07] Voice 1: with each version. Originally, there were going to be the covenants. They were in version two,

[1:22:13] Voice 1: I believe, and now they're gone. I think there was going to be some more definite study of water

[1:22:21] Voice 1: resources. Now that's gone. And the idea that cottages can now be built in watersheds where

[1:22:28] Voice 1: no secondary dwellings were permitted is absolutely unconscionable. We can't do that.

[1:22:35] Voice 1: You know, water is a huge problem here. And the island is already growing at 10%

[1:22:42] Voice 1: increase of population in the last five years. So that's about roughly 2% a year,

[1:22:48] Voice 1: which is double the Canadian national average how are we going to find water if not only do we have

[1:22:55] Voice 1: this 10 percent going on for the next five years but we get another 10 percent which Peter Luckham

[1:23:02] Voice 1: just said on the CBC this morning was what he would expect the bylaw would would add in in the

[1:23:10] Voice 1: near future and he was tending to trying to give the impression that it would be very low uptake

[1:23:17] Voice 1: of this bylaw. So in his view, 10% doesn't really matter. So that's 20% in the next five years.

[1:23:23] Voice 1: Where are we going to get the water? Where is the sewage going? How many more of our

[1:23:30] Voice 1: woodlands are going to be clear cut? Where's the gravel coming from? Where's the concrete coming

[1:23:36] Voice 1: from? And the trust has declared a climate emergency. So all of these things are grossly

[1:23:45] Voice 1: contravene both the original founding mandate of the trust and the trust's more recent policies

[1:23:52] Voice 1: dealing with current realities the biggest one worldwide being climate change it's a climate

[1:24:00] Voice 1: emergency thank

[1:24:03] Voice 7: you um i have dave yeah

[1:24:11] Voice 11: thanks uh i would reinforce although i'm new to this

[1:24:15] Voice 11: this and i haven't read the bylaws i was actually coming here hoping to learn more and i have learned

[1:24:19] Voice 11: and more thanks to the the questions and the answers so that's good uh i i would reinforce

[1:24:26] Voice 11: the need to know what would be the ultimate build-out and uh i agree if it's going to be

[1:24:31] Voice 11: estimates has to be estimates and i agree we need that sooner than later that's uh critical

[1:24:35] Voice 11: information to try and assess the overall impact potential impact um i did go to meet and hall

[1:24:42] Voice 11: because i hadn't seen the recent change in location and it makes me think that there's

[1:24:48] Voice 11: There's only 25 people on here, possibly because you went online rather than just stayed with an in-person meeting, which for some other people is much more comfortable.

[1:24:57] Voice 11: So I think you need to, if you're trying to truly reach out to the public, you do need to think about that a bit more.

[1:25:04] Voice 11: I also do think some of us are signing on because we may be not so good at reading bylaws or it's pretty dry material.

[1:25:11] Voice 11: And so more information for those, I guess, letting people know what kind of meeting it is, more information would help those of us who are trying to understand the bylaw and perhaps become a bit more comfortable with what's being proposed.

[1:25:27] Voice 11: proposed although I must admit it's it seems like it started with a harebrained idea and the

[1:25:32] Voice 11: island's trust has just sort of continued along with it because yes we do need more housing but

[1:25:38] Voice 11: I'm not sure it's going to achieve those objectives so I don't I will have to read more of the bylaws

[1:25:46] Voice 11: but for sure we need to know and there's no reason why you're you can't come up with estimates and

[1:25:54] Voice 11: and make those public, what the impact of this could be.

[1:25:58] Voice 11: It's incredibly important to know that.

[1:26:00] Voice 11: I guess I'm going to have to go and look on maps

[1:26:03] Voice 11: and look at the zonation and try and better assess

[1:26:06] Voice 11: what the impact will be.

[1:26:08] Voice 11: But yes, having come to this,

[1:26:12] Voice 11: I'm much more concerned based on what I've heard so far,

[1:26:15] Voice 11: not only with perhaps the potential impact of the bylaws,

[1:26:20] Voice 11: laws, but also with just how it's been approached. You should have those numbers now already. If you

[1:26:27] Voice 11: were doing good planning, you would have those numbers. So I'm a little bit dismayed, but I do

[1:26:32] Voice 11: need to be more informed. So I can't even ask a more intelligent question. Just say I thank the

[1:26:37] Voice 11: people who are here, who are more informed and are asking questions. I thank the rest of you for

[1:26:43] Voice 11: that. Thank you. And I do thank both of you. I realize you're Island Trust staff. I was a government

[1:26:49] Voice 11: an employer for a long time, and you're trying to do the best job possible, and you're receiving

[1:26:55] Voice 11: direction from the trust. So I appreciate the efforts that both of you are doing as well.

[1:27:00] Voice 11: So don't take it personally. I understand what your

[1:27:04] Voice 11: responsibility is.

[1:27:05] Voice 11: Yeah,

[1:27:05] Voice 7: I appreciate your comment. And just one thing for all of you to know as well,

[1:27:10] Voice 7: this is being recorded for the benefit of the trustees, because they will be able to

[1:27:15] Voice 7: to listen to all the concerns that's been raised.

[1:27:21] Voice 7: I'd like

[1:27:22] Voice 14: to say, I can't seem to be able to put up my hand

[1:27:24] Voice 14: in this conversation, but if a chance for me

[1:27:28] Voice 14: to have some input, I'd like to join in the speaker list.

[1:27:31] Voice 14: And my camera's not working either, but it's Jenny.

[1:27:34] Voice 14: You know me, Louisa, so.

[1:27:36] Voice 14: Okay, Jenny, okay.

[1:27:37] Voice 14: I have

[1:27:38] Voice 7: three more people.

[1:27:41] Voice 7: I don't know if that's okay.

[1:27:43] Voice 7: Can you wait?

[1:27:44] Voice 7: I have Meg on my screen and Wayne and Peter.

[1:27:49] Voice 14: Yeah, that's fine.

[1:27:51] Voice 14: Yeah, just keep me in mind.

[1:27:53] Voice 14: Thank you.

[1:27:54] Voice 8: Thanks for mentioning that, Meg.

[1:28:01] Voice 8: I'm sorry, you're on mute.

[1:28:06] Voice 8: Is that for me?

[1:28:08] Voice 8: No, I'm Meg.

[1:28:09] Voice 20: Okay, thank you.

[1:28:10] Voice 20: Thanks, Louisa.

[1:28:13] Voice 20: Just actually like a point of information about,

[1:28:17] Voice 20: because we're on our property,

[1:28:19] Voice 20: we're already allowed to have an ADU,

[1:28:21] Voice 20: but it's that smaller size. It's either, I think it's 59 square meters. And so does this bylaw

[1:28:29] Voice 20: apply to possible new ADUs or would it also apply to us who are already permitted to have an ADU on

[1:28:39] Voice 20: our property? And my second question is we're in the process of design. This would actually be

[1:28:44] Voice 20: a primary residence until eventually someday a home is built but um so the obviously the

[1:28:52] Voice 20: difference in square footage is is impactful and so i didn't know uh i was curious about whether

[1:28:58] Voice 20: if we're in the process and then it changes you know i mean i wonder when that change might

[1:29:03] Voice 20: might happen what what the soonest that might be because otherwise we may end up pausing our

[1:29:10] Voice 20: um our design process depending on this sorry to ask such a personal question but i'm just

[1:29:15] Voice 20: interested in a point of information about

[1:29:19] Voice 7: there's a zone that actually allow edu at the moment i think you're referring to

[1:29:24] Voice 7: cottage yeah

[1:29:26] Voice 20: cottage yes

[1:29:27] Voice 7: i thought that was the

[1:29:28] Voice 20: same under

[1:29:30] Voice 7: the bylaw it's going to collapse and

[1:29:33] Voice 7: merge all the uses but currently under the uh existing land use bylaw it's only cottages

[1:29:40] Voice 7: But if you have a lot of concerns and questions

[1:29:43] Voice 7: germane to your personal property,

[1:29:45] Voice 7: feel free to contact us

[1:29:47] Voice 7: and we can talk about that offline.

[1:29:49] Voice 20: Okay, great. Thank you.

[1:29:51] Voice 7: Sure.

[1:29:53] Voice 7: Wayne and then Peter.

[1:29:55] Voice 17: Yes.

[1:29:56] Voice 17: Just coming back to the issue of numbers.

[1:30:00] Voice 17: You know, you've heard from other people that the long-term impact of this bylaw hasn't been estimated.

[1:30:07] Voice 17: And I wonder

[1:30:08] Voice 17: if you are prepared to recommend to the trustees that they actually do this build-out,

[1:30:14] Voice 17: potentially build-out from bylaw 530 before the public hearing in August.

[1:30:21] Voice 7: I'm sorry, what was the last part you said?

[1:30:25] Voice 7: Are

[1:30:25] Voice 17: you prepared to recommend to the trustees that they do the build-out calculation or estimate

[1:30:31] Voice 17: of bylaw 530 before the public hearing is planned in August.

[1:30:39] Voice 17: Are we going to get that information to the public?

[1:30:44] Voice 7: Like I said, we've been mapping the ADUs for a while now.

[1:30:50] Voice 7: We just want to double check if the data is correct.

[1:30:53] Voice 7: So that shouldn't take too long.

[1:30:58] Voice 8: Wayne, sorry.

[1:31:04] Voice 8: Under this

[1:31:05] Voice 12: bylaw, I'm going back to where I should,

[1:31:08] Voice 12: where I should want it to.

[1:31:10] Voice 12: We have accessory buildings, which we call accessory buildings, for 75 square meters, if my memory is right, for 1.2 hectares, and over 1.2, it's 150.

[1:31:21] Voice 12: So what happens to those amount of accessory buildings if you're now going to basically allow a secondary suite?

[1:31:31] Voice 12: Are they still going to be allowed to build all those accessory buildings and still have a 90 square meter secondary suite?

[1:31:37] Voice 12: No,

[1:31:38] Voice 7: the bylaw basically says you can have only one accessory dwelling unit and

[1:31:44] Voice 7: a secondary suite.

[1:31:46] Voice 7: So if you have a secondary suite, you cannot have a detached ADU, so it's only one per

[1:31:53] Voice 7: property.

[1:31:54] Voice 12: But have you now called all of what we called accessory buildings under 9-U Spot

[1:31:59] Voice 12: Law 355 as ADUs?

[1:32:03] Voice 12: Because then there's an ADU, which is not correct because it's an accessory building.

[1:32:09] Voice 7: no accessory building is accessory building you're correct so we

[1:32:14] Voice 7: would still allow

[1:32:18] Voice 12: sorry go ahead we're

[1:32:21] Voice 7: talking about accessory dwelling units which is

[1:32:23] Voice 12: yeah but i'm talking

[1:32:24] Voice 12: about what the current bylaw states for land use by law 355 where i think my membership's right

[1:32:30] Voice 12: we're allowed 75 square meters of accessory buildings for 1.2 hectares up to 1.2 hectares

[1:32:37] Voice 12: and then above 1.2 hectares, I think it's 150 square meters.

[1:32:41] Voice 12: And then they can take off, I think, 25 square meters or something or whatever.

[1:32:46] Voice 12: So what I'm wondering is all of a sudden now you've said, okay, you can build a house,

[1:32:51] Voice 12: you can build a suite in Rural Watershed 1, and you can have a secondary suite up to 90 square meters.

[1:32:57] Voice 12: But you haven't said, okay, now if you're going to have a place, because we're looking at protection of water.

[1:33:03] Voice 12: So now the accessory building amount should be dropped.

[1:33:09] Voice 12: do you get what i mean because now all of a sudden okay so you've allowed this accessibility so

[1:33:14] Voice 12: you're you're increasing the density intensity i don't care what they say you're increasing the

[1:33:18] Voice 12: density and intensity of an area that has water quality and quantity problems i'll use cushion

[1:33:23] Voice 12: lake for example because that's right there so if you're still going to allow you weren't allowed a

[1:33:29] Voice 12: seasonal cottage at 56 square meters in rural watershed one but now you're allowing a 90 square

[1:33:34] Voice 12: meters secondary suite but you're still allowing 75 square meters of accessory buildings or 150

[1:33:40] Voice 12: of your above 1.2 hectares something's wrong here with the density the densification and

[1:33:47] Voice 12: how much land clearing and all the trees and everything so

[1:33:53] Voice 7: all the the uh regulations apply

[1:33:55] Voice 7: the uh percentage of coverage on the lot still applies yeah

[1:34:00] Voice 12: but it's a huge amount

[1:34:01] Voice 12: out right so we

[1:34:03] Voice 12: tried to lower that back when we did the um the last ocp review and the real estate

[1:34:10] Voice 12: agents that are putting huge full-page ads in the paper and they had to drop it so you're not

[1:34:15] Voice 12: going to probably lower that amount of luck how much you can cover because you're going to get a

[1:34:22] Voice 12: human cry from the people that a lot of people who don't own property on the island who don't live

[1:34:27] Voice 12: you and there was a terrible ruckus and so right away it's like everything else they just dropped

[1:34:33] Voice 12: it so

[1:34:35] Voice 8: if

[1:34:36] Voice 12: you're really serious about protecting water i don't know why you're allowing accessories

[1:34:40] Voice 12: you're allowing secondary suites in the rural watershed one or two because if you go back to

[1:34:49] Voice 12: the original bylaws and you look at the wording it was supposed to be and not allowed in the

[1:34:54] Voice 12: islets well that is islet we're a watershed one we're a watershed too thank

[1:35:03] Voice 7: you for your comment

[1:35:04] Voice 7: i uh any other questions and

[1:35:07] Voice 12: my other concern is okay so we have take cd3 allows us a seasonal

[1:35:12] Voice 12: cottage but it has to be a bigger than the standard size because they were trying to

[1:35:16] Voice 12: protect that area really well up on jasper subdivision and so now all of a sudden we've

[1:35:21] Voice 8: allowed it to go smaller so look at land use file 353 and look at the zoning for cd3

[1:35:31] Voice 8: and it has a minimum lot size for a seasonal cottage which is different than what you have

[1:35:40] Voice 8: in other areas of the island so

[1:35:45] Voice 12: they need to look at this i don't think they've looked at this that

[1:35:47] Voice 12: carefully i think this is why this whole thing has been worked on too quickly i don't think

[1:35:52] Voice 12: you've received enough public input and all of a sudden we changed over camera with the bylaw we

[1:36:04] Voice 12: no 526 the other one 528 or whatever and we dropped that one and we went to 530 well what

[1:36:09] Voice 12: about all the input that came in for the other bylaw it applies to this one mainly and yet it's

[1:36:15] Voice 12: nowhere is in the when you look at the staff reports and you look at the correspondence from

[1:36:19] Voice 12: the public there's nothing in there about it it didn't just transfer over to the new 530 so i

[1:36:26] Voice 12: think they're doing i have a really problem with the honest trust right now because i've supported

[1:36:30] Voice 12: dishonest chest for over 30 some years as a strong supporter and right now i basically have washed my

[1:36:36] Voice 12: hands of them i really think they're doing a terrible job i do not think they're preserving

[1:36:40] Voice 12: protecting and i think they need to get back to what their mandate is and that's all i'm going to

[1:36:46] Voice 12: say thank

[1:36:48] Voice 7: you i have maxine and then uh oh

[1:36:51] Voice 16: sorry loriza we have jenny reynolds she had mentioned

[1:36:54] Voice 16: she couldn't get her hand up we have her next

[1:36:56] Voice 16: after wayne hi

[1:36:58] Voice 14: thank you thanks for um keeping

[1:37:01] Voice 14: track of me jen thank you so i guess that what we're noticing right now is a lot of changes with

[1:37:10] Voice 14: the province overriding salt spring island i had i don't know that this has taken into account

[1:37:19] Voice 14: count bc housing and the new powers of bc housing in front of me i have this information paper on

[1:37:27] Voice 14: 154 kings lane put up by bc housing and one of the questions it hopes to answer is this question it

[1:37:34] Voice 14: has does it need rezoning and they give the answer it is important to move forward as quickly as

[1:37:40] Voice 14: possible to ensure that no one is displaced etc etc the province through bc housing is issuing

[1:37:48] Voice 14: doing statutory immunity to expedite the development of these temporary homes.

[1:37:54] Voice 14: So right now we're in this period of time where BC Housing has been empowered by the

[1:38:00] Voice 14: province to have a budget that's larger than they've ever had before and also powers over

[1:38:07] Voice 14: all the unincorporated areas, villages, towns, cities of all of British Columbia for this

[1:38:15] Voice 14: kind of thing called statutory immunity so it seems to me that the work that's

[1:38:23] Voice 14: being done with these bylaws like by law 530 hasn't really kept up with what's

[1:38:29] Voice 14: going on now from the province because they sort of have their own ideas about

[1:38:34] Voice 14: what they think is going to happen to solve the housing crisis because they're

[1:38:40] Voice 14: kind of going to just keep going keep interacting with Salt Spring to create

[1:38:45] Voice 14: their plans and so I'm just wondering what's going on with Islands Trust in

[1:38:49] Voice 14: terms of working together with these new ideas that are going on with the

[1:38:56] Voice 14: province and new powers that are rolling over how traditionally we've done things

[1:39:01] Voice 14: and actually further on in this information paper they give BC Housing

[1:39:07] Voice 14: gives a statement the Black Diamond Group owns the housing and will provide

[1:39:11] Voice 14: services such as water electricity and sewage and garbage collection they're

[1:39:15] Voice 14: talking about 154 Kings Lane so this is very interesting on an island where we

[1:39:20] Voice 14: have a water moratorium we don't really know of the amount of groundwater will

[1:39:25] Voice 14: match the amount of housing that's going to be allowed sewage is something where

[1:39:31] Voice 14: there's a conflict between septic and groundwater and that hasn't necessarily

[1:39:37] Voice 14: necessarily even been fully explored for some of the sites that are going to accept density.

[1:39:44] Voice 14: And I know I'm talking about kind of a Ganges-oriented question, but it is something

[1:39:50] Voice 14: where every part of Salt Spring can potentially come under the statutory immunity. So I'm just

[1:39:56] Voice 14: wondering if there's been any work done to connect with the province. Thanks.

[1:40:00] Voice 14: Thank

[1:40:01] Voice 7: you. I can't really comment on beyond the ADU because today's focus is on the bylaw to get comments and questions. But just so you know, we do collaborate with the province as much as we can. So I appreciate your comment.

[1:40:24] Voice 7: Thank you.

[1:40:27] Voice 16: Do we want to bounce back to Maxine? I know you've been waiting for a bit.

[1:40:31] Voice 6: Yeah.

[1:40:33] Voice 16: Go ahead.

[1:40:35] Voice 6: Well, there's been a lot of talk about counting the number of units that this would bring.

[1:40:42] Voice 6: And I just want to point out that we have a part of our official community plan.

[1:40:49] Voice 6: And what it says is zoning changes are to be avoided if they would likely result in a larger island population than is expected under the development potential in 2008.

[1:41:05] Voice 6: exceptions to this policy are to be few and minor and only to achieve affordable housing

[1:41:12] Voice 6: and other objectives of this plan. So what that says is that the exceptions are to be few and

[1:41:19] Voice 6: minor and only for affordable housing. Since that time, if you do account, you should account

[1:41:28] Voice 6: count for all the permissions for additional residences that have been given since this

[1:41:36] Voice 6: bylaw was adopted, since the zoning potential of 208. And I'll just run through a few of them.

[1:41:45] Voice 6: The general employment zones were created from previous industrial zones, and each one was

[1:41:51] Voice 6: allowed to have an accessory dwelling. We'd like to know how many those are.

[1:41:58] Voice 6: 411 properties were allowed to have full-time occupancy of cottages and 1260 properties were

[1:42:06] Voice 6: allowed to have full-time occupancy of suites. In addition to that, zone change risks were made for

[1:42:15] Voice 6: for true affordable housing, actual, you know, 100% affordable housing for at least around 200,

[1:42:24] Voice 6: I think. And then there's also rezonings that were allowed for senior housing. So all of those

[1:42:31] Voice 6: need to be counted and then tell us how many additional properties will, how many additional

[1:42:39] Voice 6: permissions for residences there will be if this bylaw is passed, okay? Because there's a difference

[1:42:45] Voice 6: between if you just assume all these that have already been done, you'd say, well, we're only

[1:42:50] Voice 6: adding such and such. You have to also count these previous additions. And my question is,

[1:42:59] Voice 6: I just don't see how adding all these residents could possibly be consistent with this OCP policy.

[1:43:07] Voice 6: And I want to point out that the trust, the whole trust has a policy that local trust committees must respect population limits in their OCPs.

[1:43:20] Voice 6: So I don't see how this bylaw is consistent with that either.

[1:43:25] Voice 6: So please tell me how that is.

[1:43:28] Voice 6: how that is um

[1:43:31] Voice 7: a lot of the policies within the ocp also support the um affordable housing

[1:43:39] Voice 7: and addressing housing issues those are the yes

[1:43:43] Voice 6: yes it says here yes few and minor

[1:43:48] Voice 6: few and my we've already added probably 3 000 i'd say would be a modest estimate

[1:43:57] Voice 6: met, but at least 2,000 for sure. Right.

[1:44:02] Voice 6: So how can adding more be few and minor?

[1:44:06] Voice 7: So that policy,

[1:44:10] Voice 7: if I recall correctly, I don't have it in front, but the whole statement is not talking about units

[1:44:16] Voice 7: to be few and minor. It's talking about making exceptions for a trustee to make policy exception

[1:44:24] Voice 7: to be few and minor and a local trust committee.

[1:44:29] Voice 7: No, no,

[1:44:29] Voice 6: no. That's not what it says. Exceptions to this policy.

[1:44:33] Voice 6: The policy is that zone changes should be avoided if they would like to

[1:44:38] Voice 6: result in a larger population. That's the policy.

[1:44:43] Voice 6: Exceptions to this policy are to be few and minor. I'm sorry,

[1:44:50] Voice 6: but that's what it says.

[1:44:52] Voice 7: I'm not here to debate or argue with you.

[1:44:55] Voice 7: And I believe from the trustee's perspective, this is considered fuel and minor.

[1:45:05] Voice 7: And I think that was even discussed at the first reading, that the trustee feel that it is consistent with the OCP.

[1:45:24] Voice 7: I'm trying to pull that policy.

[1:45:30] Voice 7: So I don't mean to ignore your comment.

[1:45:34] Voice 7: I do agree that from staff's perspective, we certainly can do something more about the OCP.

[1:45:45] Voice 7: The OCP certainly, it's time for us to relook at it and see if it is time to do an update.

[1:45:51] Voice 7: And that is part of the Housing Action Program to look at that more holistically.

[1:45:55] Voice 7: And the intent is to also look at policy, not only support affordable housing, but having affordable housing without jeopardizing the environment.

[1:46:04] Voice 7: So that's another separate effort that is being underway that we are looking at. But as far as the ADU, we really are doing our best to try and make sure that it's not going to be inconsistent with the OCP.

[1:46:21] Voice 7: So one thing that we thought originally is having the Covenant that will help because the Covenant can help us monitor and control.

[1:46:32] Voice 7: But it seems to be it was determined to be too restrictive.

[1:46:36] Voice 7: And it's you know, it's not something that's going to be very effective.

[1:46:42] Voice 7: So that was taken out. I would say right now.

[1:46:47] Voice 7: Now, again, I'm not here to defend.

[1:46:49] Voice 7: This is not the intent of this open house.

[1:46:52] Voice 7: It's really just kind of listen and bring back the comments to LTC.

[1:46:57] Voice 7: So I will say perhaps if you want to, I know Maxine, you probably will be at the public

[1:47:04] Voice 7: hearing to express your concern, but you can certainly also email us and let us know, you

[1:47:10] Voice 7: know, specifically how you want that to be shared with the trustees.

[1:47:14] Voice 6: Well, I think it's not consistent.

[1:47:17] Voice 6: And I think it's the staff's responsibility to point that out.

[1:47:22] Voice 6: And it's totally, on the face of it, completely inconsistent.

[1:47:28] Voice 6: And I don't see why the staff isn't saying that.

[1:47:32] Voice 7: We did point it out at the very first time when secondary suite came out.

[1:47:38] Voice 7: And we do recommend that to focus on secondary suites.

[1:47:42] Voice 7: Take one step at a time.

[1:47:43] Voice 7: and I think I don't want to misspoke I think a lot of the time you know we

[1:47:52] Voice 7: serve the end of the direction of LTC and the housing task force they they

[1:47:57] Voice 7: really support this initiative and they feel there's the urgency so we do look

[1:48:05] Voice 7: at the draft bylaw as carefully as we can to make sure that it's not running a

[1:48:10] Voice 7: a file with the OCP. If we do, if we feel that it is seriously inconsistent, we will make that

[1:48:17] Voice 7: recommendation. That's for sure.

[1:48:19] Voice 6: Well, that's, that's what you need to do because this is

[1:48:23] Voice 6: inconsistent and we're going to pursue this through the executive. And if this gets passed

[1:48:29] Voice 6: through the trust council and whether it's consistent or not is critical. And I just don't

[1:48:37] Voice 6: see any way under human logic that adding thousands and thousands of residential permissions

[1:48:44] Voice 6: is consistent with this OCP provision.

[1:48:53] Voice 8: Thank you.

[1:48:57] Voice 8: I

[1:48:57] Voice 7: think Christine is next.

[1:49:01] Voice 5: I don't think Michael has spoken yet, so I'd like him to go ahead, because I've already

[1:49:06] Voice 5: spoken once.

[1:49:08] Voice 18: I did speak once, actually.

[1:49:11] Voice 18: Actually that was five to six, wasn't it, I think, maybe.

[1:49:14] Voice 18: Yeah. Okay, I'll speak. Let me just, yeah, I'd like to make an observation about the speed with which this is happening. It seems to me, what has been said by the trustees and in this meeting too, that it is a huge change to the provisions and the possible build out of this island.

[1:49:41] Voice 18: And it's huge. And the consequences down the road are immense.

[1:49:46] Voice 18: And the trustees themselves have said that this is unlikely to quickly solve the problem with affordable housing.

[1:49:54] Voice 18: So I want to make the observation that this is unseemly haste that this is going through.

[1:50:02] Voice 18: I'd like to, as a cynic, I'd like to make the suggestion that it's happening this quickly for political reasons,

[1:50:08] Voice 18: that perhaps trustees want to make it seem that they've done something.

[1:50:13] Voice 18: I don't think it will in any short term do anything useful.

[1:50:18] Voice 18: And I think it's just appalling that this is being pushed through so quickly with so little.

[1:50:25] Voice 18: I mean, you don't even have the numbers at this point. And I just it's unconscionable to me.

[1:50:30] Voice 18: that's my observation. Thank

[1:50:34] Voice 8: you. Thank you. I think, Christine, you're the last one.

[1:50:44] Voice 5: Okay, thank you. I would just echo what Michael just said, and Maxine and others, that

[1:50:51] Voice 5: this is not few and minor. This is major, with potential huge long-term impacts.

[1:50:59] Voice 5: I am particularly really, really concerned that the RW1 and 2 were added into this, not only from a current and short-term water perspective, but long-term.

[1:51:17] Voice 5: I participated in an extensive exercise over a couple of years ago, looking at potential long-term climate impacts on the island itself.

[1:51:33] Voice 5: And from that work, it became very clear how important and how fragile our watershed areas are.

[1:51:42] Voice 5: And they're going to be more and more stressed as time goes on, and they're going to be more and more critical to the well-being of the community.

[1:51:51] Voice 5: And I am just really stunned, actually, that the trustees amended and added the RW1 and the RW2 zones into this proposed bylaw.

[1:52:05] Voice 5: I also just want to refer back to comments that I made about 526 related to covenants.

[1:52:12] Voice 5: If this bylaw is not slowed down, which I actually think this process should, is going to quickly, considering the potential long-term impacts and potential effectiveness and ineffectiveness.

[1:52:27] Voice 5: this. I think that, again, that the long-term consequences, and Peter Lamb spoke initially to

[1:52:39] Voice 5: this in terms of numbers, really needs to come before the public very soon. Because the community

[1:52:46] Voice 5: really has a right to know what the potential long-term build-out, what the potential long-term

[1:52:54] Voice 5: population impacts of this extensive a bylaw process might be. So I really urge staff,

[1:53:01] Voice 5: I know you're busy and there's a lot of pressure on staff all the time, but this is very, very

[1:53:09] Voice 5: important to provide that information to the community about impacts. And again, just

[1:53:16] Voice 5: conservation, not conservation, but covenants, if this progresses, are really, really important

[1:53:23] Voice 5: to ensure long-term rental and to also put the emphasis on the landowner to report to the trust

[1:53:33] Voice 5: and give give evidence of long-term rental and that can easily be done if

[1:53:43] Voice 7: I understand you

[1:53:44] Voice 7: correctly sorry I don't mean to cut you off I just want to make sure you were saying put the

[1:53:49] Voice 7: covenant clause back in the yes

[1:53:52] Voice 5: yes to reinstate the covenants clause to require uh long-term

[1:53:57] Voice 5: rental um and um to also within that covenant um standard covenant uh for these potential units

[1:54:07] Voice 5: uh to um include an onus on the landowner to report to the trust rather than the other way

[1:54:15] Voice 5: around. I've worked, I got involved in the Island's Trust around short-term vacation rentals almost

[1:54:22] Voice 5: 20 years ago. And this issue has just grown and grown and grown and grown. And it's been an issue

[1:54:32] Voice 5: in local communities and large cities all over the world. And to create a bylaw that would open

[1:54:41] Voice 5: up more potential and potentially greater potential just makes me shudder.

[1:54:48] Voice 5: So I really, really urge the local trust committee to include covenants if they do move this

[1:54:56] Voice 5: forward. So anyway, I don't want to say much more, but thank you.

[1:55:01] Voice 5: I

[1:55:01] Voice 7: appreciate that. So it's 1 minute 26 and a lot of the comments I'm hearing and

[1:55:07] Voice 7: and really appreciate it.

[1:55:10] Voice 7: I believe it's the comments that need to be heard

[1:55:14] Voice 7: by the trustees.

[1:55:15] Voice 7: So I think if you can make it to the public hearing,

[1:55:19] Voice 7: that will be great.

[1:55:20] Voice 7: Otherwise, if you send me, send us the comments in writing,

[1:55:26] Voice 7: the goal is hopefully we can do a public hearing report

[1:55:32] Voice 7: summary on this open house for the trustee

[1:55:37] Voice 7: And again, we are just summarizing what we have heard.

[1:55:42] Voice 7: It's not the same as if you can express your concern with the trustees.

[1:55:48] Voice 7: We have four more people, so it's going to run over quite a bit.

[1:55:55] Voice 7: If it's okay, if you can maybe summarize your comments so that we can wrap it up and other staff members can finish off the day.

[1:56:07] Voice 7: They've been working quite long today.

[1:56:08] Voice 7: they will have a pretty hectic week.

[1:56:10] Voice 7: So I have done now.

[1:56:16] Voice 15: Hi, Louise, it's Daniel.

[1:56:17] Voice 15: I'm Daniel Wood.

[1:56:18] Voice 15: Sorry, Zoom did this automatically for me,

[1:56:20] Voice 15: so I didn't put my last name in.

[1:56:22] Voice 15: I just wanted to say thank you so much to the staff

[1:56:24] Voice 15: for doing this.

[1:56:26] Voice 15: I really appreciate it.

[1:56:27] Voice 15: I think it's been very clear.

[1:56:28] Voice 15: And I just wanted to say too,

[1:56:30] Voice 15: I know there's been a lot of grief

[1:56:32] Voice 15: about the lack of the numbers, which is unfortunate,

[1:56:35] Voice 15: but mostly I wanted to say how strongly I do feel

[1:56:39] Voice 15: that we are in a crisis uh with housing and so i just wanted to comment that i'm fully in support

[1:56:46] Voice 15: of this obviously and but um that it's it's actually it's a very small step and lines up

[1:56:52] Voice 15: very well with our uh goals around for example climate small uh seasonal cottages turning into

[1:56:59] Voice 15: into adus is going to be the least impactful way to to try to solve a housing shortage anyways

[1:57:06] Voice 15: thank you so much again and i think you enjoyed doing a great job thank

[1:57:10] Voice 7: you uh wayne just one

[1:57:14] Voice 12: quick thing uh you have you checked with bc assessment because when i checked with bc

[1:57:19] Voice 12: assessment they said the average prices of the properties go up about eight percent when they

[1:57:24] Voice 12: allowed the secondary suites in victoria so i think you have to look at that too because if

[1:57:29] Voice 12: you're going to drive our prices up higher and higher it just makes it much more difficult

[1:57:33] Voice 12: for people to stay on this island and i think you need to really seriously look at this whole thing

[1:57:38] Voice 12: and the covenants have to be in there if you don't have the covenants this bylaw is not worth

[1:57:43] Voice 8: the paper it's written on thank

[1:57:45] Voice 7: you may i

[1:57:48] Voice 3: hi um i just wanted to say a couple other things um

[1:57:53] Voice 3: one i think that um having the ability to have the long-term use in many places is helpful i know a

[1:58:00] Voice 3: a lot of families who have multi-generations living on a property and have um or would like

[1:58:05] Voice 3: to have two homes but can't currently do it with the existing bylaws so i think that's um i think

[1:58:12] Voice 3: that's a good thing that um a lot of younger families can't actually afford to live unless

[1:58:16] Voice 3: they're living on their parents land um so that's one point and um oh what was my other one

[1:58:26] Voice 3: um i guess the other question i had was about the intent of the the bylaw i think um

[1:58:33] Voice 3: that it may be not

[1:58:35] Voice 3: well understood by many that current bed and breakfast would become

[1:58:39] Voice 3: legal in this new proposal. So I think that could be a point that is more clearly communicated,

[1:58:45] Voice 3: as I imagine that a lot of locals here who have home-based bed and breakfast would

[1:58:52] Voice 3: not want that to happen that way. And I had one more thing, but I forget what it is now.

[1:59:04] Voice 3: Now, I do think there is a housing crisis right now.

[1:59:10] Voice 3: The local daycare closed down because of staff shortages,

[1:59:13] Voice 3: and we experience these staff shortages in many other areas of our life.

[1:59:18] Voice 3: So I think there should be precautions taken for, you know, sustainability.

[1:59:24] Voice 3: But generally, there's a housing crisis, and a lot of people are struggling.

[1:59:32] Voice 3: So that's all. Thank you.

[1:59:36] Voice 7: Thank you and I remember I think we talked about your concern on what is on your property so again

[1:59:45] Voice 7: I'm not sure if you're clear on the regulations on bed and breakfast so we certainly can speak with

[1:59:51] Voice 7: you off the site you can give us a call when you have time so we can help you with that.

[2:00:00] Voice 7: sure they left oh no she's still there okay uh and peter

[2:00:04] Voice 17: i'll be a brief um and endorse

[2:00:08] Voice 17: maxine's request for uh looking at this few and uh minor um i was one of the trustees that uh

[2:00:16] Voice 17: approved the current ocp in 2008 and the this pile is definitely not few and minor

[2:00:23] Voice 17: I notice it consistent with the climate action plans policies we put in the in the OCP.

[2:00:31] Voice 7: Thank you appreciate that and again uh really thank you all for participating and I'm sorry

[2:00:37] Voice 7: Peter do you have any other comments? I don't mean to cut you off.

[2:00:43] Voice 8: Peter do you have any other are

[2:00:45] Voice 8: you okay

[2:00:49] Voice 7: well um anyway but thank you really appreciate your comment and all your concerns

[2:00:54] Voice 7: being raised. And we definitely will share that with the trustees. And I understand that the

[2:01:01] Voice 7: covenant aspect should really be put back in place so we can recommend that and bring that forward

[2:01:07] Voice 7: for LTC to consider. I personally have to admit, I do feel this is going fast, but I do understand

[2:01:17] Voice 7: there's a lot of pressure out there where people feel they can't find affordable housing or any

[2:01:24] Voice 7: other housing options. So there are, I would say, forces from different sides as well.

[2:01:31] Voice 7: We are going to do our best, but our job is really trying to stay neutral and look at

[2:01:36] Voice 7: the issues. And I heard a lot of the comments today, and we will take a look at the bylaw

[2:01:42] Voice 7: and do our best to see if we can address some of the concerns. So thank you again,

[2:01:48] Voice 7: and hope to see you at the public hearing on August 18th.

[2:01:52] Voice 7: The location I believe is at the Harvard House.

[2:01:56] Voice 7: I don't know for sure.

[2:01:57] Voice 7: Yes.

[2:01:57] Voice 16: Yes.

[2:01:58] Voice 16: In the Crofton room.

[2:02:00] Voice 7: Yeah, so if you can be there, that will be great

[2:02:03] Voice 7: because a lot of the comments,

[2:02:05] Voice 7: we will not be able to convey it as eloquently

[2:02:08] Voice 7: as you have brought forward.

[2:02:10] Voice 7: So thank you all.

[2:02:12] Voice 6: Do you have the time?

[2:02:13] Voice 6: Can you give us the time of the meeting?

[2:02:16] Voice 6: oh um sorry

[2:02:19] Voice 16: bear with me just a second i'll bring it up i

[2:02:24] Voice 7: believe the 526 it's in the morning

[2:02:28] Voice 7: and then yeah

[2:02:31] Voice 13: i think sorry jen do you have it there

[2:02:33] Voice 16: no go ahead though if you have it

[2:02:35] Voice 13: the 526

[2:02:36] Voice 13: is at 11 in the morning and 5 30 is at four o'clock and

[2:02:44] Voice 6: it is an official public hearing

[2:02:46] Voice 6: meaning no comments will be taken after it's concluded i so yeah

[2:02:51] Voice 13: that's correct yeah no

[2:02:53] Voice 13: additional information or comments are received on no new information will be received by the local

[2:02:58] Voice 13: trust committee after that the conclusion of that unless they decide to open it up again

[2:03:05] Voice 3: sorry could you repeat the date again sometime august

[2:03:09] Voice 13: 18th um it's at the crofton room at the

[2:03:14] Voice 13: harbour house hotel and there's a public hearing for bylaw 526 that starts at 11 in the morning

[2:03:21] Voice 13: which will probably go until one ish and then the public hearing for bylaw 530 starts at four

[2:03:28] Voice 13: and we'll go to approximately 6 p.m thank

[2:03:40] Voice 8: you when do you still want

[2:03:47] Voice 7: to make a comment before we go

[2:03:48] Voice 7: the

[2:03:48] Voice 12: previous file i can't remember the number of it what happens to all the information because a

[2:03:55] Voice 12: lot of this pertains to bylaw 530 so we've changed we've gone to accessory dwelling units which

[2:04:01] Voice 12: which wasn't the term we used back in that one.

[2:04:03] Voice 12: But what happened to that bylaw?

[2:04:05] Voice 12: Is it just disappears or is

[2:04:06] Voice 7: it amalgamated or what?

[2:04:09] Voice 7: Amalgamate.

[2:04:09] Voice 7: It got merged into 530.

[2:04:12] Voice 7: So secondary suite is now part of 530.

[2:04:15] Voice 12: So can we take the comments that were made by the public

[2:04:18] Voice 12: and put them on the website under 530?

[2:04:23] Voice 12: So we don't have to resubmit them?

[2:04:26] Voice 7: You can certainly do that.

[2:04:28] Voice 7: Because I

[2:04:29] Voice 12: think FESTA is doing a disservice

[2:04:31] Voice 12: if they don't put the comments that were made under there

[2:04:33] Voice 12: when you did away with the bylaw,

[2:04:35] Voice 12: when a lot of them pertain to the same bylaw 530.

[2:04:38] Voice 12: A lot of them, I've looked at them all, I've read them all.

[2:04:43] Voice 7: Right, it's different bylaws.

[2:04:46] Voice 7: So if you can, you're welcome to resubmit

[2:04:49] Voice 7: exactly what you wrote.

[2:04:51] Voice 12: But does the general public know that though,

[2:04:53] Voice 12: that their information they sent

[2:04:56] Voice 12: will not pertain to bylaw 530?

[2:05:00] Voice 7: I don't know.

[2:05:01] Voice 7: I don't know what you mean.

[2:05:02] Voice 12: Yeah, so how are you going to get that message out there?

[2:05:03] Voice 12: I

[2:05:04] Voice 7: believe the website still has 528 on.

[2:05:08] Voice 7: I'm not sure.

[2:05:09] Voice 7: I can take a look at that.

[2:05:11] Voice 12: That still has 528 on there with the correspondence,

[2:05:15] Voice 12: but it's been done away with.

[2:05:17] Voice 12: But the people that wrote in to 528 may not write in to 530

[2:05:21] Voice 12: if they don't realize that 528

[2:05:24] Voice 12: doesn't exist.

[2:05:26] Voice 7: Right.

[2:05:27] Voice 7: I'm not sure.

[2:05:28] Voice 7: It's not our job.

[2:05:29] Voice 7: We cannot combine public comments.

[2:05:32] Voice 7: we cannot manipulate it so they are still there if people want to be part of 530 they can resubmit

[2:05:40] Voice 7: to be five public comment for 530 but

[2:05:44] Voice 12: there should be some note on 528 that is you need to resubmit

[2:05:49] Voice 12: your comments if you would like these particular comments that you've made under 528 to go to 530

[2:05:55] Voice 12: something needs to be we need to educate the public right so they're aware because i think

[2:06:00] Voice 12: a lot of times that's where we run into trouble we don't let people know and then they say hey

[2:06:04] Voice 12: you didn't tell us what

[2:06:06] Voice 7: you're saying yeah we can put a note on the webpage that's

[2:06:10] Voice 12: what i think

[2:06:10] Voice 12: would be a good idea just a suggestion yeah thank

[2:06:13] Voice 12: you very much for holding

[2:06:15] Voice 7: this uh peter do you

[2:06:17] Voice 7: have uh one more comment to make your hand is still up oh

[2:06:23] Voice 8: i'm fine thanks okay

[2:06:25] Voice 7: okay well thank

[2:06:28] Voice 7: Thank you. And again, like I said, thank you. Really. You take your time to talk to us and we will consolidate the comments and present it to the trustees.

[2:06:38] Voice 7: But I encourage you to participate at the public hearing and you can continue to reach out to me as well.

[2:06:44] Voice 7: If you have any discussion, you want to continue for 530. That conversation with a planner is still available.

[2:06:52] Voice 7: available. It's either by Zoom or by phone. So if you want to talk more about it, you're

[2:06:58] Voice 7: welcome to reach out. Thank you.

[2:07:06] Voice 8: Thank you, everybody.