North Pender Island Local Trust Committee regular meeting, September 28, 2023

[0:00:00] Voice 2: actually be across all five southern gulf islands as i both both of you said i is what i understand

[0:00:07] Voice 2: um uh the previous board member did anyways priscilla was on all five um and so uh that

[0:00:14] Voice 2: notice closes at the end of october and we would probably likely be looking to appoint someone or

[0:00:19] Voice 2: the or bringing that to the local trust committee for consideration at the november meeting so

[0:00:23] Voice 2: that's that wonderful back to you chair for moving on to uh your application discussion

[0:00:30] Voice 6: Yeah, I'd love to move on. I'd like to talk about a third board member just quickly, because I've spoken to people

[0:00:34] Voice 2: in the community.

[0:00:35] Voice 6: Yeah, oh,

[0:00:35] Voice 2: certainly. Sure. Absolutely.

[0:00:36] Voice 6: And one of the difficulties I have, I'm not sure if it's within your purview to address, is I believe that in Islands Trust, there's a rule that someone can only serve on one type of board, i.e. a board of variance member cannot go and join the advisory design panel or the planning advisory group.

[0:00:55] Voice 6: And if there was a way that that could be changed, that would be great, because we certainly have a very limited number of

[0:01:01] Voice 6: skilled professionals. And

[0:01:04] Voice 6: some people who might be want to be in the Board of Variants are more, you know, they also want to be on these other things. So I think we might be losing some skills there.

[0:01:13] Voice 6: so

[0:01:14] Voice 2: what i that you know really that would be probably advocacy at the trust council level

[0:01:19] Voice 2: for that discussion around because that would be uh probably at that a policy at that level

[0:01:25] Voice 2: um i'm going to take a pen and confirm what that policy is for you though as an action for me

[0:01:31] Voice 2: and um yeah what i would recommend for you is uh to it would like write a letter to

[0:01:40] Voice 2: the local trust committee and trust council expressing your view as a board member

[0:01:47] Voice 2: and uh that you would see value in them revisiting it but uh first let me respond to you

[0:01:53] Voice 2: uh with some information local

[0:01:57] Voice 5: trust committee would be all five trust committees uh well right

[0:02:03] Voice 2: now um i mean right now i guess this discussions uh in the context of the north pender

[0:02:12] Voice 2: local trust committee that's what we're discussing here today so uh i think all you would you would

[0:02:19] Voice 2: need to meet like do you do both represent all the all the board committees and

[0:02:26] Voice 6: no i'm just north

[0:02:27] Voice 6: and south all right okay so so

[0:02:31] Voice 2: i think so i think those other committees would also have to have

[0:02:34] Voice 2: that same discussion and perhaps if you feel that same way you could a stronger letter would be

[0:02:41] Voice 2: from all of the board members uh currently sitting with that same

[0:02:47] Voice 2: expressed interest so

[0:02:48] Voice 2: maybe there's a bit of work you could do but first i'll figure out uh specifically robert

[0:02:54] Voice 2: kojima will be uh know where uh that policy sits anyways so

[0:02:59] Voice 5: yeah what's that yeah we'll wait to

[0:03:03] Voice 5: hear back from you then yeah

[0:03:04] Voice 2: and if you needed to you could uh seek a meeting well you know at some

[0:03:10] Voice 2: some point you'll have a meeting with your new board member uh you could you could have a meeting

[0:03:15] Voice 2: like you don't always meet need to meet to speak about specific applications so i think we could

[0:03:20] Voice 2: have a meeting for you to talk about that further if you wanted to yeah

[0:03:25] Voice 6: that would be great there

[0:03:26] Voice 6: because there are interesting parties but they don't want to become come onto the board because

[0:03:30] Voice 6: they're already doing other things or they're more interested in doing other things so

[0:03:34] Voice 2: i think that

[0:03:34] Voice 2: yeah the first step would be some kind of letter expressing that

[0:03:38] Voice 2: totally but

[0:03:40] Voice 6: let's get our official whinging out of the way and deal with sure yeah

[0:03:44] Voice 2: good point

[0:03:45] Voice 2: perfect yeah i've had

[0:03:48] Voice 2: applicants sit and wait way longer than that yeah no

[0:03:51] Voice 2: you know

[0:03:54] Voice 1: two hours sometimes they sit so oh man this is pretty good but yeah

[0:03:59] Voice 6: i've done that i

[0:04:00] Voice 6: I don't want to put people through that, though.

[0:04:03] Voice 1: Yes, exactly.

[0:04:06] Voice 2: Yes, so back to you, Chip.

[0:04:09] Voice 6: So we have a new application.

[0:04:12] Voice 6: Bert and I actually haven't had much chance to look at this together.

[0:04:17] Voice 6: Bert, I wonder if you have a moment to sort of summarize your thoughts on this new application from Heather and Kevin.

[0:04:23] Voice 5: Sure.

[0:04:24] Voice 5: Well, thank you for reconsidering Kevin and Heather.

[0:04:30] Voice 5: I do note that you took a lot of the recommendations that we discussed at the last meeting into account here, and generally, I think we've already determined that there's a hardship that this is a difficult lot to build on, and the variances you're looking for are somewhat minor.

[0:04:56] Voice 5: um so i think um just off the top here that the four variances you're looking for seem or there's

[0:05:08] Voice 5: five i guess one or four um seem to reasonably address the discussions that we had at the last

[0:05:19] Voice 5: meeting yeah

[0:05:21] Voice 3: um yeah yeah thank you for that uh that's basically exactly it we uh we took the

[0:05:26] Voice 3: recommendation uh to move um you know move the house uh into the cul-de-sac area which um uh

[0:05:34] Voice 3: moved the the house further from the pnb and it also took about 70 of the deck out of the pnb

[0:05:42] Voice 3: so um and then we um we re-looked at the retaining walls with our um civil contractor

[0:05:49] Voice 3: contractor and uh with uh with risic and um we we were asking to maintain uh maintain what we uh

[0:05:58] Voice 3: previously asked for just because of the um there's kind of an existing shelf um just in

[0:06:05] Voice 3: front of the um existing tanks that um they feel would be a good um a good place to to put the

[0:06:12] Voice 3: retaining wall so we we kept that original variance and we went with their recommendation

[0:06:18] Voice 3: to upgrade the existing concrete tanks

[0:06:22] Voice 3: to a newer style tank

[0:06:25] Voice 3: that would be easier to remove or repair

[0:06:29] Voice 3: if anything would happen in the future.

[0:06:33] Voice 3: And then also some takeaways

[0:06:36] Voice 3: from that original meeting.

[0:06:37] Voice 3: I had to refresh my memory,

[0:06:38] Voice 3: but we're to confirm with CRD

[0:06:42] Voice 3: and to set up a meeting with Rizek and Brad.

[0:06:46] Voice 3: Brad and we reached out to CRD Chris and he gave us some recommendations and felt that

[0:06:55] Voice 3: we were following all the correct paths from where we are at this point in time.

[0:07:01] Voice 3: We reached out to Baxter Construction and he felt the same and as mentioned we set up

[0:07:09] Voice 3: a meeting with brad and uh chris um chris uh from ryzik engineering just to review the fill removal

[0:07:16] Voice 3: and the the retaining well engineered retaining walls and uh and i'm not going to speak for you

[0:07:22] Voice 3: brad but i think you felt comfortable after that meeting and um and then we reached out to our

[0:07:28] Voice 3: surveyor uh that did the originals not our surveyor but the original survey just to confirm

[0:07:34] Voice 3: um confirm everything was um measured correctly so we we took all that away the recommendations

[0:07:41] Voice 3: and comments um we felt uh and uh we felt we addressed uh hopefully addressed all of them so

[0:07:48] Voice 3: yeah i'll i'll stop there if there's any questions personally

[0:07:54] Voice 6: i don't have any questions i think that

[0:07:56] Voice 6: i agree with bert that there is definitely hardship given the sort of constraints physical

[0:08:02] Voice 6: constraints on the lot, and that the variances are fairly minor. And I think you've done a

[0:08:09] Voice 6: fairly good job of addressing those. I'd love to hear from Brad what your opinions on this

[0:08:16] Voice 6: proposal are.

[0:08:20] Voice 3: Can I just say, sorry, I forgot to, sorry to cut you off there. Heather can't,

[0:08:26] Voice 3: Heather's video or audio isn't working, so she apologizes, but she is on and listening.

[0:08:32] Voice 3: name.

[0:08:33] Voice 2: Perfect. That's good. Thank you, Chair. I think I agree that the applicant has done a lot

[0:08:41] Voice 2: of diligent work to address the concerns of the board that I did meet with the engineer and the

[0:08:49] Voice 2: applicant and was satisfied that he had no concerns from an engineering perspective with

[0:08:57] Voice 2: what's being proposed and that there would be no uh foundation uh encroachment into that setback

[0:09:04] Voice 2: that's not being sought for variance now where you know where that cavity is filled wherever

[0:09:09] Voice 2: that is um and you know the neighbors are still supportive there's been no uh input from the

[0:09:16] Voice 2: notification uh period so i think that if the board decided to approve the application as

[0:09:26] Voice 2: as proposed, it would be satisfactory to staff. Can I just

[0:09:31] Voice 4: say, can you guys hear me? I'm actually

[0:09:33] Voice 4: here now.

[0:09:34] Voice 6: Yeah, we can. Hi Heather. I

[0:09:36] Voice 4: got completely kicked out just when you started

[0:09:38] Voice 4: our portion and I've just come back in. So I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. I lost you. So

[0:09:44] Voice 4: anyway, I'm here and I'll just listen quietly.

[0:09:46] Voice 2: Hi Heather, nice to see you. You're almost at

[0:09:49] Voice 2: the end here, I think.

[0:09:51] Voice 6: I think so too. Personally, I feel it's a strong application. I feel that

[0:09:56] Voice 6: you've made some really positive changes to your proposal and i i really like it and what you've

[0:10:01] Voice 6: done uh i got the sense of after your first application that it wasn't exactly what you

[0:10:07] Voice 6: wanted to do but you were just kind of trying to put things in there to meet the requirements

[0:10:13] Voice 6: so i guess my question for the applicants is like is this the building you're in love with

[0:10:17] Voice 6: and you want to build this is how you want to proceed are you super happy with this building

[0:10:23] Voice 6: yeah

[0:10:24] Voice 3: no we're so excited to uh to you know get make you know go forward with the next steps and

[0:10:32] Voice 3: uh you know we just can't wait to have something over there and and uh it's not a large home but

[0:10:39] Voice 3: we really didn't want a large home and uh i just think it it all kind of works it it really was

[0:10:45] Voice 3: our original design i think as bert kind of remembers where we had it you know we had it

[0:10:50] Voice 1: back

[0:10:50] Voice 3: into the cul-de-sac um you know we should have just kept that original design but um but

[0:10:55] Voice 3: no uh i think um we're very happy if if you guys are if everything's okay with you and yeah we just

[0:11:02] Voice 3: can't wait to take uh the next steps and uh our builders um a little ways away but we got a we've

[0:11:10] Voice 3: got quite a bit of work to do kind of in the meantime with uh you know the septic field and

[0:11:14] Voice 3: and the tanks and then excavation so it'll all it all should work out so no very excited and

[0:11:21] Voice 3: and really like to thank you guys for yeah your your recommendations and suggestions and I think

[0:11:27] Voice 3: we like you said we took that away and just kind of reassured ourself and had a second look at

[0:11:31] Voice 3: everything to make sure but yeah but yeah thanks for asking Andrew we are happy and can't wait to

[0:11:37] Voice 3: can't wait to get

[0:11:38] Voice 3: started yeah

[0:11:40] Voice 6: I think it looks really great I have a bit of a technical question

[0:11:42] Voice 6: for brad which is that when heather and kevin apply for this when we have a variance with

[0:11:51] Voice 6: plans attached are they expected to build as per plan or can we approve sort of the general massing

[0:11:56] Voice 6: of the building so that if they go through a building permit review and they sort of have to

[0:12:01] Voice 6: change locations of windows doors window walls etc i mean the

[0:12:05] Voice 6: only all of that the

[0:12:06] Voice 2: only area we

[0:12:07] Voice 2: would be interested in is the areas where they're encroaching into setbacks and they've been

[0:12:13] Voice 2: offered variance they could make any other real plane changes to their footprint even you know it

[0:12:21] Voice 2: would be reviewed by the trust but we wouldn't uh yeah it's really the variances that are the key

[0:12:27] Voice 2: so they couldn't change perfect

[0:12:30] Voice 6: yeah okay yeah so they can change they can change the sort of look

[0:12:35] Voice 6: of the building but not the varied portions

[0:12:37] Voice 2: yeah with the the varied the variance isn't to

[0:12:40] Voice 2: any kind of character or other bylaw requirement like that let's say maybe a commercial building

[0:12:48] Voice 2: might have okay

[0:12:50] Voice 6: wonderful yeah i do

[0:12:51] Voice 5: have i do have one uh comment so there's a an inconsistency that

[0:12:55] Voice 5: i see in the uh in the report uh page 27 of 30 does have another note on it it says the

[0:13:03] Voice 5: variance site plan and it says a reduced setback from three meters to 2.13 meters uh i just

[0:13:10] Voice 2: yeah

[0:13:11] Voice 2: yeah so that i can speak to that okay thank you so the notice that went out doesn't include that

[0:13:17] Voice 2: and that is what uh the the resolution that i just sent uh ties your variance decision to

[0:13:23] Voice 2: that was a previous uh it's just a previous version that i pointed out to them that

[0:13:30] Voice 2: That three meter variance is not our, it's the Island Health Regulation.

[0:13:38] Voice 2: And so they would need to figure out with Island Health some kind of relief of that.

[0:13:44] Voice 2: But my understanding is that they're just not going to pursue that deck portion.

[0:13:48] Voice 5: That's correct.

[0:13:48] Voice 5: Oh, I see.

[0:13:49] Voice 5: That was to do with setback to the septic field or something?

[0:13:53] Voice 2: Correct.

[0:13:54] Voice 2: Yeah.

[0:13:54] Voice 2: Okay.

[0:13:54] Voice 2: From a building, which is an Island Health Regulation.

[0:13:57] Voice 2: and that's obviously then not your jurisdiction to decide on but

[0:14:02] Voice 1: that was in

[0:14:02] Voice 2: their original letter

[0:14:03] Voice 2: so that must just

[0:14:04] Voice 2: be a previous version that's captured there yeah yeah

[0:14:10] Voice 5: and one other thing it's

[0:14:13] Voice 5: references quite regularly in this application about vancouver health authority and i think it

[0:14:22] Voice 5: It should be probably something else,

[0:14:24] Voice 5: Vancouver Island Health Authority or something.

[0:14:26] Voice 5: But that

[0:14:27] Voice 5: doesn't affect our decision.

[0:14:29] Voice 5: I just wanted to point it out.

[0:14:32] Voice 1: Yeah, it

[0:14:33] Voice 2: should be Island Health.

[0:14:34] Voice 2: But if

[0:14:34] Voice 1: that's the case, then I would be a bit surprised at that.

[0:14:38] Voice 1: That can

[0:14:43] Voice 6: be fixed because we only have to sort

[0:14:45] Voice 1: of vote

[0:14:46] Voice 6: on the specific motions.

[0:14:48] Voice 6: Exactly.

[0:14:49] Voice 6: Yeah.

[0:14:50] Voice 6: Yeah.

[0:14:51] Voice 6: Yeah.

[0:14:52] Voice 2: That was just because I cut and pasted from what the applicant sent me.

[0:14:57] Voice 3: Yeah, I think we mistakenly

[0:14:59] Voice 2: put it off.

[0:15:00] Voice 2: That's verbatim from them.

[0:15:01] Voice 2: So that's just a little mistake by them.

[0:15:03] Voice 2: Not me.

[0:15:05] Voice 5: Well, just that it

[0:15:09] Voice 1: matters, but it wasn't me.

[0:15:13] Voice 4: I'll take credit for that one.

[0:15:15] Voice 6: There you go.

[0:15:16] Voice 6: Don't take credit for that.

[0:15:17] Voice 6: Health authorities tend to be like a best left unpoked.

[0:15:21] Voice 3: Well, I work with

[0:15:21] Voice 3: so many different health authorities.

[0:15:24] Voice 3: I know exactly where you're coming from.

[0:15:26] Voice 3: There you go.

[0:15:29] Voice 2: That would be on health.

[0:15:30] Voice 5: I guess you're

[0:15:31] Voice 5: looking for a motion then to approve the variances listed on.

[0:15:39] Voice 2: So I emailed you both a draft motion that one of you could read out

[0:15:45] Voice 2: and then you could vote to move that forward.

[0:15:53] Voice 2: Yeah, if

[0:15:53] Voice 6: someone wouldn't mind reading that.

[0:15:55] Voice 6: Do

[0:15:55] Voice 2: you have that, Bert?

[0:15:57] Voice 2: Sorry, I just sent it now.

[0:15:58] Voice 2: I've got so much going on.

[0:15:59] Voice 2: I just received it.

[0:16:01] Voice 2: Yeah.

[0:16:01] Voice 2: So you could read that out, and then you could make that motion.

[0:16:05] Voice 2: I think then Andrew would approve the motion,

[0:16:07] Voice 2: then you would vote on it as how it would work.

[0:16:10] Voice 5: Okay, then I will make a motion that the Board of Variants,

[0:16:14] Voice 5: having considered the matter set out in Section 542-1-C of the Local Government Act

[0:16:21] Voice 5: and having found that undue hardship would be caused to the applicant if section 3.3

[0:16:28] Voice 5: bracket 1 bracket a and section 5.1.5 bracket a of the north pender land use bylaw number 224

[0:16:36] Voice 5: 2023 is complied with the north pender island board of variance approves application np-bov-2023.1

[0:16:48] Voice 5: The Cameron application as presented in Schedule A of the NP-BOV-2023.1, September 28th, 2023, notice of hearing.

[0:17:01] Voice 5: So moved.

[0:17:05] Voice 2: Thank you.

[0:17:05] Voice 2: You can second that, Andrew.

[0:17:08] Voice 2: You're not there yet?

[0:17:09] Voice 6: Yeah, I'll most definitely second that.

[0:17:12] Voice 2: And now you conduct your vote.

[0:17:14] Voice 2: And then you can blow the trumpets if you'd like.

[0:17:17] Voice 2: All in favor?

[0:17:18] Voice 4: I agree.

[0:17:22] Voice 4: there you go thank

[0:17:23] Voice 3: you very much good

[0:17:26] Voice 6: luck guys yeah

[0:17:28] Voice 3: yeah no uh yeah like i said we're

[0:17:30] Voice 3: pretty excited about uh moving forward so really appreciate this so i think it seems like yeah

[0:17:37] Voice 2: it seems like this uh extra bit of work uh has allowed you some more due diligence as well and

[0:17:43] Voice 2: you have more certainty especially with your wall and and because that's such a big part of your

[0:17:48] Voice 2: design so getting some more clarity and certainty on that probably is comforting so yeah

[0:17:53] Voice 4: i think

[0:17:53] Voice 4: it's worked

[0:17:54] Voice 2: out better for you and having your sept having certainty around your septic going

[0:17:58] Voice 2: forward as well as is another yeah benefit of this delay so yeah no it's all

[0:18:05] Voice 3: good a lot of

[0:18:06] Voice 2: you've got a lot of good free surveying and uh architect advice too

[0:18:12] Voice 5: uh well um heather and kevin i wish you luck this seemed like a hard part but i think this

[0:18:18] Voice 5: was the easy part still you've got the

[0:18:20] Voice 3: hard part ahead of you yeah you're probably right bert um

[0:18:23] Voice 3: yeah i can uh just attest to talking to the neighbor he always is coming over and

[0:18:28] Voice 3: and telling us how his bill went which was kind of very similar so uh yeah i can imagine that uh

[0:18:35] Voice 3: It's going to be, yeah, it's going to be, it's not going to be easy, but, but yeah,

[0:18:41] Voice 3: just looking forward to, to, yeah, moving forward.

[0:18:44] Voice 6: You've got a,

[0:18:45] Voice 6: you've got a very well-renowned local contractor.

[0:18:49] Voice 6: So I think you're in a very good position and I'm looking forward to seeing you both

[0:18:53] Voice 6: on Island more.

[0:18:54] Voice 3: Yes.

[0:18:55] Voice 3: Likewise.

[0:18:56] Voice 3: So yeah, can't wait.

[0:19:01] Voice 6: Take care.

[0:19:02] Voice 6: Okay.

[0:19:02] Voice 2: okay all

[0:19:03] Voice 6: right so

[0:19:04] Voice 2: as the chair i guess you can now close the meeting yeah

[0:19:07] Voice 6: we can adjourn i don't

[0:19:10] Voice 6: think i have to make a motion to adjourn i think we can just adjourn correct

[0:19:13] Voice 2: and there's nothing

[0:19:13] Voice 2: else on your uh on your feet there's no other applications right now for north pender so uh