{"id":19648,"date":"2020-11-08T06:33:16","date_gmt":"2020-11-08T11:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=19648"},"modified":"2020-11-08T06:38:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T11:38:05","slug":"the-srd-passed-rainbow-ridges-application","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/the-srd-passed-rainbow-ridges-application\/","title":{"rendered":"The SRD passed Rainbow Ridge’s application"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales<\/p>\n

After 24 minutes of debate, the SRD passed Rainbow Ridge\u2019s application to have a six acre portion of land, on Cortes Island, rezoned to facilitate the development of up to 22 seniors\u2019 and affordable housing units.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The issue was almost deferred<\/h2>\n

At one point it looked like the whole issue could be put on hold until an accidentally omitted January 10th letter from Island Health was made available to every director. The resulting vote was split along very familiar lines, to anyone who has been observing the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board in action. The motion to defer the issue was evenly split, 6 to 6, which means it did not pass.<\/p>\n

There were moments of magnanimity. Cortes Island\u2019s Alternate Director, Corry Dow, said that if it would put the minds of her\u00a0fellow rural directors<\/a>\u00a0at ease, the matter should be deferred until the missing letter was available. Regional Director\u00a0Jim Abram<\/a>\u2018s response was to suggest staff simply read the letter out loud.<\/p>\n

Brenda Leigh\u2019s Opposition<\/h2>\n

After this was done, Regional Director\u00a0Brenda Leigh<\/a> (from Area D, on Vancouver Island) revealed that her opposition stemmed from additional concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposal is for 25 units on 6 acres and unless there is a lot of money put into high end sewage systems and, you know, Cortes will be looking for grants and monies to do that probably. I do not think it is wise to put that kind of density in an area that has no water, no sewer, and Hague Lake \u2013 which is their main source of drinking water \u2013 right down hill, about a quarter mile from this location. I do not think this is a wise move and it is going to lead to a lot more people asking for more money, more money to make this work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fact Check:\u00a0<\/strong>The\u00a0application is to rezone +6 acres of a 51.3 acre property<\/a>\u00a0for the development of 20 units, plus 2 flex studio units.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Rainbow<\/a>

Map showing the +6 acres being rezoned, which is at the north end of a much larger parcel. The entire property is owned by the Cortes Island Senior Society - taken from SRD rezoning application<\/p><\/div>\n

Alternate Director Corry Dow\u2019s response<\/h2>\n

\u201cThat was a major concern of many residents in Mansons Landing, when the project was first proposed,\" replied Alternate Director Dow. \"The engineers and wastewater specialists they have dealt with have reassured people that they can deal with it. They have a whole team working on grant applications and philanthropic donations in order to make this happen because the Cortes Community so passionately believes in having a little bit more affordable housing on the island. I appreciate the concern for the water quality, but due diligence has been done and the applicant has replied to this more than one time as we have looked at this over the past few months.\"<\/p>\n

Cortes Island\u2019s Opinion<\/h2>\n

All of the Cortes residents that attended the public hearing for this project<\/a>, either in person or virtually, spoke in favour of it.<\/p>\n

The SRD received\u00a0more than 100 letters\u00a0regarding Rainbow Ridge and, according to Dow, all but two expressed support.<\/p>\n

The Final Vote<\/h2>\n

When the issue was finally voted on, it passed with a single voice (Director Leigh) raised in opposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales After 24 minutes of debate, the SRD passed Rainbow Ridge\u2019s application to have a six acre portion of land, on Cortes Island, rezoned to facilitate the development of up to 22 seniors\u2019 and affordable housing units.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":19655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,225],"tags":[1829],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19648"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=19648"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=19648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}