Bowen’s Island Discovery Learning Community (IDLC) won’t be moving to Deep Bay. Tuesday evening, council opted to reject the controversial application for a temporary use permit to allow “school” as an allowable use for Evergreen Hall on Melmore Rd. The accompanying development variance permit application was also defeated.
Council had been see-sawing on the matter for the past couple of months.
The matter first came to council in February. The publicly funded school––through the Powell River School Board––needs to move as their current location is no longer available and a donor, a Deep Bay resident, offered to buy Evergreen Hall for the school to use.
The offer was accepted on the condition that IDLC receive the necessary permitting.
The project faced loud opposition from immediate neighbours of the former Union Steamship Company property but in-turn loud broader community support.
The opposition camp noted safety issues for children walking along Melmore Rd., concern about an increase of traffic and noise in the neighbourhood, concern for property values, and took issue with the use of a temporary use permit rather than a rezoning application.
It was the TUP that did it.
A household that’s an immediate neighbour of Evergreen Hall hired a lawyer who sent a letter to BIM asserting that issuing a TUP would not be in compliance with the Local Government Act as the act says that TUPs may only be issued in designated areas and the island’s Official Community Plan doesn’t make an explicit designation.
A staff report from Daniel Martin, manager of planning and development says that the lawyer may be right. “While Bowen’s OCP has been in place since adoption in 2010, and many temporary use permits have been issued in that period, there is no area designated for their use in the OCP,” said Martin.
Council had previously deferred decision of whether or not to issue the TUP, looking for IDLC and the neighbourhood to come together and work out their differences. (They did not.)
Most of council voiced reluctance to vote against the proposal but noted the ferocity of the opposition. “There is a blockade here, that’s not going to change,” said Mayor Gary Ander.
Council rejected the TUP and DVP (Councillors Rob Wynen and David Hocking against) and asked staff to come forward with an amendment to the OCP that would once again allow them to issue temporary use permits. There was another temporary use permit for a Miller Rd. building set to be considered Tuesday evening that was deferred.
Martin clarified to the Undercurrent that the existing temporary use permits on Bowen (the cannabis shop and the antique car show) “are lawful unless and until a Court otherwise were to rule by setting them aside. If renewals of those two permits are being considered, any legal technicality will have been corrected.”
What comes next for IDLC?
“IDLC does not have any back up plans right now,” said IDLC founder and principal Allan Saugstad over email. “It has proved next to impossible to find a space suitable for us, even though all we need is a space with three large rooms.
“One of those could even be a two-car garage!”
Saugstad said in a phone conversation that at a bare bones minimum, IDLC could rent Collins’ Hall and have a class at someone’s house.
“But it’s the idea is, what we love, of course, is when we’re all together.”
“So at this point we’re pretty despondent that what we’ll end up having to do is kind of a makeshift [school]––it’ll be like camping––until we find a permanent home,” he said.
“It’s disheartening that during this process it became clear to the municipal council that IDLC is a truly valuable asset to our community, something every one of them attested to, yet they have been unable to give us any options or help.”
Saugstad says he’s hoping someone in the community will be able to step up with a solution for IDLC.
