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Muni Morsels: speed bylaw, oil disposal and community centre update

Briefs from the July 27 regular Bowen Island Municipality council meeting
municipal hall

We’re back! As the Undercurrent took a break last week, we’re covering last week’s news this week. The following are briefs from the July 27 Bowen Island Municipality regular council meeting:

Need for less speed: Enforceable speed limits of 40 km/hr (and lower) across the island haven’t yet come to pass. Council rescinded and re-gave third reading to the speed limits bylaw (default speed limits in B.C. municipalities is 50 km/hr unless a bylaw says otherwise). Councillors asked the bylaw be amended to make the speed limit on Bowen Bay Rd. from the beach all the way down to the end of Windjammer 30 km/hr.

Planner Emma Chow has explained that the speed limits are to reflect the currently posted speed limits though under council direction Cape Drive will be bumped up to 40 km/hr (the wide roads with ample space on the sides for walking and biking were among councillors’ reasoning). While councillors discussed the possibilities of changing speed limits in other places, Coun. Rob Wynen said that that should involve more conversations with the neighbourhoods. The bylaw has now just to pass adoption.

Oily subject: Bowen Islanders will soon be able to dispose of used oil and lubricant during their runs to the Bowen Island Recycling Depot. Funded by the non-profit BC Used Oil Management Association, a sea can (containing five barrels) on the Bowen Waste Solutions lot will allow for collection of used oil and lubricants. The non-profit will fund training BIM Environment Department and BWS staff. The expected cost to BIM is $500 to level the area where the bin is to go said a staff report. The staff report said that there are 70 similar collection facilities throughout the province, including on Gabriola Island.

A representative from the non-profit explained that before recycling regulations changed, locations that sold oil would have to take back that waste, but the province shifted to a stewardship program for waste collection.

Getting ready for a vote: council got a community centre update from outgoing manager of recreation and community services Shauna Jennings (who is leaving at the beginning of September). The recently announced $7.96 million grant contract has been received and signed and Jacqueline Massey (former executive director of the Hearth) hired as a fundraising coordinator. A business plan is on final review and memorandum of understanding between the municipality and the arts council around how governance and programming will happen is in the works. Jennings said too that the centre’s floor plan has been updated to reflect staff feedback. She also said that they had a look at the layout for strategies to deal with COVID-19.

Mayor Gary Ander recognized Jennings’ 13 years with the municipality “Thank you for all the work you’ve done,” he said. “You inspire everyone around you.”

The community centre referendum is  coming up Sept. 12. The Undercurrent have more coverage on this in coming weeks.

Varying policy: Of the 48 development variance permit applications filed since the beginning of 2016, council has approved 36. Of the six DVPs rejected in that frame, five were retroactive applications to permit work already done, council heard. (The staff report noted that not every application was accepted as originally submitted and staff worked with some applicants to reduce the request before coming to council).

The issue came forward as councillors had previously queried about streamlining the DVP process.

There are two ways one can get a variance: through the DVP process or the much less frequently used Board of Variance (there have been only two applications to the BOV since 2016). Neither can vary land use or density but can otherwise alter zoning for a property (frequently variances are used to reduce setback from the property line). The BOV has a narrower mandate––it cannot vary some regulations that DVPs can (like parking) and must determine that a variance is minor in nature and the applicant is facing undue hardship.

Council decided to boost the price for a DVP application from $850 to $900 to encourage more applications to the Board of Variance (which is $850).

Annual report: Council approved the 2019 annual report summarizing the municipality's activities over the year. Some highlights from the report:

  • In 2019, BIM had 45.7 full-time equivalent positions (this number was 44.8 in 2018, 42.2 in 2017, 35.46 in 2016, 37.37 in 2015, 31.54 in 2013-2014).
  • The fire department responded to 193 calls in 2019, up from 179 calls in 2018. Of the calls in 2019, 99 were medical emergencies, 45 were fire, 16 were alarms, eight were power lines, six were motor vehicle accidents, one was hazmat and then 18 other calls.
  • Bylaw services had 679 calls in 2019 and issued 477 violation notices. The most requests for service were in the category of street and traffic (187) with warf (91) and noise (88) in a distant second and third. 
  • BIM issued seven permits for tree removal in 2019 (required when removing trees on municipal property). 
  • Bowen Island Community Recreation saw 3,157 participants across its 372 registered programs and 5,225 participants across its 24 drop-in programs. In its four community special events, there were 1,240 participants. 
  • The daily average of visits to the library was 174 people. While visits were down slightly in 2019 (52,264 compared to 52,690 in 2018) materials borrowed were up to 54,658 as opposed to 41,956 in 2018). 

Watch the entire meeting: