Juan de Fuca Land Use
Committee votes in favour of vacation home proposal
Victoria, B.C. — Late last night, Mike Hicks and the Juan de Fuca Land Use
Committee (LUC) voted five to two in favour of Ender Ilkay’s application to
build 257 homes along 17 km of the Juan de Fuca trail.
The
application will now be sent to the Capital Regional District (CRD) board
with the LUC’s recommendation and committee A of the board will make a
binding decision. The committee is expected to approve the proposal at the
May 11 board meeting and vote to hold a public hearing later that month.
“It
is outrageous that this application was even considered in the first place,”
said Gordon O’Connor, Vancouver Island Campaigner with the Dogwood
Initiative.
“This proposal for reckless development contravenes the
Regional Growth Strategy and will open our coast up for urban sprawl. Thousands
of people from across the CRD have spoken out against this, but the Land Use
Committee completely ignored their concerns.”
Members
of committee A have long political track records for promoting urban sprawl
in the Juan de Fuca region. Their authority to make this decision is based on
a dated system that was used to govern the region before major tracts of land
were removed from tree farm licences in 2007.
Last
week, the CRD board decided to ask the province to change the voting system
to give all directors control of the Rural Resource Lands, which make up
two-thirds of the CRD on Vancouver Island,
but it is unclear if the province will act in a timely manner.
“Despite
this request for a more democratic voting system, the proposal for 266 homes
on the Juan de Fuca trail could still be approved by a five-person
committee,” said O’Connor. “The province created this mess in the 2007
tree farm licence scandal and they have yet to make any attempt to mitigate
the consequence of this decision for our community.”
The
CRD board has legal means available to stop reckless development. “Barring
swift action from the province, they will need to act decisively at the May
11 meeting to stop committee A from rubber stamping another application for
urban sprawl,” O’Connor said.
