Kimberley City Council gave second reading to the draft Official Community Plan on Monday evening at their regular meeting, in front of a full gallery, and set a public hearing date for February 19. The hearing will be held at McKim Theatre.
While McKim may seem a large venue for a City Council hearing, it is quite likely that it will be close to full for this event, given the continued interest and controversy over the land use designation for the Marysville bench lands.
Prior to Council passing second reading, they heard a presentation from Marysville resident Shawna Dean, who outlined what the bench lands mean to her and the many people who use them for recreation.
Dean pointed to the Volksmarch Trail, which had been in place for some 30 years, and the likelihood it would no longer be maintained should it pass through an industrial development in the future. She pointed to unique vegetation in the bench lands area, such as Ponderosa Pine bunch grass, and movement of wildlife. She said Kimberley couldn’t develop in a similar manner to Cranbrook, because unlike the city to the south, Kimberley was a resort town that needed to showcase itself to the world. She also presented a petition with 480 signatures.
“Please listen to the people who voted for you,” she asked Council. “I ask you to vote against the draft OCP.”
Count. Darryl Oakley thanked her for her impassioned presentation, saying he knows it isn’t easy to stand up and speak at a Council meeting. He said the reason the OCP process is so long and drawn out is to allow everyone an opportunity to voice their concerns.
The city’s manager of Planning Services, Troy Pollock, gave a brief presentation on the OCP as a whole, and what the City was looking to do with the update, including reducing the number of land use designations down to six.
“We have a long term supply of land of residential use,” he said. “But a lack of industrial land.’
He also pointed out that nobody knows what will happen with the bench lands, but there were many stages of zoning and development permits to work through.
He explained that although Teck has a lot of land along Jim Ogilvie Way, that many people point to as being ideal for industrial development, the process to get an environmental certificate for those lands is long and complicated.
“We hope they will be available for industrial development but when? We don’t know. Maybe in five to ten years,” Pollock said.
“There has been lots of conversation with Teck on the possibility of a business park, with an expanded SunMine to power it, on those lands,” said Mayor Don McCormick. “Teck agreed in principle to support that, but it’s not simple. Ownership of the land would need to be addressed. Teck is not going to build a business park.”
McCormick said a developer would have to be found, who potentially would buy the land. The land would also need to go through the phases of an environmental study.
“Talks are ongoing, and we incrementally moving forward,” he said. “it’s not a quick process.”