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Saanich council sends five more properties to public hearing for exclusion from EDPA

Five property owners will receive a public hearing to exclude their properties from the provisions of a controversial bylaw designed to protect environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs) following Wednesday’s special council meeting.
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Credit: Submitted Cutline: Coun. Colin Plant was one of five councillors in support of sending five requests for exclusion from a controversial environmental bylaw to a public hearing.

Five property owners will receive a public hearing to exclude their properties from the provisions of a controversial bylaw designed to protect environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs) following Wednesday’s special council meeting.

Council voted 5-1 with Coun. Vicki Sanders opposed to schedule a public hearing where the public will have a chance to comment on whether the five Gordon Head properties should remain subject to the provisions of the Environmental Development Permit Area (EDPA) bylaw. Couns. Judy Brownoff and Dean Murdock were absent.

Council scheduled the public hearing against the recommendation of staff. It had recommended council keep the properties within the EDPA map as staff “collate” proposed changes to it as part of a more “detailed assessment” culminating in future revisions to the map.

Coun. Colin Plant said he voted for the public hearing because the mapping was inaccurate and the properties no longer included any environmentally sensitive areas. “And as such we could justify removing them from the EDPA atlas,” said Plant.

Wednesday’s decision adds to a growing number of EDPA exclusion requests awaiting public input.

Staff are still finalizing a date to hear those applications. It also remains unclear when council will receive public input on the proposed suspension of the EDPA bylaw for single residences until the receipt of a report from a consultant who is currently reviewing the bylaw.

While council had signalled its support for a temporary suspension of the bylaw in early March, it cannot come into effect until after a public hearing and it is not clear when that public hearing will take place.

Plant said Saanich has not yet confirmed a date for what he called would be a “mega public hearing” probably held in May.

The earliest available date for a public hearing would be April 25. The next available date would be May 9 – the date of the provincial election. District staff have already acknowledged this potential clash and are currently searching for dates that would satisfy various statutory requirements including timelines for notifications and venue sizes while balancing staff workload.

Saanich meanwhile will continue to accept and hear applications for exclusions from the EDPA, as was the case Wednesday, when council considered the five latest applications.

A map shows the five properties near Feltham Park inside a polygon whose major lines include Braefoot Road, Malton Avenue and Simon Road. EDPA mapping classifies the five properties as part of the Woodland ecosystem as classified by the federal-provincial Sensitive Ecosystem Inventory (SEI).

“This Woodland mapped area is one of six remnants in the vicinity which is all that is left of a larger, contiguous ecosystem south of Mount Douglas Park,” said Sharon Hvozdanski, director of planning, in a memo to council. “There is a wildlife corridor being established as properties are developed, in accordance with the Braefoot Area Plan, as well as many covenanted areas. This area also connects to Garry Oak and other tree species canopy, floodplain, and agricultural areas.”

Registered biologist Tea Lea, however, said in a submission on behalf of the five property owners that their Braefoot and Malton Avenue properties should not be subject to EDPA provisions because they do not include any environmentally significant areas (ESAs).

Lea said that he had reached this conclusion after viewing all of the 28 SEI properties mapped within the EDPA. “[And] I have not seen one of these areas that would meet the definition of a Woodland Sensitive Ecosystem,” he said. “Few native species remain.”

After decades of agriculture in the area, no natural ecosystem remains. Invasive species as well as lawn and ornamental gardens dominate all properties, he said.

While Lea acknowledged the sporadic presence of various rare plants on those properties, existing conditions do not fit existing definitions and render the likelihood of restoration to a natural state as low

District staff have subsequently challenged these conclusions in deeming the Woodland ecosystem designation appropriate.

“Staff biologists do not agree with the assessment by Lea, that there is no Woodland Sensitive Ecosystem on the property, due to the time of year that the work was completed, the focus on the presence of invasive plants, the lack of an assessment of habitat, and the lack of a complete inventory or reference to a rare species in the mapped area,” said Hvozdanski.



Wolf Depner

About the Author: Wolf Depner

I joined the national team with Black Press Media in 2023 from the Peninsula News Review, where I had reported on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula since 2019.
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