Council Meeting Highlights - February 12, 2025

10 AM Wednesday February 12 and another Qualicum Beach Council meeting. If you were not there or have not watched the meeting on YouTube, these are some of the things you will have missed:

Noise Complaint: Surprisingly, the complaint was not about the airport. Rather, a resident of Eaglecrest appeared as a delegation to request changes to the Town's current Noise Control Bylaw to address the resident's concerns over the sound volume allegedly produced by a gardening crew at a neighbouring property. The decibel levels of the sounds were measured by the Town's Bylaw Officer, however, they were in compliance with the Town's current noise bylaw and nothing could be done under the existing legislation. As a result, the resident was asking council for changes to the bylaw and stressed that a new bylaw be enacted sooner, rather than later, and that it contain hefty penalties for non-compliance. At the conclusion of the resident's presentation, the Mayor noted that Council does not provide an immediate response to issues raised by delegations and that the issue will be referred to staff, so nothing was resolved at this meeting. Given that airplanes responsible for the airport noise complaints are often referred to as "lawn mowers in the sky" and that such complaints have not been resolved, it will be interesting to see how and when this particular lawn mower complaint is dealt with by Council.

Qualicum Beach Curling Club: The Curling Club presented its Five Year Capital Plan. Kudos to the club for all of the "grunt work" that its members have put in to keep an old building operational. Of concern, however, is the $190,000 roof replacement proposed for 2026. Hopefully, there are sufficient funds in the Town's Asset Replacement Reserve Fund earmarked for this project. One wonders, however, if an assessment has been made as to whether the remaining viable life of the building justifies an expense of this amount.

Notices of Motion: Councillor Harrison presented four Notices of Motion for consideration. All were referred to staff for comment at the March 12 council meeting. One of the motions was quite timely as it dealt with the procurement of goods and services by the town from Canadian (as opposed to foreign) entities. The other Notices of Motion dealt, in general, with housing issues. Of concern is one of the motions which directs staff (as stated in the Notice of Motion), "to look at having a minimum density requirement of two units per lot for redevelopment within the Village Neighbourhood satisfied by either a garden suite, carriage house, duplex or another arrangement with two separate units on the property". If enacted, this proposal may hinder housing development by, among other things, increasing construction costs. Also, in the absence of separate titles, the owner/developer/resident will become a landlord of the extra unit unless he or she leaves it vacant. Those persons who find being a landlord unappealing may choose to develop properties outside of the Village Neighbourhood or, possibly, outside of Qualicum Beach. This, however, may not be an option in some situations. Consider, for example, an existing two bedroom 1200 square foot home in the Village Neighbourhood. Perfectly adequate for the typical QB retiree. A wildfire completely destroys the home. The previously adequate small home will be required to be replaced with one providing two units, one of which will sit vacant if the retiree does not wish to be a landlord. All of this assumes that the insurance policy on the previously adequate small home covers such a replacement. There are undoubtedly other scenarios that can be imagined arising from this proposal.

Development Permit 1000 Ravensbourne Lane: This was an application for the issuance of a Development Permit for the construction of a hangar at the airport. The application was granted and, presumably, the Development Permit will be issued. Nothing unusual here except that the lease for the land on which the hangar is to be built has yet to be negotiated with the Town and the exact location of the hangar has yet to be determined. In fairness to Council, the granting of the Development Permit was subject to the negotiation of the lease. So, if there is no lease forthcoming, presumably, there will be no hangar. It still seems like putting the cart before the horse. As for the actual lease, as the Mayor noted, it will be done in a closed meeting so we can provide no details on the terms of the lease.

Kwalikum Secondary School Road Safety Improvements: This may sound familiar. It was originally brought up at the October 23, 2024 Council Meeting. At the time, the budget was

$2.345 million for the safety enhancement as well as sewer/water system upgrades and various surface works. In particular, the previous proposal contemplated replacing 200 metres of asbestos watermain before reconstructing the road to avoid cutting the asphalt in the future to replace the watermain before the end of its life. Council did not approve the scope of the work at the October 23 meeting. As a result, staff and its engineering consultants revisited the scope of the project. At the February 12 meeting, staff presented a new project scope with a reduced budget and requested Council to authorize the submission of a grant application to cover 60% of the costs. To paraphrase the memo to Council, the reduced project now consists of one new crosswalk, the retention of an existing crosswalk, limiting the construction of sidewalks to the ends of the crosswalks, new thermoplastic crosswalk bars, new rectangular rapid flashing beacon solar powered crosswalk lights and raised median islands. Your guess is as good as mine as to what this actually means. I was at the meeting, looked at the artist's rendering, reread the memo to Council and am still not certain. In any event, according to the staff memo, the estimated cost for the reduced scope of the project is $328,000 with 60% ($197,000) being covered by the grant (if successful) and the remaining $131,000 coming from the Town's Asset Investment Reserve Fund. Some questions to consider about this project:

Is it really necessary?

Does the reduced scope of the project achieve what is actually required?

Is there grant funding available to cover all of the cost or, at least, more than 60%?

How much has already been spent on this project to get to this point of the process?

How much are the Town's engineering consultants being paid, and what are they actually doing?

Will the Town have to rip up the newly constructed sidewalks, medians, islands and crosswalks at some time in the future when the watermain reaches the end of its life or, heaven forbid, prematurely fails?

James Noel

February 15, 2025

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