Catherwood boundary extension counter-petition gets needed 10% vote

Updated

A petition that has circulated to halt the annexation of two properties from the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) into the City of Revelstoke has been successful, with 577 signatures received.

The properties at 3304 & 3452 Catherwood Road (one owned owned by Peter Bernacki, Melinda Bell and Richard Mickle, the latter by developer David Evans) are approximately 53 acres in size combined and are located in the Agricultural Land Reserve.

The application was originally supported to move forward but now its future is in question. The number of elector responses required to prevent the boundary extension from proceeding was 566, or 10 per cent. 760 signatures were received in total by the deadline of December 16, 2016, although 183 were rejected.

Approval of the electorate is a pre-condition of the municipal council request for the boundary change.

CSRD resident Daren Corneliuson ran an impassioned campaign against the annexation and CSRD director of electorate B Loni Parker penned a letter in support of gaining signatures.

Corneliuson said he was happy with the result and that he could have kept going.

“I feel strongly about saving that farm land,” he said. “I know that farm land is very important to our wildlife in that area — the wildlife needs a corridor in that area with all that development.”

Daren Corneliuson gathered signatures for a counter petition in front of Save-On-Foods on Saturday, Dec. 10. Corneliuson is seeking to oppose the annexation of two properties on Catherwood Road into the city, saying the annexation would be a step towards removing the properties from the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer

The properties were being annexed for future used complimentary to Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Property owner and local developer David Evans responded to the opposition in a recent article.

Now Revelstoke council has the option to conduct a referendum on the matter, which a staff report says would cost $10,000. The report notes that the city has not budgeted for the referendum. The report says abandoning the boundary extension is another option.

Councillors also have the power to submit an alternate motion and Evans said that there may be potential to attach the referendum to upcoming school district elections. City staff could not be reached to confirm this.

“Obviously I am deeply upset, this process has been going on for nearly two years,” David Evans said. “Unfortunately, a very small number of individuals, probably two or three decided to take it upon themselves to pass on a lot of false information.”

Developer David Evans chats with residents in July 2016 at an open house for his Camozzi Bench hotel. Photo: Emily Kemp/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Evans said he had been painted as a greedy property developer.

“And people sign without really knowing what they’re signing.” he said. “I don’t think that’s how educated and civilized populations operate.”

But if the application continues Corneliuson said he won’t back down and the conflict between Evans and Corneliuson, who haven’t met in person, is likely to continue.

“Believe me I’ll be standing there every time he tries,” Corneliuson said. “I feel strongly that that land does not need to be developed, maybe in 20 years.”

“If anyone think they are going to develop out here — Revelstoke Mountain Resort has to be bursting — there’s no way they’re going to take our land.”

In a related issue, on Wednesday Jan. 18 in an email, Parker noted that serious allegations had been made against her publicly and reported an update on the outcome of an official complaint regarding her conduct in the matter. The CSRD board of directors addressed the matter on Jan. 19.

Columbia Shuswap Regional District Area B Director Loni Parker. Photo: CSRD photo

“The CSRD has concluded that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the Area B Director and that the statements made do not contravene any legal requirements or CSRD policies,” a report states. “It is the position of the CSRD Board that elected officials are entitled to hold strong views on issues of public importance and are entitled to speak their minds about such matters.”

Meanwhile, a proposed diagnostic study of the south bench of Revelstoke, which includes these two Catherwood properties, has been proposed. The intent is to collect information on current land use, demographics, infrastructure, governance, and service delivery to assist consideration of future boundary adjustment applications. The proposed diagnostic inventory would not include recommendations on policy or land use or technical or financial information on the impact of boundary extension or governance restructuring options.

The cost of the study will be approximately $60,000, with $30,000 of funding potentially from the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development and $15,000 each from the City of Revelstoke and the CSRD.

“It’s been in the works for quite some time, the province — we had discussions with them — about having a study done because of the annexation requests,” Parker said. “And they prefer to have annexation done, instead of piecemeal, done in a more comprehensive fashion, and we prefer to have all the information to see whether annexations make sense.”

But Evans was vocal in opposition to the study and said it was an obfuscation from the CSRD not to lose any further taxes through the City of Revelstoke.

“It is a two year waste of time,” he said. “It’s just a huge waste of time and effort and finances from both the CSRD, the city and the ministry to finance a survey on basically what is on the south bench.”

Councillors will discuss both the petition results and the diagnostic study at the city council meeting on January 24.