Trilogy at Cumberland: Listening to the Village, Learning from the Land

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MUNICIPAL PROCESS SECTION

The OCP is a Vision Statement

Cumberland’s Official Community Plan sets out the goals and objectives of the community and as such, is the Village’s most significant document related to future growth and development. While the OCP has been adopted as a bylaw, it is not a regulatory bylaw --- under the Local Government Act, it are classed as a “policy statement” rather than as a regulatory instrument.

Under Section 884 of the Local Government Act, an Official Community Plan does not “commit or authorize a municipality to proceed with any project that is specified in the OCP”, but it does require that any bylaws enacted after its adoption (including amendments) are consistent with its policy guidelines. Council is required to consider all applications to amend the OCP or its zoning bylaws under Section 895, as well as to define the procedure for amendment to the land owner.

Amending the Official Community Plan

When a proposed development varies from the land uses prescribed in the Official Community Plan (as Trilogy’s proposal does) a formal process of OCP amendment is initiated by the developer as his first step in the formal municipal process.

Prior to Trilogy presenting its Master Plan to the community, it conducted a series of public information meetings to explain its process and its thinking to the citizens. Its application to amend the OCP was based on the following considerations:

• The amount of Commercial that the OCP outlines east of the Highway is larger than the size of the Woodgrove Centre in Nanaimo, which is the largest shopping centre on the Island. In Trilogy’s estimation, this amount of commercial development would be in opposition to the Village’s “small town” character, even if it followed the guidelines set out by the OCP.
• The Comox Valley market is not large enough to support a commercial development of this size. Woodgrove services 143,000 people in Nanaimo alone; whereas the Comox Valley trading area is presently estimated at 63,000.
• The cost of infrastructure required to service the lots is not be able to be paid for by commercial development only. Commercial development commands a higher tax rate for the Village, but because of its lower value per square foot will generate less actual revenue than a combination of Residential and Commercial. For the same reason, it realizes less gross profit for the developer, out of which the infrastucture is paid for.

Where Trilogy’s OCP Amendment application is at

The first Public Hearing to amend the OCP for Lots 1-11 was held on October 28, 2006. Because of the scale and complexity of the amendment, Council requested early in November that Trilogy re-submit its application in 3 separate sections, beginning with Lots 2-8. The Lot 2-8 OCP amendment was proposed as Bylaw 842, and was granted 3rd reading on December 18, 2006.

Trilogy is continuing the rest of its OCP amendment applications throughout the early months of 2007. In certain cases, Public Information Meetings on rezoning applications may be held concurrently with OCP amendment applications, or before OCP amendment bylaws are adopted.

TRILOGY

Suite 2180, 650 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6B 4N9
PO Box 11607 Vancouver Centre, 650 West Georgia Street, Vancouver B.C V6B 4N9
Telephone 604-684-5858. Fax 604-684-5859

info@trilogyproperties.com
www.trilogyproperties.com