On July 29th, the Trust Council gave first reading to their new draft Trust Policy Statement (TPS). This document is of paramount importance because it sets minimum standards for all island’s official community plans and other land use bylaws. The Trust has announced a 6-month public consultation process, hoping to finalize the TPS before trustees’ terms end in November of next year.
FOTGIS is analyzing the draft TPS that is going out for public comment. We already have identified areas of concern: 1) a section titled “Managing Growth and Development” echoes urban policies; we believe “Limiting Growth and Development” would better reflect and support the Islands Trust mandate; 2) policies that facilitate new development not limited to affordable housing. See article on FAR below; and 3) deletion of the history and context from the current TPS that we believe is essential in understanding the importance and intent of the Islands Trust Act.
For more information and to read the draft TPS, visit Islands 2050. You will find information here about the public engagement process. Our next newsletter will provide information about our analysis of the draft to assist you in completing the survey and in writing to express your support for a TPS that prioritizes the natural environment and limits new up-zoning for increased density to affordable housing in appropriate areas. We hope you will write. There will also be community meetings. We will keep you updated on these opportunities for feedback.
Floor Area Ratio (FAR)
One of the most alarming policies in the draft TPS is called FAR. It allows unlimited number of residences on a residential lot so long as their total floor area does not exceed the floor area coverage allowed on each lot by each island’s OCP. This policy ignores the fact that more residents use more scarce groundwater, produce more sewage and use other island services. See this article published in the Gulf Islands Driftwood for details.
Petition
Our petition calling on elected trustees and the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs to support a strong TPS now has almost 1400 signatures! Please sign if you have not already done so and encourage your friends and family to support this.
New Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, Christine Boyle
In July we learned that the previous Minister (Ravi Kahlon), who had recently written a letter to the Trust supporting an environmentally-focussed Islands trust, was replaced with a new minister. We are drafting a letter to the new Minister to introduce Friends of the Gulf Islands Society and relay our hope that she will continue the support showed by her predecessor. Her background includes work with First Nations and advocacy on climate change actions.
FOTGIS at the Pender Fall Fair August 23
If you are on Pender, come see us at our table at this event that we attended last year. Your questions, input and support is always appreciated.
Members’ Meeting
All FOTGIS members are invited to attend our Monday, September 22 monthly Board meeting at 10 am by Zoom. We will send you a Zoom Link and agenda prior to the meeting.