Amending the Official Community Plan

What’s wrong with our current Official Community Plan? Not much!

Salt Spring’s existing OCP protects our island’s ecology and character from mass development, as the Islands Trust Act requires. It still has room for 5,000 more residents within its zoning. It already allows for truly affordable housing, protected from market forces. Hundreds of units have been and are being built.

So, why is an OCP update being pushed ahead?

Our trustees call it just a “tweak.” Planning documents call it “a major amendment” to “guide residential growth and change” for “the next decade or more.” This project is misguided, unneeded, and threatens to overload our island with mass development.

How much is being spent on this tweak? Too much!

More than a third of a million dollars. Our trustees have already spent nearly $140,000 on a Complete Community Assessment. This survey found that 84% of Salt Springers place “a strong emphasis on environmental considerations.” Trustees have ignored it. Now they are asking us to take a new survey, designed to favour a policy of endless growth.

Tell our trustees you support the OCP we have, with growth limits unchanged.

Read more…