Public meeting for Quadra Links rescheduled to Nov 23
Cortes Currents
English - April 30, 2022 17:21 - 3 minutes - 9.08 MBNews cortes island discovery islands quadra food security energy indigenous nations Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -The public hearing for a proposed RV park on land owned by the Quadra Island Golf Course (Quadra Links) has been rescheduled to November 23, 2022.
This is a reversal of the decision made at the April 13 SRD Board meeting, when Regional Director Jim Abram had insisted the meeting be held on May 18.
Unfortunately Abram had not consulted with the golf course, which was not ready for a meeting in May and had been under the impression their meeting was to be in the fall.
They promptly wrote the SRD Board, “The arbitrary date of May 18th is not acceptable to Quadra Links. We want to be very clear. Quadra Links will not attend and will not participate in any way if the Area Directors move forward with that date. We expect the public hearing will continue to be scheduled for November 23 as previously agreed by Director Abram.”
They explained that a number of the public comments they received require more careful consideration than Quadra Links has time for at the beginning of the golfing season.
They ended their letter, “It’s completely unfair and undemocratic for the SRD to try and force an applicant to a public hearing when the applicant has clearly stated they need and been granted a later date.“
The matter was brought up for reconsideration at the April 27 SRD Board meeting and Abram withdrew his earlier motion.
He also explained that his earlier motion was not arbitrary:
COVID is expected to flair up again in the Fall
There will be an election
SRD staff will be busy with electoral matters
Everyone will be getting ready for the Christmas break
The results of a late November hearing will not even be looked at until November.
Abram called the applicants request ‘highly unusual’ and ”a complete departure from our normal way of setting public hearings” but said he was willing to go along with it.
Mayor Andy Adams of Campbell River responded, “Thank you. I just want to say words of appreciation for the reconsideration of this. It has been a long process, but I don't think there's any reason to go against what is good for the SRD, good for the area, but also good for the proponent.”
There were no objections to the November 23 date, which carried.