Public Meetings for two Quadra island developments deferred until April

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Public meetings for two controversial Quadra Island real estate developments have been deferred until this April, 2022, because of concerns about meeting in-person during a pandemic.

The public meeting for the proposed Gowland Harbour Views development was scheduled for January 18th, 2022, and the rezoning meeting for Quadra Links Golf Course was to have occurred the following day.

With less than a week to go, at the January 12th SRD Board meeting, Quadra Island Regional Director Jim Abram, said, “I have two items of business that are very timely. We need to deal with them today at this meeting because we have scheduled two public hearings in the next week.”

Having already observed the meeting for one of these projects being delayed for years, Cortes Island Regional Director Noba Anderson responded, “ I certainly hear the concerns around this meeting wanting to have a good in-person component to it, but we are government and we do need to move forward on these things. So I'm just asking from staff on the advisability of this and our ability to hold public hearings following all of their required protocol. I don't know why [the meeting is being set back to] April, why wouldn't it be the earliest opportunity that Omicron allows.”

SRD Senior Manager Thomas Yates expressed concerns about being able to notify the public about the cancellations in time.

Abram replied that there was no need for concern, half of Quadra Island’s population would be contacted through Facebook by the end of the day.

As both of the proposed meetings were on Quadra, they fell under the jurisdiction of the SRD’s Electoral Areas Services Committee (EASC).

The following motions passed with unanimous support of all four Regional Directors (Jim Abram, Noba Anderson, Brenda Leigh and Gerald Whalley):

“Abram/Whalley: SRD 32/22 - Due to the most resent Omicron variant outbreak of Covid 19, that the public hearing for the Schellinck development scheduled for January 18, 2022 be rescheduled to an available date in late April 2022, at 7pm at the Quadra Island Community Centre. All COVID protocols will apply. - carried”

“Abram/Anderson: SRD 33/22 - Due to the most resent Omicron variant outbreak of Covid 19, that the public hearing for the Quadra Links development scheduled for January 19, 2022 be rescheduled to an available date in late April 2022, at 7pm at the Quadra Island Community Centre. All COVID protocols will apply - carried”