Tonight the Salt Spring Island CEDC (Community Economic Development Commission), which is a sub committee of the CRD (Capitol Regional District),  put on an information night on what they have been doing for the last 3 years or so.  This pdf will explain local Salt Spring local government organizations; Salt Spring Island Local Governance Below is a recording of the main presentation.  The first person speaking is our CRD director Wayne McIntyre.  He introduced the CEDC chair John Tylee at the time of 3:50 on tape 1.  In total it’s about 45 minutes.

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

John really lays it all out about Salt Spring.  He goes over our problems and solutions.  Yes the island has some problems but as John states we are blessed with natural capitol and great human capitol and both are sustainable.   It’s an excellent presentation and well worth your time if you are thinking of calling Salt Spring home.

Here is the official slide show that goes with the audio clip. resilientsaltspring_cedc planoct2014

One of my complaint about the CEDC was this year on behalf of the Arts Council I organized a social media day for Salt Spring.  We had various speakers on topics from facebook to twitter.  The CEDC said they would sponsor the event for 1k. The money was to be for honorariums for the speakers.  I gave them 6 months notice of the event and did numerous interviews and at the last minute they made up an obtuse request form.  At that point it was to late for them to participate.  The social media day was a success we had over 70 participants who are using social media for their small Salt Spring artisan business.   I only mention this complaint because John made several references to the need for social media training in his speech and I gave them an opportunity to participate and they did nothing but lip service.  It was very frustrating experience trying to “partner” with the CEDC.

For readers information this presentation is a month before the local election.   In some ways the CEDC has done not much but try and make the CRD look like it’s actually doing something.  Again my biggest complaint is commercial property tax rate on the island and this topic never comes up by the CRD.   Governments don’t like to talk about over taxation.  If they cut the commercial property tax rate to be the same as residential we would see investments in commercial properties and new business created.  Who want to buy the Vesuvius pub and pay the 30k plus per year in commercial property tax? Anyone?

On a positive note the CEDC is going to sponsor the Arts Councils 2015 Juried art show which will hopefully become a national event showcasing Salt Spring as an arts destination.  I do hope they actually follow through with this pledge.

I hope this post helps explain the odd way Salt Spring is blessed but challenged.

As the old saying goes “when the government says they are here to help it’s probably time to run“.

 

Cheers

Scott Simmons

 

Salt Spring Island Industrial Advisory Planning Commission draft final report is out.  Here is a copy of the report.  iapc-draft-report-july-15

All in it’s an excellent report that was put together by a stellar group of Salt Spring volunteers.

The basic recommendations are to change the current industrial / commercial zoning into 5 zones;

1. General Employment Zone 1
2. General Employment Zone 2
3. Marine Employment
4. Waste Management
5. Heavy Industrial

The basic change would be from what we have now of specific use to the new model of measured impacts.

The report also covers some ideals of future development in Ganges, Fulford and Channel ridge villages with an new take on live work places.

I do feel the report fell short on addressing the 2.44 times commercial tax to residential property tax difference.   With 600 home based business on Salt Spring this is the elephant in the room.  Who is really ever going to want to go through the pain of re zoning knowing the end result will be more taxes.   It seems to me so many of the home based business will go underground and not re zone even if they are in locations that are identified in the report.

There were a few mistakes in the report such as on page 21 which says;

Sales and rental data. Unfortunately, virtually no sales and rental data for industrial land on Salt  Spring exists. Records back to the 1980s show no sales of industrial land, except for strata properties, and there is very little publically available information on rentals. 

There is sales data available here it is; Commercial salt spring

The other mistake on page 21 was about the vacant marine related property;

Vacant industrially zoned properties. In May 2014, there were eight vacant properties, plus three vacant strata properties. Three of the vacant properties were marine related, totaling about one acre, with potential environmental issues due to past use as marine fueling stations. The remaining five properties totaled 4 acres

Two of the marine properties about were owned by Shell Canada and sold this year after extensive remediation work and testing had been done over a 20 year period.

 

For those that mistakenly think Salt Spring is closed for business the report is worth a read.  It shows that the island is moving in the right direction and supporting entrepreneurs.

Lets hope the local trust committee puts some staff resources into implementing this report asap.

 

 

Cheers

Scott Simmons

 

During the summer of 2014 there has been some new information come out about the Grantville (also know as Walkers Hook or Fort street area) on Salt Spring. At the LTC (local trust council) meeting on 24 July 2014 the issue of building on 1/4 acre lots came up at the meeting.   From what I have been told Grantville has the highest density of wells and septic systems in Western Canada.  There are approx 100 homes on 1 square kilometer.

This judgement surfaced after approx 40 years;

I spoke about the issue to the trust and specifically about the area needing a water district and a water line to each home. Here is an unedited copy of my 2 minute presentation (note; this was un prepared presentation);

The Gulf Island Driftwood newspaper reported the story in the following week.

Here is the article out of the Driftwood newspaper Fort Street debate raises stink Obviously newspapers can not report every speaker word for word and publish it in the paper every week. Like all media they take snippets of the day and make it into a story.

Salt Spring being Salt Spring the following week in the Driftwood Kishori Hutchings who lives on Main street sent in the following letter to the editor “Water not all Bad” in which she stated;  “He has no ideal what his is talking about and it was a very stupid comment. Many of us in this area have fine water.  Mr Simmons should get his facts straight before he opens his mouth“.  Here is the actual letter to the editor in the August 6, 2014 Driftwood (whats a little defamation of character between islanders, water is a passionate topic, I can live with being slagged) ;  

My presentation was based on facts. I stand behind it. Unfortunately the hydrologist that I quoted passed last year and I do not want to quote him directly it would be hearsay evidence at best. To back up the facts I have done a little research to confirm what a water expert and hydrologist have told me.

CBC news story about new Canadian study on contaminated drinking water.

Probably one of the best studies I could find regarding size of lots and septic / wells is “domistic wells have high probability of pumping septic tank leachate”. (Bremer & Harter 2011). It’s a fascinating paper which clearly gives data that one can conclude that a high proportion of the well water on a small sized lot could be recycled from a neighbors septic field. Now if that is not bad enough I read this article from the New York Times about “Drugs are in the Water. Does it Matter? by Cornelia Dean Water Pollution – Drugs and Household Products in the Water Supply – Does It Matter_ – New York Times Unfortunately this was not the only article on the matter I also found on page 7 of the report “Water for life on Salt Spring Island” ssrpthealthyecosystemssep2009 a shocking statement about the presence of pharmaceuticals in surface and groundwater (Naish, 2009). This is the same basic information that the hydrologist and water expert talked to me about.

So I’m sorry Kishori Hutchings but I stand by my statement “never drink the water in that area it is that bad” please buy bottle water or put in a high quality Reverse Osmosis water filter system.  As for building on 1/4 acre lot the judgment basically says one can not build.  I’m sure that there will be an update on this.   As the appeal court judges said “That broader public interest might well be affected in a case like this by the necessity for a regional district to have to provide, in due course, services to these lots. ”  It might just be that “in due course” is now.  In my humble opinion the local regional government (CRD) should form a water district and put in a water system.

Two other bits of relevant info; 1) The CRD has issued building permits for homes on 1/4 acre lots, 2) As far as I know the CRD did not register the judgments on any of the titles on any of the Grantsville lots.  I’m pretty sure the CRD legal department is going through this same can of worms tying to figure out what to do.

Stay tuned more to follow.

Cheers

Scott Simmons

references;

Bremer & Harter 2011 hess-16-2453-2012 wells puming sepitic tank effuent

Naish, 2009 Drugs on tap – The Ecologist

Old Driftwood articles from the 1970s from Salt Spring achieves about this Grantsville (Walkers Hook) subdivision;

In Response to the August 20th Driftwood article “More Planning crucial for a healthy economy”

As John Tylee, chair of the Salt Spring Community Economic Development Commission, states in last week’s Driftwood; “The last decades have seen tremendous advances in understanding how to create exciting places. Encouraging downtown living to maximize after hour activities, making the most of water features, ensuring public spaces are easily navigable for pedestrians, and providing wayfinding so visitors feel safe to explore — these techniques are successful throughout the world. But they are conspicuously absent in Ganges.”

I totally agree with the statement above. Cities and towns around the world are seeing benefits of building a livable, workable, walkable core. There seems to be a worldwide trend against the car-dependent suburban/rural sprawl development model that dominates the Salt Spring landscape.

If “Salt Spring” could build up Ganges, in the process it could gain the following: 1) A larger location, for NSSWD, to build a water treatment plant thus avoiding the restrictive Tripp Road location. 2) Extinguish the future cost of building a new fire hall in the north end. 3) PARC could have land for a much-needed multi-sports field complex. 4) The island could get a much-needed industrial/business park.

Could all this be done?

The basic idea would see Salt Spring purchase the bankrupt 830-acre Channel Ridge development for approximately $10 million or so. The purchase would include the 306 transferable lot densities, 17 strata lots that are almost ready to sell, the right to build 75,000 square feet of buildings in the village area and the 65-km trail system.

The 306 densities could be sold in blocks of 37 units to developers who could buy 1.2-hectare properties in Ganges and build condo buildings. Ganges could end up with eight or so six-storey condo buildings. An example of a receiver lot, in Ganges, could be the current Irwin Collision auto body shop land. Here is the Island trust map which shows the donor and receiver areas on Salt Spring;ssbylbaseocp0434map26

Let’s just say for argument’s sake that the lot densities could be sold at $50,000 each for a total price of approximately $15 million. The 17-lot strata subdivision could be sold as a package to a developer for, let’s say, $1.7 million.

The Channel Ridge village site could be rezoned commercial/industrial and sold as a packaged mini business park with 10 subdivided small industrial lots.

The business park might fetch $2.5 million or so.

In total, Salt Spring could potentially make approximately $9 million plus all the yearly property taxes that could help subsidize our pool, library, transit, fire service, schools, etc.

Some of these funds would need to be spent on increasing the Ganges sewer capacity, buying a ladder truck for the fire department and maybe subsidizing all the water districts on the island proportionally, thus relieving the beleaguered water district property owners.

At the end of the day, Salt Spring could change and be a greener island with less car-dependent rural/suburban sprawl and have a built-up walkable Ganges with approximately 500 or so new residents living in the core.

Please note that this article is not about incorporation and or the roles of local government. This is about the ideal of what could happen if we all worked together for the common good of the island. I have used the term “Salt Spring” as if it was an all-encompassing entity.

Here is an information sheet about Channel Ridge properties. Channel+Ridge+Brochure Please note Channel Ridge has sold for 6.6 mil.

Cheers
Scott Simmons

Please note this article was published in the Driftwood on August 27, 2014.

Salt Spring Island Industrial Land Needs Assessment Report.

To be a consultant and write reports, that’s the life. There seems to be so many reports and so little action ever. It is an interesting report prepared for the Island Trust.

The recommendations from the report make perfect sense, basically stream line the complex zoning, I wish I had thought of that (maybe I did http://saltspringrealestateagent.com/why-is-salt-spring-stagnant/).

The most glaring omission in the report is the high taxation of commercial/industrial land. Commercial/industrial on Salt Spring is taxed at 2.44 times the residential tax rate. Who would bother to rezoning from residential to commercial? Most of the 1200 plus Salt Spring home based business operate on residential land. Most do so by flying under the Islands Trust non existent radar. Most probably claim the home owners grant on their land. The Islands Trust only seems to goes after the most visible offenders after receiving multiple complaints. Unless you are in waste management or tow a massive black barge into the harbour chances are you will never hear from the Islands Trust.

There is no incentive to re zone residential land to commercial/industrial on Salt Spring. The commercial/industrial land has been for sale for a long time due to the red tape and high taxes. No one will step up and buy the Vesuvius pub and pay the $33,334.57, in property tax, per year and open a pub (FYI it’s probably impossible to get a liquor license) How many pints would one have to sell just to pay the taxes? If one could make a dollar per pint one would have to sell over 90 pints per day to pay the property tax.

Salt Spring Island – Industrial Land Needs Assessment – 20130814B (2)

I do not know what the report cost (I think it was 50 or 60k) but I do know one thing it will be filed away with all the other reports and there will be no action. When one writes a report for a government body one does not probably want to slag their over-taxation. Without high over-taxation there would be no money for reports.

For the people thinking of moving to Salt Spring the report is a good information about the fabric of the island.

Cheers

Scott Simmons