By David F. Rooney
Revelstoke City Council held a very significant but mercifully short meeting — just 90 minutes compared to the two- and even three-hour marathons that dominated this spring — on June 28, all of which can be viewed by activating the YouTube players below.
First up was Council’s approval of Official Community Plan Amendments 2113, 2114 and 2115 with regard to the old Lutheran Church property at 1502 Mountain View Drive in Arrow Heights owned by Scott and Mary Jean LeBuke which is being transformed into a hostel with a permanent on-site caretaker. You can watch Council’s handling of that at the 2:25 mark in City Council Video Part 1.
Council also added new fines and provisions to the animal control sections of the Municipal Ticketing Bylaw at 2:40 on the Part 1 of the Council video. These provisions include restrictions on the kinds of fowl you can keep in your back yard.
Council also approved, at about the 8-minute mark, a suggestion that the City submit a resolution at the next Union of BC Municipalities meeting that online travel agencies charge the “appropriate provincial and additional accommodation taxes regarding properties that fall under the prescribed BC Taxation guidelines.
Council picked up (at the 10:40 mark) where it left off at its previous meeting with regard to David and Shelley Evans’ plans for their proposed development on Camozzi Road (Click here to see the agenda and scroll down to 51 – 119 to see the list of web-accessible documents related to this project that were presented at Council). After a detailed presentation by Development Services Manager Dean Strachan Council voted 6-1 to approve five requirements necessary for the Evanses to proceed with their plans. Mayor Mark McKee voted against each of the requirements:
- The owner is to register a Statutory Right-of-Way to allow for public access through the subject property to lands beyond;
- The owner is to enter into a Master Development Agreement for off-site works, access, servicing and infrastructure through the site to future Development Lands;
- The owner is to register a no-build, no-disturb covenant in favour of the City of Revelstoke in relation to the Master Development Agreement to be released for each phase only after the Development Agreement for that phase is approved and required security is in place;
- The owner is to register a no-build, no-disturb covenant in favour of the City of Revelstoke over the areas delineated as Park on the proposed Development Plan, area for access to the subject property to be excluded from covenant area; and
- The owner is to register a no-build, no-disturb covenant in favour of the City of Revelstoke on 75% (area outside of first phase) of the subject property that will be released on the fifth anniversary of its registration.
While McKee, like everyone else on Council, likes their plans for the proposed Treetop Hotel he thinks their proposal to allow other hotels to develop elsewhere on their property will, in effect, create a second base village that will compete with the official one at RMR. A public information meeting and a public hearing may he held regarding this development later this summer or early this fall.
City Council also considered a proposal by Ross Lang’s CDS Investments to build a bowling alley at 1240 Powerhouse Road in the industrial park. You can watch that discussion during the opening minutes of Part 2 of the Council video below.
And finally, Council also approved the proposal to go ahead with McElhanney’s proposal to proceed with the roundabout at Victoria Road and Wright Street this year with final alterations to the left-and-right turns into the Tim Hortons/Shell/Motel 8 east of Victoria Road and the A&W/McDonalds/PetroCanada/Starbucks to its west just before the intersection with thew Trans-Canada. Click here to read Engineering and Developmenty Services Director Mike Thomas’ report to Council. You can watch that discussion starting at 15:32 on Part 2 of the Council video below.