Feb 24, 2021

Ladysmith Council Notebook for February 16, 2021

Ladysmith Council met for both a special and regular meeting on February 16, 2021 with the Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Grant for the upland remediation among the agenda highlights.

The Special Council meeting had one agenda item as Council received a delegation from

George Parker, of G.P. Rollo and Associates, and John Horn, of the Cowichan Housing Association Association regarding the Housing Needs Assessment completed for the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD).

The Housing Needs Assessment includes specific data for Ladysmith and draws conclusions on the types housing needed now and in the future in order to best support our community’s demographics.

The majority of the information for the HNA was source from the 2016 Census and other publicly available data.  A community engagement component for developing the final report helped to confirm the conclusions presented in this data.

The HNA is a requirement of the Provincial government and will form part of the Town’s OCP Review.

Moving on to the regular meeting, Council approved issuing a temporary use permit to allow for a temporary shelter at 440 First Avenue for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shelter capacity will not exceed 15 people, including clients and staff.

The Ladysmith Resources Centre Association (LRCA) will operate the facility, limited to the first floor of the building, with support from BC Housing.  The LRCA currently runs the Cold Weather Shelter on Buller Street, however the site has been unable to function at full capacity due to COVID-19 protocols.

Next, Council directed staff to send a letter to the Cowichan Valley Regional District following a request for comment regarding an application to amend the CVRD OCP and Zoning Bylaw at 4760 Brenton Page Road, the address belonging to the Page Point Inn and Marina.

The proposed development is a 16-unit condominium, which will be in addition to the existing commercial uses.

Moving on, Council authorizes the signing of the FCM Green Municipal Fund Grant Agreement for the remediation of the waterfront uplands. 

The Town’s is completing a detailed site investigation of the uploads and was successful in our application to FCM and was awarded $168,400.  The project started in later 2020 and the FCM funds will be applied retroactively to the project costs. 

The site investigation work will lead to next steps on remediation plan for the uplands.

Council then considered a request from Telus to provide a letter of support regarding the telecom’s Universal Broadband Fund grant application.  

According to correspondence from Telus, the funding would support the building, operation and long-term maintenance of the infrastructure to support expanded wireless cellular coverage in town.

Council endorsed sending the letter of support.

The next virtual regular meeting of Council is scheduled for March 2, 2021 at 7 pm.

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