The much-discussed spiritual retreat centre proposed for Britannia Beach has cleared a major hurdle, as the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) directors voted unanimously to adopt amendment bylaws for the facility at Monday's (July 26) regular board meeting.
The non-profit Institute for Research, Communication and Development (IRCD) sought to rezone a parcel of land perched above the town of Britannia Beach in order to accommodate a 60,000-square foot conference centre for spiritual retreats and other pursuits.
The proposal has encountered opposition from some local residents throughout the process, with concerns centering around the impact of the facility on the community's character and issues such as traffic management and the possibility of the IRCD seeking an exemption from payment of water and sewer use fees.
But an SLRD staff report from October 2009, when the board gave the bylaws third reading, noted that "the community support for the application appears to have grown since the last public hearing," and the SLRD sought to address some of the major concerns in a development agreement accompanying the bylaws.
The second public hearing for the proposed project, held in September 2009, attracting a high volume of submissions and verbal comments both from supporters and detractors.
"I do believe that the SLRD board and staff have done an admirable job of addressing the concerns and objections that were voiced by some members of Britannia Beach," SLRD Area D Director John Turner wrote in an email to The Chief.
The development agreement ties the proponent to commitments to make a $10,000 contribution to the Britannia Beach Fire Hall, to offer designated spaces in the proposed facility for community use in agreed-upon programs and storage of equipment, and to build a singletrack trail through the property that connects to Murrin Park.
The applicants have also said they don't intend to apply to the Province or SLRD for tax-exempt status, and have agreed to give the regional district $10,000 for traffic-calming initiatives before building anything, according to an SLRD staff report.
"We have always maintained, and continue to do so, that IRCD recognizes that it has an obligation to pay for its share of the use of the community water and sewer systems on a basis that reflects its proportionate use of such systems," IRCD President Fadi Sarraf wrote in an April 18 letter to the SLRD.
In an email to this reporter, Sarraf said the applicants have "a clear action plan" for the project but no specific timeline for construction of the facility.
Progress will depend on a number of factors, particularly efforts by the IRCD charity to fundraise and secure financing, he wrote.
"For the last few months, our main focus has been the rezoning application. Design, fundraising [and] program planning were on hold while we waited for the bylaw approval Shortly after I get back from vacation we will relaunch the design work while we continue strengthening our relationship with the residents of Britannia Beach," Sarraf wrote.
With the SLRD staff report noting that the applicants and development agreement have satisfied all of the board's conditions, the directors voted unanimously and without comment to adopt the bylaws.
The proposed retreat centre had also attracted attention due to its purpose to host spiritual activities for the Opus Dei Prelature, which IRCD project literature describes as "an institution of the Catholic Church that aims to foster the quest for spiritual growth in the midst of daily life."
But Opus Dei has also gained notoriety thanks to Dan Brown's fictional bestseller The Da Vinci Code, which portrayed the organization as a dark secret society, and Turner told The Chief in February 2008 that a movement of opposition to the proposed centre had grown based on the Opus Dei connections.
In an April 2008 interview with The Chief, Sarraf said there is no hidden agenda behind the conference centre project, and the facility would be open to other religious groups and non-denominational seminars that fit the centre's mandate of promoting pursuits of personal excellence.
An Opus Dei member, Sarraf also said The Da Vinci Code spread many misconceptions, but Opus Dei's primary purpose is to bring God into everyday lives.
Long-standing Tunnel Station issues raised
Cheakamus Valley residents in the Tunnel Station area, north of Culliton Creek, put their long fight to obtain fee simple tenure for their Crown lease properties in front of the SLRD board, speaking out after the directors last month deferred a recommendation for SLRD staff to stop devoting time to the issue.
Tunnel Station area resident Roger Wilson said the key questions are legal road access and flood mitigation efforts; both need to be settled before the Province would consider selling the residents the Crown lands they have long been leasing.
In a letter to the board, Wilson and four fellow residents noted the precedent-setting potential sale of Crown land less than two kilometres south of Tunnel Station for the Paradis Trails development, and the existence of two properties in the area that already have freehold tenure.
The residents also noted the increased traffic on the access road in front of their properties from recreational users, including people traveling on the section of the Sea to Sky Trail from Starvation Lake to Whistler, and so the road issue needs attention not only for the leaseholders.
And they said a part of a solution to the flood mitigation issues has been suggested by the Attorney General's legal department: namely, writing covenants into agreements for sale.
But an SLRD staff report said the province has been consistent in denying sales to Tunnel Station buyers over the last 20 years, and the agencies involved have expressed no changes recently.
"For leaseholders, preserving the status quo with respect to tenure may be the best option. The SLRD and leaseholders should accept that the province does not intend to offer fee simple tenure in this area and not pursue the matter further," the report said in describing the option not to continue with further staff work on the issue.
Wilson told the board the residents were hoping for SLRD assistance with flood mitigation, securing permissions for sales from First Nations and giving a letter of support that would help to show provincial agencies that the residents' issue is viable.
Squamish Coun. Patricia Heintzman said she had trouble understanding the "hypocrisy" of the provincial government in selling land close by for the Paradise Trails development, and felt the SLRD could push a political angle to seek equal treatment and attain legal status for the access road.
But she also understood the desire of SLRD staff to stop working on the issue when the provincial bureaucracy seems to have shut down on the question, and "there just doesn't seem to be an avenue for staff to move this forward."
When the board eventually voted to have staff stop pursuing further involvement, Heintzman said she hopes the board will also move forward some of the ideas raised in Monday's discussion.
The Tunnel Station residents were also encouraged to organize themselves formally for a collaborative effort to address the flood hazard and road construction issues.
