The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) board looked favourably on the Queen of Peace Monastery's application for non-farm use of a proprety in the upper Squamish Valley.
Representatives for the Queen of Peace Monastery made a presentation to the board at Monday's (Sept. 21) regular meeting, fleshing out their proposal to build a monastery on the site that includes some Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) land.
When the monastery application for non-farm use on the ALR land first came before the SLRD board in August, some directors raised concerns about whether the proposal would do enough to preserve and enhance the property's agricultural capacity, and what might happen to the large monastery infrastructure if the nuns ever decided to leave.
Sister Claire Rolf told the board that a monastery in a good spot could last for 800 years. A letter to the SLRD from consultant Eugene Evanetz said the nuns would need to make an investment of between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000 in the property and building, and "they will not be inclined to abandon this investment for the foreseeable future."
"We're about being stable and permanent," Rolf said.
Rolf told the board that the group of nuns has been looking for a suitable piece of property for about five years, hoping to move on from their current home in Fort Langley, which she said "was an intermediary step for us" and is being encroached upon by suburban sprawl.
Evanetz's letter said the nuns would continue cultivating all the land currently in agricultural use on the site, and their "economic objective is to provide for (their) subsistence needs by utilizing and upgrading the agricultural uses of the site."
The application is for a 33.2-hectare site with 28.9 hectares west of Pillchuk Creek that are in the ALR, and 4.2 hectares east of the creek that are not, with the whole property surrounded by vacant mountain or treed land and five-acre residential lots to the east.
According an earlier SLRD staff report, the application calls for a new three-floor monastery of 24,701 square feet, including living quarters plus an infirmary, kitchen, refectory, chapel and gift shop, as well as rooms for liturgy and music practice, archiving, computers and other uses.
The board voted to forward the monastery application to the Agricultural Land Commission with their conditional support, with recommendations for the applicants to work with the ALC to address the long-term capability of the land for food production, minimal impacts in building and site planning, and flood and soil mitigation works.
Trail plan given nod
A management plan for Sea to Sky corridor trails has received a nod in principle from the SLRD board, and will make the rounds for further comments from external agencies.
Meanwhile, progress announced on the Sea to Sky Trail included the launch of a comprehensive new website and the debut of a promotional movie featuring endorsements from the likes of David Suzuki, Olympic medallist Beckie Scott, Paralympian sit-skier Brad Lennea and noted trials rider Ryan Leech.
Gordon McKeever, project manager for the Sea to Sky Trail, brought the board an update on Monday, showing the new video and announcing the new seatoskytrail.ca website would be ready to launch on Tuesday (Sept. 22). The site features elements such as maps, updates on progress and information on what's ready to ride, with the latter section answering "the question we get asked a lot," McKeever said.
"Now we're going to get out there and flog it," McKeever said of the movie, in response to a question about seeking to run the video in Squamish's Adventure Centre.
The projected 180-kilometre Sea to Sky Trail is intended to connect Squamish to D'Arcy with a multi-use, non-motorized pathway.
RGS forum set
Officials from the SLRD, local governments and the Ministry of Community Development were expected to gather Thursday (Sept. 24) to hash out concerns about the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) at an Elected Officials Forum facilitated by Beth Johnson, former Mayor of Delta.
The SLRD's growth-management document ran into a roadblock last fall, when the District of Squamish rejected it and raised concerns about the possible infringement on the local government's land use planning authority within district boundaries.
In the spring, the SLRD and Squamish council voted to enter a non-binding resolution process to address Squamish's objections, leading to staff work on the issues and this forum.
But ministry officials have indicated the non-binding process should not continue indefinitely, unless progress is made, according to a Village of Pemberton staff report - if that doesn't work, the next step is settling the dispute under one of the arbitration methods in the Local Government Act.
The SLRD has sought to have a legal opinion prepared, the staff report said.
In a Sept. 15 meeting, Pemberton officials also expressed concerns about the possibility of hampering the decision-making authority of local councils, and said they would seek clarification of some terms in the document that could have an impact.
