Major impact on Sumas Mountain property owners
The City of Abbotsford has released its new Official Community Plan
in draft form, and it has significant implications for all property owners on Sumas Mountain.
In short, it breaks every commitment the City made to Sumas Mountain residents at a series of meetings which
were held in 2012 at Straiton Hall.
As most of us remember, there were three meetings held at Straiton Hall in 2012 with city officials. The focus was primarily on the
city’s proposed Sumas Mountain Environmental Management Plan, which would have severely restricted our rights as property
owners and rendered much of the mountain undevelopable and virtually unsellable, dramatically impacting property
values. For details on the SMEMP please see these articles we’ve put together here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The SMEMP was an assault on private property owners, motivated by a small group of people at city hall who have an
over-arching vision to roll Sumas Mountain into Metro-Vancouver’s park-portfolio by perpetually depressing our property values and
turning us all into “willing sellers”.
Through Freedom of Information requests, we discovered that Abbotsford’s environmental coordinator had engaged in highly inappropriate communications with Metro Vancouver officials to further their
strategy to assemble large land tracts on Sumas Mountain at bargain-basement prices. We viewed these actions as a significant conflict of
interest and a breach of the public trust.
Once Sumas Mountain property owners discovered what was going on, we mobilized and began to “push back”. Abbotsford city officials
agreed to talk with all of us in a series of meetings held at Straiton Hall, which included the mayor and several city managers.
The meetings were intense, and took place on July 31st, September
11th, and October 24th.
Click the links to read the summaries of what was said, and what took place.
City Hall finally decided they would rather back down than continue to stir up the hornet’s nest, and so the Mayor and his managers
very graciously and publicly made Four Commitments to us:
- First, that the SMEMP was dead.
- Second, that the old OCP for Sumas
Mountain (the one authored by the FVRD) would become the new OCP for the mountain "with a few minor tweaks"
in their words.
- Third, that we as property owners on Sumas Mountain would be involved in the development of
the new OCP.
- Fourth, that we the property owners on Sumas Mountain would get to decide the future plan
for the mountain, rather than having it imposed on us by city hall. The Mayor himself made this statemnt.
So a few days ago when we heard that the new OCP was in draft form and just weeks away from being submitted to city council, we
requested a meeting with the planners responsible for the OCP (Reuben Koole and Mark Neill) to discuss several things which concerned
us.
In short, the draft OCP does everything the SMEMP was attempting to do, only worse. It designates virtually
all of Sumas Mountain as a Natural Environment Development Permit Area (NEDPA) and also a Steep Slope Development Permit Area, potentially
requiring property owners to obtain expensive geotechnical and environmental studies to do any kind of
"development" on their property.
And just in case you thought the word "development" only applies to big-time real-estate developers, it doesn’t. Rather, the word
"development" can mean anything from building a tool-shed to clearing a trail or a small paddock for your pet donkey. In short,
anything that disturbs the land surface including tree removal is considered “development” and there is
officially no limit to its application.
NEDPA would apply to virtually all Sumas Mountain property owners, and may (they say may) require you to
address more than twenty different environmental conditions including the hiring of an environmental consultant to perform an
"Environmental Assessment Report" on your property, before they’ll consider granting you a permit.
The report you pay for would need to look at any "corridors" on your property which could conceivably be used for
wildlife. Also, the report would have to address whether any of your property could make a potential habitat for any species on the "at risk" list (such as barn swallows
--- "the most widespread species of swallow in the world" with an IUCN conservation status of "least concern" --- the lowest designation
possible).
Virtually all of Sumas Mountain has already been designated as potential habitat for at least one of the species on the list, meaning there is
probably nowhere on your property that isn't already deemed as "potential habitat".
Your environmental report will also need to identify any Environmentally Sensitive Areas on your property which need to be protected.
The draft OCP recommends you consider donating these areas to the city in order to permanently preserve them
(they use the term "dedication to the City"). We’re not making this up, these words are right in the draft OCP.
NEDPA does everything the SMEMP did, only its boundaries actually extend further, harnessing even
more private property owners. The city is trying to re-impose the SMEMP by calling it a new name, and they’re hoping that
after 3.5 years we’ve all forgotten about their promise to kill the idea. And they’ve linked NEDPA to the Steep Slope
Development Permit Area as a way to “sell the entire package” hoping that most of us are too busy to notice what they’re
doing.
Their Steep Slope Development Permit Area not only covers all lands having a 20% grade or more, but also any lands which
could ultimately "connect to" a 20% grade. This means virtually all properties on Sumas Mountain
would need to be studied and permitted before any development could take place, no matter how small.
The geotechnical study you pay for wouldn’t just address slope stability, it would also need to address more than twenty other factors,
and would need to be performed on all of the slopes on your entire property (not just the area where you intend
to build your tool-shed). If some of your land is deemed "too steep" then City Hall is suggesting you consider donating the slope to
the City as a way to permanently protect it.
Aside from being excessively over-reaching, the Steep Slope Development Permit Area is unnecessary and
redundant, since the current system already requires some review of the topography and soil conditions anytime you apply for
a building permit. In practice, it would function as an extension of NEDPA, making any kind of
"development" on the mountain cost-prohibitive and difficult, if not impossible.
Although it will be you who's forced to pay for any geotechnical and environmental studies, you can be guaranteed that the studies will not be used for your benefit. Every slope, mud puddle, tree stump and potential "eagle-tree" may be catalogued and entered into the master enviro-database which has been assembled and already contains information relating to your property, only to be used in future anytime you or whoever you sell to decides they want to "develop" anything.
Sumas Mountain has been singled-out again by overreaching Abbotsford bureaucrats who seem fixated on micro-managing our lives. They've disregarded the Four Commitments they made to Sumas Mountain property owners back in 2012, and have gone back on their word.
And to add insult to injury, they purposely avoided consulting with us even though they promised they would. City officials are now trying to impose an OCP on us which does not reflect our community’s best interests. They are trying to steamroll Sumas Mountain property owners just as they tried to back in 2012.
We believe this new draft OCP will, if imposed, dramatically affect your property rights and therefore your property value. This is the most important issue we have faced as a community here on Sumas Mountain in several years, and it is vitally important that you as a property owner be fully informed. So we have rented Straiton Hall for the evening of Tuesday, April 26th 2016 at 7:00pm to provide information to you and allow you ask questions and especially voice your concerns. Please make plans to be there.
