Plans are in the works for a work camp to house transient construction workers in the Johnson Heights area.
The development would be put together with used Atco-style trailers bought at auction and placed together in clusters on a historic farm property just east of Mt. Begbie Brewery.
The development will include a 75-spot gravel parking lot, and a chain-link fence with plastic slats for privacy.
The current industrial/commercial zoning of the property does not allow for residential developments.
The plan is to allow the camp on a temporary, three-year basis, but the rules allow for the temporary permit to be extended after three years.
Plans were revealed on an Oct. 16 Advisory Planning Commission agenda report. Members of that commission discuss form and character matters relating to new developments.
The proposed development will require a temporary use permit. In order for it to proceed, council would have to designate a new land use for the property.
The rationale
The new city report sells the project as temporary housing for construction staff working on a new hotel at Revelstoke Mountain Resort, but it makes no mention of why the camp can’t be located nearby the proposed construction.
The property is within an industrial and commercial zoned area, so the proponents would need to get a temporary use permit.
The neighbourhood plan
The City of Revelstoke move to override the Official Community Plan using a temporary use permit to allow the camp comes at the same time it released an update on its Johnson Heights Neighbourhood plan, which included a summary of a neighbourhood survey that found this kind of development isn’t what the neighbours said they wanted.
A survey of 58 Johnson Heights residents said they valued existing views, natural areas, a sense of community, family-oriented feeling, tranquility, seclusion, and, “that Johnson Heights is an area where locals live and there is little to no transient population or vacation rentals.”
In that report, neighbours noted the dangerous intersection at the Trans-Canada Highway, no secondary road access, no trails or bicycle access to their neighbourhood, and few amenities for residents.
Now, the 75 vehicles parked in the gravel camp parking lot will get to try their luck at the notorious Johnson Heights T-intersection with the Trans-Canada Highway.
The neighbourhood plan has been billed by the planning department as one of the first neighbourhood plans to be developed as part of the Official Community Plan process. The city process is unusual. Normally, the approach is to come up with an overall community plan, then work on the neighbourhood specifics.
Analysis
This story is actually two different things colliding with awkward timing: the Johnson Heights neighbourhood plan and the work camp proposal.
The Official Community Plan (OCP) and other council planning documents are a bit like the bible: if you know it chapter and verse, you can find something that supports whatever course of action is expeditious.
In the city report on the proposal, a discussion of “form and character” references planning documents.
“The proposed site falls within an identified commercial/industrial area, and the temporary development projects an industrial/residential image in a rural residential, commercial, and tourist accommodation area,” the report states. (Translation: It’s going to look rough, like some industrial properties, so it will fit in with our concept of industrial, despite the fact that the property is a heritage farm now, and will be used to house work crews.)
How this improves livability for existing neighbourhood residents is not clear.
If the idea proceeds, the temporary use permit should come before council for review at one point, which will be the public’s opportunity to express its views. We’ll be sure to update if we see it on an agenda.
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Revelstoke is paying the price for its failure to address the housing crisis that the city’s own housing report saw coming over a decade ago, yet the municipality is still without a housing plan. Be prepared for more improvisations and random proposals for your neighbourhood as the crisis continues indefinitely.
Contortions are required to square a temporary worker camp on a heritage farm property that is not zoned for this use with what the residents have said they want in their neighbourhood through the OCP consultation process so far.
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