Clearcut Controversy
- kc dyer
- 8 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Resident petition to Council faces uphill battle
A group of residents concerned with the clearing of a lot at 250 Oceanview Road has been stymied after presenting a petition to Council asking for immediate action.
The lot abuts the property of Hanna Bartholomew, a 34-year Kelvin Grove resident, who says she is deeply concerned that her neighbour has removed more than 200 trees on a precipitous slope that encompasses Rundle Creek.
The petition submitted earlier this month is the latest attempt by Bartholomew and a number of other residents to first block, then mitigate the action taken by the lot's property owner.
At the June 2 meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Ross Blackwell said that there is currently no bylaw in place to prevent clear-cutting of private property in the Village.
Bartholomew fears the clearcut along the creek presents a danger of landslide, and points to the 2024 debris torrent at Battani Creek. "There is a prime obligation and duty 0f the Mayor and Council of Lions Bay to protect the residents," she told The Watershed this week. "The threat of potential landslide is not a private matter."
Lions Bay's 'Trees, Views and Landscapes Bylaw (No. 393)', cited in the petition, pertains to trees situated only on municipal property.
However, the petition also references the "devastation of a significant portion of the forest situated on the steep, riparian terrain adjacent to Rundle Creek."
According to the BC Provincial government, 'riparian areas' link water to land, and are protected under the "Riparian Areas Protection Regulation" (RAPR) which was enacted under Section 12 of the Fish Protection Act in July 2004. (The Fish Protection Act was subsequently re-titled the Riparian Areas Protection Act in February 2016).
The RAPR calls on local governments "to protect riparian areas during residential, commercial, and industrial development by ensuring that a Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP) conducts a science-based assessment of proposed activities."
Staff at the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship with the Province of BC offered the following clarification of the act:
The Riparian Area Protection Regulation (RAPR) is a directive to local governments to establish riparian protection requirements through various tools such as bylaws, Official Community Plans or Development Permit Areas among others
Residential, commercial or industrial development planned within 30 metres of a freshwater stream, lake or wetland within the jurisdiction of specific local governments (RAPR section 2 (b)) requires a developer to obtain a Qualified Environmental Professional to conduct a riparian assessment and submit this assessment to the Province for review.
Local governments must not issue a development permit unless they have received a notification from the Province that the report meets regulatory standards.
The property owner declined to speak with The Watershed.
However, Marek Sredzki, a long-time resident of Lions Bay who lives next door to the property in question and says he speaks for the family member who does own the property, says that all the necessary environmental, geotechnical and civil engineering studies were completed as required.
He said that the paperwork was submitted "months ago" to the Village, is strictly an administrative matter, and is not subject to public knowledge as the work was to take place on private land. He adds the work was finished more than two weeks ago, and there is no further clearing planned.
Sredzki said that the family plans to donate "a large portion of our property (the size equal to half an average Kelvin Grove lot) to become a public connector between Kelvin Grove and Panorama Drive."
He said the family currently has a "botanical garden at 260 Oceanview Road and one half of 250 Oceanview Road. On the other half of 250 Oceanview Road, the clear land, we are already replanting and will turn it into a botanical garden just the same." He adds that there have been between four and five thousand species planted in the garden.
Sredzki says riparian concerns for the area are unfounded.
"It is worth noting that RAPR does not apply to non-fish-bearing creeks that flow into the ocean in such a way, as was assessed by an environmental engineer. The SPEA setback was also assessed by not only the environmental engineer, but also the geotechnical and civil engineers. The geotechnical properties of this property/creek are very different than many other locations in Lions Bay. The area where the logging was done is solid granite and partially hardpan that is glacier-formed, so there is no risk of a landslide. Additionally, the area is being fully landscaped as any other property."
With regard to the clearcutting process, Sredzki says that he thinks local people "have a very short memory. Kelvin Grove, the 98-home area, was completely cleared. No single plant was left, and somehow, the village survived."
According to the Lions Bay Historical Society, the Kelvin Grove portion of Lions Bay was first developed in the 1980's, with the first residents moving into their homes in 1982.
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