Support for securing Salmon Arm's "ALR Island" for development has been put on the back burner in the city's ongoing official community plan review.
With Phase 3 of the city's OCP review complete, city council received an update on the latest draft at the Jan. 20 development and planning services committee meeting.
Providing the update was planning and community services director Gary Buxton, who explained "a lot of changes" had been made to the document following input received in Phase 3 – which included concerns around language pertaining to the city applying to exclude a portion of land south of the fairgrounds and Blackburn Park, stretching from Shuswap Street to 10th Street SW, from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).
"The ALR island… that’s withdrawn from consideration now," said Buxton, highlighting some of the changes in the latest draft of the OCP. "It’s still included as a process that could start once substantial areas of A and B are developed. So we are deferring that conversation substantially.
"The timeline for those levels of development in A and B are beyond the review period for this OCP, but it’s a long-term planning objective that we need to maintain in terms of when we do need additional land, when we’ve consumed most of what we can within the urban containment boundary, that would be the place we would go."
New in the third draft is a First Nations section that Buxton said recognizes and acknowledges a number of issues, "but at present contains no policy provisions.
"We will need to work directly with our First Nations partners on developing that policy and that will probably come in the form of amendments at a later date given the timeline that we’re working towards completing this project," said Buxton.
Some of the objectives in the First Nations section involve advancing Truth and Reconciliation, strengthening relationships, honouring First Nations knowledge and "seeing that First Nations people can see themselves reflected in community."
The new draft also contains policies to address housing affordability, a subsection identifying food security issues, advanced plans for future road needs and a policy section dedicated to the industrial expansion area north of the Shuswap Regional Airport.
Regarding ALR Island, Coun. Kevin Flynn asked if transportation plans had also been put on the back burner. Buxton said they had.
"I will think about that and deal with it when we get this back after the next round of consultation…, said Flynn.
The fourth and final phase of the OCP review process is now underway, and will include ongoing community engagement including workshops at Song Sparrow Hall. Buxton anticipated the OCP will be brought to council for first reading in April.
For more on the OCP review, visit salmonarm.ca/464/OCP2024.
