Saanich residents – and even the mayor of the Victoria suburb - are raising the alarm about an ecosystem protection bylaw that may makes it harder for property owners to sell their homes, improve their property or even plant a garden.
But so far, the bylaw stands.
The Environmental Development Permit Area bylaw, which came into effect in 2012, affects more than 2,000 private properties in the Saanich district.
One of its provisions would prevent homeowners from planting new gardens without a permit if it damaged native vegetation.
Anita Bull said her mother, Teresa Bijold, and her uncle, Norman Webb, own properties covered by the bylaw.
But she said the handful of Garry oaks on their properties don’t meet the provincial definition of a sensitive woodland ecosystem, with no understory growth of saplings or shrubs.
“None of that is there — it hasn’t been for 50 years. They’re just groomed lawns,” Bull said. “The trees are already protected by the tree bylaw. Now what are you protecting, the lawns?”
Bull also said they weren’t adequately notified their properties would be affected when the bylaw was adopted by council. She recently polled about 60 doors in the Barea covered by the bylaw, she said, and only one homeowner knew about it.
Under the bylaw, homeowners in areas designated sensitive eco-systems need a permit not just for major changes, such as construction or paving, but to change the vegetation or remove, deposit or disturb the soil.
Ted Lea, a retired registered biologist with 40 years of experience in ecosystem mapping and a co-founder of the Garry Oak Ecosystem Recovery Team, said the problem lies in how the bylaw was implemented.
To determine which properties would be covered, the district used aerial maps created by a provincial-federal initiative in the 1990s identifying potentially sensitive ecosystems, he said.
But the district never verified the map’s accuracy on the ground through field surveys.
“It clearly states in the documents that it was meant to be used as a flagging tool and then checked on the ground.” Lea said Once it’s checked on the ground and there’s no sensitive ecosystem identified, it should be removed from the inventory,” Lea said.
Coun. Vicki Sanders, who chaired the environmental committee that approved the bylaw, couldn’t say why Saanich didn’t verify the map before applying the bylaw, but she said letters were mailed to each affected homeowner.
Sanders said the ecological value of individual properties has to be considered as part of a larger picture, not in a vacuum.
Mayor stymied
Saanich Mayor Richard Atwell has tried unsuccessfully to scrap the controversial environmental bylaw, but councillors have solidly outvoted him.
After a nearly four-hour torrent of negative comments during a public meeting on the Environmental Development Permit Area, Atwell said, “What I’m hearing tonight is that the burden is unbearable and overwhelming.”
Chris Phillips, for instance, told council that he closed the deal on his Gordon Head Road property only to be told that due to the bylaw, he can build on just 4,000 square feet of his 65,000 square feet.
The tenor of citizen comments prompted Atwell to add, “The only things missing from this meeting are pitchforks and torches.”
The mayor said he favoured moving quickly to draft a more suitable bylaw for the hundreds of homeowners affected.
Coun. Vic Derman said scrapping the bylaw at this stage would be “beyond the pale” and Coun. Judy Brownoff said “chaos” would be the result.
The bylaw appears to affect all waterfront properties in Gordon Head, Cordova Bay, Cadboro Bay and Portage Inlet, according to Bull.
The mayor urged council to at least exempt the properties of two elderly homeowners specifically brought to council’s attention, but only two councillors voted alongside him.
Haji Charania, head of the North Quadra Residents Association, which includes the two seniors’ properties, said he respected the landowners involved, but feared a precedent that would send the wrong signal to other homeowners and “cause irreversible harm to environmental continuity.”
