Trust Council and staff say Floor Area Ratio (FAR) will not be used for density planning

Hope Lompe

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Gabriola Sounder

Friends of the Gulf Islands president Jennifer Margison, spoke at the Trust Council meeting on Tuesday, December 2, with a request for the draft Trust Policy Statement (TPS) to shift focus from managing growth to limiting growth. The organization is asking Trust Council members to do “growth limits assessments” for each island before increasing residences.

The Trust Council and Local Trust Committees (LTCs) are in the final stages of public engagement on the draft policy, which will inform policy and development of Official Community Plans for the Local Trust Areas.

Using Statistics Canada census data, the organization says the Islands Trust Area experienced a 27 per cent population increase between 2016 and 2021, the fastest on record significantly outpacing provincial and federal growth.

“Fifty years ago the province recognized that unrestrained growth would threaten what makes the Gulf Islands special. The Islands Trust was created precisely to prevent that, in order to safeguard nature and community values for the long term,” said Margison.

“This is not about opposing growth entirely. It’s about understanding the limits of how much development is compatible with healthy ecosystems, systems and viable communities.”

The group cited a significant increase in water imports onto islands is an early warning sign growth is outpacing what is sustainable for the environment. They list Gabriola, Galiano, Pender, Mayne, Saturna as places identified by water hauler companies.

However, one trustee disagrees this is applicable to their island.

“I know of one quite limited instance, which is going to change in the near future. I believe it’s a temporary situation,” said Mairead Boland, Trustee for Saturna Island, saying there is little to no water delivery to Saturna..

On Gabriola, one resident spoke at the Nov. 20 LTC meeting, saying he has had to truck in water from off the island for the first time in 25 years living on the island.

“[For] 25 years I’ve never had a problem with my well. This year I have, and I bought my first load of water. And that’s the situation that’s everywhere on the island,” he said.

At the Tuesday Trust Council, Margison, as well as two speakers during the public comment period, spoke of their discouragement with seeing “Floor Area Ratio,” or FAR, in the TPS. FAR is an urban planning term, which measures a building’s floor area in relation to the lot size.

The group’s concern was FAR would change the concept of density on the islands, from the number of dwellings allowed on a property, to the distribution of allowable floor area for multiple dwellings on a property.

However, Chair of the Trust Council Laura Patrick says this term only shows up as an example for a definition in the TPS, and does not appear as part of any actual policy. The term “floor area” does appear in the policy, and this is where there could be some confusion, says Jason Youmans, Senior Policy Advisor with Islands Trust.

FAR is a measure of land use intensity, rather than density, and because of the large rural lots making up most of the Islands Trust Area, FAR is not likely something that planning staff would recommend, except in a limited range of specific circumstances Youmans wrote in an email to the Sounder.

He adds that up to now, lot coverage and floor area limits are the most common ways the intensity of development on residential lots has been regulated in the Islands Trust Area.

On Mayne Island, flexible zoning was introduced last year to allow the choice to build one larger house, or instead build a possibility of two smaller houses on the same lot. One dwelling unit is allowed per lot on the island, except if it is bigger than 1.5 acres. In that case an additional dwelling is allowed every 1.5 acres of land.

Trust Council agreed to discuss removing the term entirely from the document to avoid confusion at the next appropriate meeting.