The application is 100% OCP compliant. There is no OCP amendment applied for or needed.  Any suggestion that this proposal is undermining the OCP is untrue.   OCP designation map of Harbour Rd area This application clearly shows adherence to the OCP in both objectives and policies, as it: Provides for a range of industrial and commercial services along Harbour Rd. Ensures the uses on both sides of Harbour Rd are compatible, including with the surrounding neighbourhood. Encourages services that serve the marine orientation of industries and neighbourhood. Enhance economic opportunities along Harbour Rd. Continue to assess and update the zoning designations in this area to achieve compatibility between all the uses in the area.  To support the area as a major marine hub that responds to the needs of the recreational boating community.

The owner has been trying to sell or lease the completed retail/office/commercial units for two years using two different major brokerages. Only one unit has sold, despite the prices being continuously dropped to where they are now below the financial break even point.   The undefined clause “marine-related” in the zoning for uses on the north side of Harbour Rd has scared away many potential businesses because no one knows what it actually means in practice.   o   For example, a company that builds boathouses and docks showed interest in the units for their office, but a city planner said they would not allow it because this company may also build things that are not on the water.  But when asked for more detail or rationale, that city planner refused to provide further rationale or detail on what “marine-related” means. There is no definition of what marine-related means in any zoning or policy document – so it’s entirely discretionary in what a single staff person thinks.  This eccentric and undefined uncertainty has scared away all the other businesses from this project over the years.  The owner is now applying for a text amendment to the rezoning to allow two uses (general office and general retail) that are permitted in this “industrial” area on the other side of Harbour Rd so as to remove the uncertainty of what “marine-related” means for office and retail uses.  Image of the site with its vacant units

The marine industrial uses on this site are secure and will not be changed – there is no loss of marine industry potential in the zoning. All currently allowed uses will remain unchanged on the site and in the zone. There is no change that will undermine the marine industrial uses on this site. The existing marina, and marine-related storage uses and supportive parking areas will remain in perpetuity.  Only two uses are under discussion – general office and retail – with the request to remove the “marine related” clause that applies to them only because the site is on the north side of Harbour Rd, to make them the same as what is allowed 50 ft away on the south side of Harbour Rd. image of the marina entrance, parking and storage areas

There are two subareas within this zoning: W1 (Marine industrial) W1-U (Marine industrial upland). The rational suggested for the zoning includes The area fronting the water must only have primarily marine-related uses. The south side of Harbour Rd is envisioned as a “transition zone” between the marine frontage uses and the surrounding residential areas – and this area allows office, retail and other urban uses as outright, primary uses – similar to Sidney’s downtown core.  As such, allowing office or retail along Harbour Rd is not a new intrusion or one that would undermine the character of the area – those uses are already fully allowed along Harbor Rd today. The application is for a rezoning to permit these uses that are currently allowed 50ft away on the south side of the road, just in these vacant units on the north side on this parcel only. A key reason why this is supportable is because of what has happened on the south side of Harbour Rd.

The proposed “transition zone” on the south side of Harbour Rd will never unfold the way it is envisioned in the description of the zoning rationale.  Why?  Because there is no land available for future office or retail development on the south side of Harbour Rd.   Every piece of land south of Harbour Rd is fully developed and occupied by uses that will not change in our lifetime. Van Isle Marina took years to assemble their site, and it is full of boat storage, maintenance and repair. The residential parcels are fully developed with contemporary buildings that have a half century or more of life ahead of them. The parking and works yard between Van Isle and the residential area is owned by the federal government and is their core parking and works yard area for their service of national parks in the Gulf Islands.   We spoke with their regional manager, and she said the government will never sell those parcels because they are too essential for the Gulf Island Center across the street, and their marine operations. Therefore, the so-called transition zone exists in concept only. This area contains almost none of the proposed transition uses but rather contains both core marine industrial uses (boat storage) and entirely non-industrial uses (residential) and has no land available for any new development.  The idea of the transition zone does not translate into reality, nor will it become such in our lifetimes given the relatively young ages of the buildings and the essential nature of the land uses.   Anyone who walks down Harbour Rd for a few minutes will see this to be true. In contrast, this application is fundamentally grounded in the proven reality of Harbour Rd. And that reality is that three new commercial units continue to sit vacant on Harbour Rd for years, sending an unmistakable message to the larger business and investor community about the reality of investing in Sidney’s marine sector.   The longer these units sit vacant because of uncertain land use policies, the louder the message is to the business and investment community who may be looking at Sidney, regarding what they can expect to encounter if they buy land and develop.

A wide range of businesses have expressed interest in these units over the past two years, however, because there is no definition of what “marine-related” actually means in Sidney’s bylaws or policies and Sidney’s staff refuse to provide additional relevant information on how they interpret it.  However, while they will provide no additional clarity, they do make discretionary judgements that have sent businesses away from Sidney. For instance, a Sidney planner refused to support one of these units becoming the offices of a construction company who builds docks and boathouses – solely because they might build something else as well.  And the company then went elsewhere. Arguments against the proposal have suggested that we should see this Harbour Rd area like any other industrial area.   A recent case in Sidney where a dog grooming business tried to locate in the western main industrial area in Sidney has been raised.  However, Marine areas are very different than general industrial areas in the following key ways that significantly impact land use decisions: Living - People live on their boats in this harbour, and council supported a major residential development taking up 25% of the entire Harbour Rd industrial area. People do not generally live in generic industrial areas.   Recreation - People recreate on their boats and work on their boats for solely recreational purposes.  Recreation is not a permitted activity in generic industrial areas. Storage – Marine areas store boats that are rarely used. Many owners only use their boats occasionally and the majority of the time they are stored. Generic industrial areas are highly active with minimal passive storage. Marinas – Unlike an industrial area with flexible land, the waterfront in this area is completely occupied by marinas and boathouses for recreational craft and has no room or flexibility for future industrial expansion. Aerial image showing how full and recreational the Harbor Rd and marine area is The list of goods and services that people need when they live, recreate, store and work on their boats is very different than a conventional generic industrial area.   What people need access to within a marine industrial / community includes: There has also been a discussion around the definition of “marine-related” with respect to land uses or businesses listed in the Sidney zoning bylaw – where municipal staff suggested that their zoning bylaw suggested enough uses to fully describe the uses that would be considered “marine-related.”    A small amount of research suggests that the following would be a more fulsome picture of what should be considered as central to “marine-related businesses.” A review of this list of marine-related industries demonstrates several things: The range of potential businesses and land uses is comprehensive – covering all types of non-residential land uses in a community – far greater than what is envisioned as specifically “marine-related” in Sidney’s zoning bylaw or is part of the Sidney waterfront – which is heavily weighted to recreational boating. The actual scale of land and marine area and operations required to be a marine industrial area is far larger than what exists or ever could exist along Harbour Rd, or elsewhere in Sidney.  Most all of the types of companies in this sector have little to no use for a stand-alone office/retail space with a 800 sqft footprint given their need to be associated with industrial space, equipment storage, commercial/industrial dock facilities, and many other items.

The Harbour Rd marine community is a unique part of Sidney with interesting characteristics: It is small – roughly 2-3 blocks long in total, along a narrow non-industrial scale local street. It is 100% occupied and developed. Its waterfront and harbour area is 100% developed and occupied primarily with recreational boats. It contains many uses that are not industrial including residential, retail, major restaurants, and others.   It is comprised of many small parcels – none of which are large enough for any marine industrial development with the exception of the Van Isle Marina parking lot and boat storage yards – both of which are required for the operations of that business – and therefore will not change.   o   Van Isle’s parcels of land are collectively appraised at approximately $19M, not including the value of their operating businesses and marinas on the site.  With the largest area (parking) barely 4 acres, it is far too small for any major marine industrial business or facility.  Combined, it would be entirely unaffordable for a typical industrial development. The other sites along Harbour Rd are mostly less than 1 acre in size – also far too small to support any major industrial initiative – many with higher valuations. (e.g. 2238 Harbor Rd at roughly ½ acre is assessed at over $3Million). The Harbour Rd precinct has little room for scale-development of marine industry, nor does it have a strong presence of the significant businesses in the marine related industries and activities noted above, and nor will it ever due to its land and water constraints.   While Sidney overall may envision significant potential for its entire waterfront and marine capacity, All Bay is fully developed.  The limited parcel sizes of the Harbour Rd area

Some have suggested that the Harbour Rd area is prime to receive the billions of dollars that the current federal Liberal government has identified for the marine defense industry.    The facts about this federal investment program immediately show that a small recreational marine community area like Harbour Road is not well-matched for the federal government investments. The federal investments for marine defense are targeted at: Major new shipbuilding including new destroyers, arctic-enabled corvettes, polar icebreakers, and the militarization of the existing coast guard vessels and personnel. Major ports, logistics and marine infrastructure to defend Canada’s coastlines – east, west and the arctic. Advanced marine industrial supply chains for major shipbuilding and high-tech sectors including robotics, marine sensors and surveillance, subsea technology, and communication infrastructure. The federal government has already identified where it expects to spend those investments including shipyards in Quebec, the Atlantic region, Vancouver, Nunavut and to a limited extent, the rest of the BC Coast. The larger materials and expertise supply chain will be national – with significant sources not being coastal at all, to respond to where the supply companies, materials and workforce already exist. In this context, Harbour Rd will never become the recipient of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of federal investment in marine and defense industry expenditures. If significant investment did come to Vancouver Island for marine industrial related uses, it would go into areas that could accommodate much larger industrial buildings and operations and easy transportation area and had open deepwater port facilities.  Furthermore, the complete destruction of the Harbour Rd existing development (buildings, marinas) to accommodate even a single major marine industrial facility would be too expensive and would be the target of unimaginable opposition from the community. Regarding office uses associated with the envisioned scale of industrial, the office/retail associated with those operations would not then be located far away in a small boutique commercial space on Harbour Rd.  Those spaces would be located in/adjacent to the main buildings.  If a major office building was required for any of the companies in the military / marine supply chain, it will not locate in an 800-1,600 space on Harbour Rd. Rather, it would go into a major urban downtown to be accessed by its diverse workforce and to be close to professional services and government. To suggest that these three units at 2270 Harbour Rd should remain vacant for many more years until the federal investment in major marine military, navy and defence investments discovers them in this residential Sidney neighbourhood is difficult to rationalize.

Council’s OCP policy is clear – the uses in the Harbour Rd area are to support marine industry, the workers in the area, and the larger neighbourhood. And this policy is clearly reflected in the area’s zoning, which allows general office, retail, food services and many other neighbourhood uses along Harbour Rd already – which distinguishes it significantly from general industrial areas. Not only is this area not suitable for a major marine industrial area, nor is it possible in reality to locate any major marine industry along Harbour Rd today or in the future, it was never the intent of the OCP’s vision for the area. A more appropriate way to view Harbour Rd is as “a marine community” that has the broad range of uses (including light industrial) required to ensure it is vibrant and meets the needs of those who live and work in, on and around the recreational boats in the marinas.

The units in question are not “industrial” in size or configuration and were never intended to be such – they were intended to be a small commercial / retail / office” use because 800sqft floorplates are not an industry-friendly size. They were clearly sized for office/retail/food services/other uses to support the surrounding businesses, workers and neighbourhood – and they were unanimously supported by this council for development. The core marine / industrial uses are already established on the site – the marina and the marine-related storage, and will not change.  No serious marine industrial use is going to locate in an 800sqft footprint – as was emphasized in the review of the marine industry earlier.   This size of footprint is appropriate for small commercial / office / retail use.  It is even a challenge to support retail uses, as the surrounding market size, visibility and access makes it challenging to make a living of such a small building, but it is likely possible for some businesses.   The small sizes constructed are fundamentally the result of the land available after all the parking requirements were addressed and the requirement to have a positive, active, commercial frontage facing Harbour Rd. The significant confusion in the lack of definition or reliable interpretation of what “marine-related” means has sent businesses away that could otherwise have moved into these units and served this marine community.

There are a number of types of impacts a land use change on one parcel could have on a nearby parcel. The following explores these in the context of this application. The marine industry on this site is fully built out and thriving – there is no loss or threat to the marine industrial uses on this site or any other site along Harbour Rd. In summary, allowing office or small retail businesses in the three small vacant commercial units will not cause negative outcomes. The existing retail, commercial, industrial, food services, or other businesses will not leave. The existing marinas will not close nor will the boat storage areas leave for some inland industrial storage area. The existing businesses and residents will not experience any negative impacts from these land uses – including noise, lights, odor, vibrations, dangerous goods, others. The land’s zoning will remain unchanged and therefore the capacity for marine-related businesses will therefore remain unchanged. The existing businesses are likely to experience less competition and rather have more complimentary neighbouring businesses. The one significant positive change is that the units have a higher probability of not remaining empty for more years and continuing to send the wrong message to the business and investment community in Sidney for more years to come.

The application applies only to these four units on this one parcel.  There will be no changes to the zoning on any other parcel in the Harbour Rd area. Moreover, it will not apply to any other part of the existing development because the change will be written to be clear that it only applies to these four units.  As such, no other part of the building can be converted to general office or retail even on this same parcel. Furthermore, these general office/retail uses will be listed as accessory (secondary) uses and as such, will not be permitted to operate unless the marina, marine-related storage or other primary uses permitted in the zoning are present.

This decision will not set a precedent for any other parcel along Harbour Rd or any other area of Sidney because: Sidney Council is not a court of law where previous decisions are seen as legal precedent for future decisions.  Sidney Council, in their wisdom, considers each application individually, and Council approves some, and turns down others based on the unique issues and merits of each application.  A decision to allow one owner a certain list of uses or level of density on one parcel has no bearing on any other application on any other lot in the municipality. o   This is most visible on a frequent basis where Council has approved 6-storey heights in some areas of downtown and refused heights over 4 storeys on immediately adjacent sites.  At no time, does anyone presume that allowing a 6-storey building on one parcel thereby infers they will approve it on every parcel in Sidney. Likewise, they approve uses on one site, and my not approve the same use a few dozen meters further down the same street due to unique issues. The following excerpt from Sidney’s zoning map shows how many zones there may be in a small area, with zones changing regularly between adjacent properties along the same street: Zoning map in the Malaview Ave area showing how granular zoning is between adjacent lots Because this application only applies to just the four units on this site alone, any change to general office/retail for any other parcel in the municipality – or even in this same building – will have to come to Council for approval, and they will make their decision on the unique aspects of the application.

The units associated with this proposal have been vacant for years – not only not providing services to the marine and surrounding community, but also sending a negative message to the business and investment community – especially those related to the marine industry. Allowing a slightly wider range of uses and clarifying the current confusion over what is permitted in these units, can offer many benefits to the Harbour Rd marine and surrounding communities, including: If there are a few types of businesses that would be permitted under general office or retail that Sidney wants to exclude from these units, that is easy to do through a special regulation clause in the W-1 zone – that excludes those specific uses from this address. This proposal will make the Harbour Rd area a more vital, dynamic and prosperous marine-related community – versus staying the course and having them remain empty for the foreseeable future.

As the above sections have explored, there is no threat to the Harbour Rd marine area from this proposal: The marine-related uses that are permitted on the site remain unchanged in the zoning bylaw. The core marine uses that are on the site remain on the site. The proposed uses will be constrained to only these units and controlled by size, address and through being only permitted as accessory (subservient) uses to the core marine uses on the site.  No major industrial / defense or other economic opportunity from the federal government will be at risk from these four 800-sqft footprint office/retail units allowing wider uses that are already permitted along Harbour Rd. No other marine businesses will be displaced or impacted, and direct competition with existing businesses may be reduced. There is no change in operational impacts on neighbouring properties. No precedent will be set for any other property in Sidney. The real threat to the Harbour Rd marine area is to have these units remain empty for another several years because of unreasonable constraints in zoning and confusion over staff discretion in interpreting what “marine-related” means across the significant diversity of business operations (both now and the in the future as they evolve under market forces) of businesses  that may serve the marine community, and others.