Castlegar Public Hearing on the Horizon for Zoning and OCP Amendments

A Castlegar Public Hearing is tentatively scheduled for May 15th regarding proposed Zoning and Official Community Plan Amendments.

This to hear community input on a self-storage facility proposed to cover about 7% of the ground floor of an existing hotel at 1800 Eighth Avenue in Castlegar.

Councillor Sue-Heaton Sherstobitoff shared concern that the storage portion of the building could grow and wondered why the process couldn’t wait:

“And that is prime real-estate through there. So those are my concerns and I know you laid it out here but to me if we’re really going through an Official Community Plan (review), these decisions should wait until after that.”

Staff's response explains that any proposed changes to the plan would need to return to City Council for approval.

Mayor Maria McFaddin was just one out of a number of elected officials that expressed concerns:

“There’s real considerations I think around this table when we’re looking at supporting the business community and what we need for the city and all of these pieces….”

“We’re not saying yes if we vote to go to Public Hearing, we’re just asking for Public Input….” adds The Mayor

Staff recommends that the 300-square metre storage facility be limited to 7.5% of the Gross Floor Area. Furthermore, the 48-storage units would have a 50-square foot storage capacity.

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