Interview with Gibsons Mayor Silas White
We discuss water, housing, and short-term rentals
I recently had the honour and the priveledge to interview Mayor of Gibsons Silas White. The interview is about 30 minutes long but I’ll include some of the highlights below.
Does Gibsons have enough water to accommodate growth?
MAYOR WHITE: Yes, definitely for the foreseeable future. We had an aquifer mapping study done a number of years ago to ensure that our Official Community Plan and all the growth is based on knowing the amount of water that we have available in our aquifer. That was just updated last year and it reconfirmed that we still have enough water to supply sustainable water. It's not like we will run out. We can supply sustainable water for 10,000 people, which is the build-out rate in our Official Community Plan.
Should Gibsons limit development until there’s additional infrastructure in place?
MAYOR WHITE: You need the growth to build the infrastructure. That's how the finances are structured. When it comes to infrastructure that's needed for future development, those developers need to pay for that through Development Cost Charges. The DCCs are the primary way of improving our infrastructure, then the only way we can get those is to have those developments coming forward.
What is the Town of Gibsons’ policy regarding short-term rentals?
MAYOR WHITE: There was a policy that was put forward by a consultant. I've inherited a lot of things. I've had to dig through that work that was done by the previous council. I watched a lot of those meetings, too. And it was frustrating watching those meetings because it's a complicated issue, I think, and counselors found it very complicated, and we kind of come back and go, "What about this? What about that?"
MAYOR WHITE: And that happened when they tried to pass their first bylaw. They had a much simpler bylaw that went through the public hearing and I think counselors came up with new issues and concerns at the very end of the decision-making process, which is why I'm really focused so far on improving our decision-making process and really making sure our meetings are focused on making good decisions. Because that was a challenge I could see in the recent past.
MAYOR WHITE: But getting straight to that, I think there was a lot of confusion about a very complex issue, a very complex policy that went forward. And as far as I can see, that policy was never really endorsed or adopted by the council. Bylaws were, and looking at the bylaws, there's nothing in there that says there will be an elimination. And even if a previous council were to say, "We plan on doing something in two to five years," I'm going to come in and say, "Well, sorry, you can't."
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Tony Browton - TrueBlueRealty.ca
Personal Real Estate Corporation
RE/MAX City Realty (Gibsons)
Mobile: 604-418-2695
Email: Click here to email Tony
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