The City of Salmon Arm is pursuing a development permit with a variance on requirements triggered by a municipal bylaw.
At its Dec. 2 meeting, the city's development and planning services committee supported a motion recommending council authorize issuance of a development permit for the construction of the Zone 2 Pump Station at the water treatment plant on Canoe Beach Drive. The request included waiving frontage improvements – curb and gutter, drainage, a multi-use path, street lighting and fire hydrants – required by the city's Subdivision and Development Services Bylaw.
City engineering and public works director Rob Niewenhuizen explained the requirements would tack about $400,000 onto the $4.3 million project. He said the engineering department had no issue with waiving the requirements, and that the fire department had no concerns regarding the additional hydrants.
The committee voted unanimously in support, after which Coun. Kevin Flynn raised a concern with the bylaw affecting a city infrastructure project "for the good of the community." He questioned why the bylaw wouldn’t "exempt something like this so it doesn’t look like we’re favouring ourselves in dealing with a variance?"
Niewenhuizen explained it is a standardized approach, though the bylaw could be amended to exempt municipal infrastructure.
"To me that seems something worth talking about down the road because the Canoe Beach Master plan is there, we show what we’re going to do down the road…," said Flynn. "We were joking that we all perhaps should have declared a conflict and then we wouldn’t have had anybody to vote on it, but I think the bylaw could be looked at to make it simpler."
Subsequent to alternative approval process held earlier this year, city council voted to borrow $4.2 million for the new Zone 2 pump station, which will replace the current 54-year-old pump station to the east of the water treatment plant. The current pump station had been assessed by the city as being a “very high” risk, having exceeded its useful life. The city chose to move its replacement by the water treatment plant where it will be above the flood elevation and increase operating capacity.
