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Neighbouring Saanich properties escape controversial ecosystem bylaw

Thirty months after two siblings made the case that their suburban properties were not sensitive ecosystems, their side-by-side homes have been removed from Saanich’s controversial Environmental Development Permit Area.
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Siblings Norman Webb, left, and Teresa Bijold, with Anita Bull, at their properties, which are coming out of the Environmental Development Permit Area.

Thirty months after two siblings made the case that their suburban properties were not sensitive ecosystems, their side-by-side homes have been removed from Saanich’s controversial Environmental Development Permit Area.

“It’s been frustrating for 2 1/2 years,” Norman Webb, 90, said Tuesday from the Rainbow Street lot he bought 65 years ago.

The EDPA bylaw aims to preserve sensitive ecosystems by restricting what more than 2,000 property owners can do to their properties. Under the bylaw, “alteration of land, subdivision and construction are prohibited within an environmental development permit area” without an exemption.

Webb said the place is starting to feel like his own again. Before the change, he would have needed municipal permission to remove his compost or put up a deer fence, he said.

“I’m happy,” added Teresa Bijold, Webb’s 88-year-old sister and neighbour, noting she was once told by a Saanich official that it was hoped her property would someday revert to an 1800s landscape. The Christmas Hill properties are largely covered with lawn and have cement patios and pathways and almost 30 towering Garry oak trees.

On Monday, Saanich council voted to remove the two Rainbow Street properties from the EDPA, formalizing a 5-4 vote at a public hearing last week.

There were no strings attached to their removal, although Coun. Susan Brice pushed for separate covenants on every oak, and Coun. Vic Derman expressed concerns that the properties support one of the few remaining stands of connected Garry oaks.

Mayor Richard Atwell said the EDPA has exposed overlapping environmental regulations in Saanich, including the tree bylaw, the EDPA, covenants and the Official Community Plan.

The concern for Garry oaks suggests a need to revisit the tree bylaw and align it with the EDPA, he said. “I don’t think it’s clear what takes precedence.”

Anita Bull, who founded Saanich Citizens for a Responsible EDPA, said the Rainbow Street properties were “wrongly mapped” using aerial photos from 1992 that showed only tree canopy and not whether there were sensitive ecosystems beneath the trees. Bull, who is Bijold’s daughter, has devoted an estimated 2,500 hours to the issue and isn’t planning to stop, having already visited about 200 properties.

“There are many more properties that have been wrongly mapped,” she said. “We’ve been door-knocking and a lot of these people are going to come forward and make applications.”

Atwell also predicts more homeowners will show up at council.

“I think it’s going to start with a trickle, but I don’t know where it will lead from there.” He expects owners of “exceptional properties” in terms of geography and investment potential will come forward first.

The bylaw is about to undergo a thorough review by an outside consultant, with a request for proposals due to go out in the next month. Until the review is completed, council will assess removal applications from homeowners within the EDPA on a case-by-case basis.

Now that her battle is won, Bijold said she’d like to see Saanich remove all properties without sensitive ecosystems from the EDPA “so that they won’t have to go through the process that we have.”

That seems unlikely.

Coun. Leif Wergeland gave notice to remove individual properties from the EDPA several weeks ago, but later realized he was short one vote. Wergeland said Tuesday that he does not plan to re-introduce the motion given the coming review. “We’re into a new process here,” he said.

Saanich planning director Sharon Hvozdanski said there are no other active applications for exclusion from the EDPA that require council review.

Bull said there are no current development plans for the Rainbow Street properties, but her uncle told council in a video last year that he is providing around-the-clock care for his wife and the property may be sold to cover the costs of their next home.

If sold, Saanich staff could negotiate with a developer to conserve as many trees as possible and to plant more, Bull said.

Wergeland said if he were a betting man, he could see the property changing hands in some way in as little as a year. “But when [the application] came to us, it hadn’t been sold, it wasn’t up for development and there was an owner that wanted it out.”

kdedyna@timescolonist.com