It’s been pure frustration with the water lot lease issue, say municipal officials hoping to cut a better deal with the province.
Delta has made a submission to the Union of B.C. Municipalities to consider bringing forward a motion at September’s convention aimed at pressuring government to reconsider its position.
Civic officials are warning that the inability to have longer term leases will curtail any redevelopment on the Ladner waterfront, while float home owners and businesses along the river will live with uncertainty over their tenure.
Mayor Lois Jackson recently said the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources, which oversees the provincial water lots, has been giving Delta the runaround.
“It’s quite outrageous and quite unacceptable… it’s like talking to a brick wall,” she said.
Coun. Bruce McDonald said there’s substantial inequity when it comes to who gets longer, more secure leases, noting that Metro Vancouver has been given a 30-year lease on the water lot at the Iona sewage treatment plant.
“We’ve been offered a 10-year lease on properties we have (and) there are 250-odd homeowners and businesses along the river who are living on a month-by-month basis. You can’t sell, you can’t do anything with your properties because you can’t get any financing.”
Agreeing there’s no consistency, and saying the situation is a mess, CAO George Harvie said it’s caused tremendous hardship.
“We’d be better off if we administered the water lot leases in Delta ourselves, absolutely better off. We’ll look after it and give the province a fee if they want. We’ll be making that request in the next couple of months,” he said.
Harvie said the provincial government and ministers may change but the bureaucracy stays the same, and that’s the problem.
Port Metro Vancouver had been managing provincially-owned water lots for the government, subleasing and regulating activities, but the port pulled out when its agreement with Victoria expired at the end of 2014.
The province has taken over managing the foreshores but hadn’t offered current or prospective leaseholders, including many float home owners and businesses, long-term tenure, which meant the Delta-owned properties at the Seven Seas site, which was put up for sale, wasn’t a particularly attractive place to invest.
Delta used $2.3 million in amenity money it received from the port about a decade earlier to purchase the site with a goal to eventually encourage major redevelopment and revitalization of the area. It’s also a major component of the more recent South Delta Business Sustainability Strategy and Delta had already approved a new waterfront mixed-use zone for its parcels that would permit a wide range of uses.
The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources, however, came up with an agreement, after consultations with the Musqueam Indian Band, that doesn’t allow for long-term leases.
Civic officials are warning that the inability to have longer term leases will curtail any redevelopment on the Ladner waterfront, while float home owners and businesses along the river will live with uncertainty over their tenure.
Mayor Lois Jackson recently said the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources, which oversees the provincial water lots, has been giving Delta the runaround.
“It’s quite outrageous and quite unacceptable… it’s like talking to a brick wall,” she said.
Coun. Bruce McDonald said there’s substantial inequity when it comes to who gets longer, more secure leases, noting that Metro Vancouver has been given a 30-year lease on the water lot at the Iona sewage treatment plant.
“We’ve been offered a 10-year lease on properties we have (and) there are 250-odd homeowners and businesses along the river who are living on a month-by-month basis. You can’t sell, you can’t do anything with your properties because you can’t get any financing.”
Agreeing there’s no consistency, and saying the situation is a mess, CAO George Harvie said it’s caused tremendous hardship.
“We’d be better off if we administered the water lot leases in Delta ourselves, absolutely better off. We’ll look after it and give the province a fee if they want. We’ll be making that request in the next couple of months,” he said.
Harvie said the provincial government and ministers may change but the bureaucracy stays the same, and that’s the problem.
Port Metro Vancouver had been managing provincially-owned water lots for the government, subleasing and regulating activities, but the port pulled out when its agreement with Victoria expired at the end of 2014.
The province has taken over managing the foreshores but hadn’t offered current or prospective leaseholders, including many float home owners and businesses, long-term tenure, which meant the Delta-owned properties at the Seven Seas site, which was put up for sale, wasn’t a particularly attractive place to invest.
Delta used $2.3 million in amenity money it received from the port about a decade earlier to purchase the site with a goal to eventually encourage major redevelopment and revitalization of the area. It’s also a major component of the more recent South Delta Business Sustainability Strategy and Delta had already approved a new waterfront mixed-use zone for its parcels that would permit a wide range of uses.
The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources, however, came up with an agreement, after consultations with the Musqueam Indian Band, that doesn’t allow for long-term leases.
