Juan de Fuca Forest Resource Land

The Capital Regional District is considering by-laws that will affect two thirds of its total area on Vancouver Island, an area several times the size of the Saanich Peninsula. The proposed by-laws amount to the biggest land use decision in the history of the CRD.

The affected land comprises most of the area labelled "14" on the CRD's map.

Please come to the Juan de Fuca Land Use Committee meeting on Tueday, November 17. The latest draft Official Community Plan and Land Use Bylaws will be presented at the meeting.

The meeting will take place at the Sooke Community Hall at 2037 Shields Road, Sooke  beginning at 7:00 PM.

The area is now a living wilderness covered by an intricate network of wild rivers and streams, and it is right out our back door. At present, less than two hundred people live there, and most of them are in the immediate vicinity of Port Renfrew.

It is also a HUGE carbon sink. If it is extensively developed, the destruction of the carbon sink and the car dependence of the area will make a mockery of the CRD's progressive Climate Change Action Plan.

Some of it is Crown land, but a great deal is owned by two timber corporations who are eager to develop it, or sell it for development. One of the timber companies is actually owned by a multinational development company based in New York.

The immediate issue is who will decide on the by-laws that will govern the future use of the land. At present, the decision is in the hands of a CRD subcommittee. We believe that a decision of this magnitude must be made by the entire CRD Board.

PLEASE CALL OR WRITE THE BOARD MEMBER(S) FROM YOUR AREA AND LET THEM KNOW THAT THE FULL BOARD MUST VOTE ON THIS IMPORTANT ISSUE!

Email Board member(s) here.

You might also consider writing to your entire municipal council, especially if you live in Victoria or Saanich, both of which have many councillors on the CRD board.

Read our letter to the CRD Board.

The proposed by-laws would reduce the minimum lot size in the area from 120 hectares to 2 hectares. Any major development would result in the worst kind of sprawl, replacing productive wilderness with scattered, car-dependent suburbs. Development would affect many watersheds.

It is hard to see how the proposed by-laws would not represent an abandonment of the CRD's Regional Growth Strategy, which is founded on these 8 principles:

    * Keep urban settlement compact

    * Protect the integrity of rural communities

    * Protect regional green and blue space

    * Manage natural resources and the environment sustainability

    * Build complete communities

    * Improve housing affordability

    * Increase transportation choice

    * Strengthen the regional economy