By Spencer Sterritt

Courts told the City of Parksville won’t oppose supportive housing civil lawsuit

Dec 18, 2018 | 7:14 PM

PARKSVILLE — Legal documents show the City of Parksville won’t challenge a petition filed in the Supreme Court of B.C. about how a soon-to-be constructed supportive housing project was approved.

The petition claims the 52-unit supportive housing project about to be built at 222 Corfield St. S. was already decided on before the full approval process, including a rezoning bylaw and public hearing, was complete. It also alleged area residents weren’t properly informed about the public hearing, which stretched on for roughly two-and-a-half hours.

In an affidavit presented to the Honourable Justice Robin Baird on Monday, City of Parksville legal representative Sukhbir Manhas wrote “the instructions we received from City council was to not challenge or defend the petition.”

The decision to not oppose the petition comes several months into the legal proceedings and after the City filed a response refuting claims their approval process was flawed. 

The City response was submitted before the fall municipal election which greatly shook up Parksville’s council.

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Of the seven people now around the council table, three have declared a conflict of interest about the matter. Coun. Adam Fras and Doug O’Brien are petitioners in the civil lawsuit against the Corfield St. housing and mayor Ed Mayne also removed himself from any decision-making about the project.

A further statement from Manhas, included in the same affidavit, said it was inferred “that a reason for City council’s instructions was that the public hearing was deficient.”

“We stand by our process.”

The statement from Manhas effectively means the messaging from Parksville’s City council and City staff is at odds.

CAO Debbie Comis told NanaimoNewsNOW on Tuesday “The City has never made any statement that the process was flawed….we stand by our process, our notifications and all of the actions under taken by the City in dealing with the public hearing and everything that has come out of that.”

Comis couldn’t elaborate on the meeting where the decision to not challenge the petition was made, since it happened in a closed meeting not available to the public. The decision being made in a closed meeting was also why Comis couldn’t comment on why Manhas or any representative of the City of Parksville did not appear in the Supreme Court on Monday.

The statements from Manhas were included in an application from BC Housing and the Provincial Rental Housing Corporation (PRHC) to be added as a respondent to the petition.

Ronald Josephson appeared for BC Housing and claimed the City of Parksville had “rolled over” in the matter and it was up to BC Housing and the PRHC to defend the project.

“A lot of the city councillors were elected on a mandate of opposing this supportive housing project. If they won’t (defend the supportive housing project), someone has to.”

Lessons learned from Nanaimo

Whether the petitioners in the matter oppose the approval process or the entire project was questioned in court.

The petitioner’s legal representative Mitch Foster said they’re looking to “have an opportunity to have a new and proper public hearing. This isn’t an application to shut down the project. This is an application to have a proper hearing.”

However, lead petitioner Ron Chiovetti cast that statement into doubt several minutes later when he suddenly approached the bench without an invitation.

He told Justice Baird there was an easy solution to the legal dispute which would save everyone time and money.

“The residents of Parksville, 75 per cent of them and the City Council and now mayor, are prepared to let BC Housing build their building on the basis that it become affordable housing as opposed to supportive housing. There’s a big difference.”

Baird quickly thanked Chiovetti for his comment and dismissed him back to the gallery.

The distinction between supportive and affordable housing was a main point of contention during the lengthy public hearing held in the summer. Many opposed to the project questioned why housing for the homeless and those who are substance users was being provided at a taxpayers expense while families struggled to find housing.

Similar concerns about location and being able to use drugs within the supportive units derailed a similar project in Nanaimo earlier in 2018.

When Nanaimo’s then-Council voted against a rezoning bylaw for a $7-million, 44-unit supportive housing project in Chase River in favour of a separate location, negotiations between the City and BC Housing stalled and an alternative site was never discovered.

The decision against the Chase River housing was cited as an inciting incident for the sprawling tent city which overtook empty land in Nanaimo’s downtown and divided the community.

Decisions awaited as construction looms

Despite the lengthy and wide-ranging discussions on Monday, there was no decision made by the end of the day. Justice Baird reserved his decision about whether to allow BC Housing and the PRHC to be added to the civil lawsuit as respondents.

The addition of Revera Inc. as a petitioner will also be considered. Revera is currently working with current petitioner Berwick Retirement Communties LTD. To build a seniors retirement home across from the proposed supportive housing site on Corfield St. S.

BC Housing said ground will be broken for the project in January with construction slated to start in March. 

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit