Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality updates Official Community Plan

Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality is working toward a new Official Community Plan to create policies around land use decisions and long-term planning, among others. 

The draft is available to review and comments can be submitted on the municipality’s webpage. The draft received first reading in council on June 23 and the municipality will host an open house, Thursday July 23 for community feedback from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sun Peaks Centre.

Following consultation with neighbouring First Nations and a second reading in council, the municipality will hold a public hearing. The draft will go to the province before council approves the updated Official Community Plan, slated for September.

What is an Official Community Plan? 

An Official Community Plan is a “broad visionary document,”  consultant Randy Lambright explained.

“It lays out general growth and development for the future. It’s a framework for the implementation tools, such as zoning, subdivision and development, business licensing, financial and capital planning.”

The Official Community Plan guides decision makers with permitting and development. It lays out residential and commercial sites and ties into capital planning and expenditures, such as preparing for updates to infrastructure like wastewater and sewage. 

All plans, bylaws and policies within the municipality must comply with the plan.

“The [plan] has to talk about where your new industrial land or commercial land is going to be located, and that has to be for the next five years,” Lambright explained to council in a committee meeting of the whole May 27. 

Plans are required to be updated every five years, and while the municipality attempted an update in 2022, it was rejected by the province because it required additional First Nations engagement. Additionally, council is required to update plan following regular updates to the Sun Peaks Resort Master Plan, which was submitted in 2020.

“The municipality is interested in incorporating changes as required by legislation, and to bring the bylaw into line with development trends suitable for the municipality, focusing on areas such as housing, business, recreation and tourism,” the municipality’s website states.

What are significant holdups on updating the plan? 

The most significant issue with the 2022 Official Community Plan Draft was opposition from neighbouring First Nations with regards to significant engagement.

Due to this opposition, the province held off on reviewing the draft.

“We had an [Official Community Plan] that had some language in it that talked about inferred engagement, but that engagement actually hadn’t happened,” Mayor Rob O’Toole explained, adding pushback came as a result of that language indicating engagement that hadn’t been done. “We’ve definitely pivoted [and] took responsibility for that misuse of language in that document.” 

Going forward the engagement process will be much more iterative, he said.

The municipality will hold a community gathering with Adams Lake Indian Band, Neskonlith Indian Band, Skwlāx te Secwepemcúl̓ecw, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and Sun Peaks Resort LLP Monday, July 20, during which there will be an opportunity to discuss the Official Community Plan and Master Development Plan.

“The municipality has no direct control or involvement or authority when it comes to land use, land access within [the controlled recreation area]…we’re here as a partner to support in whatever way is appropriate within the dynamic between the resort and Mountain Resorts Branch,” chief administrative officer Deanna Campbell explained during the May 27 meeting.

Uniquely, the municipality’s Official Community Plan cannot supersede Sun Peaks Resort LLP’s Master Development Plan. Sun Peaks is also unique in that the plan requires provincial approval, Campbell added.

During the May 27 meeting, Coun. Len Hyrcan noted that since the 2022 declination of the draft plan, the relationship between Sun Peaks Mountain Resort Municipality and neighbouring bands has shifted to include engagement not directly tied to the process, something he said should be included in the draft. 

“Perhaps that’s just what needs to be stated in this process, not trying to make it tie so tightly back to the [plan], but just a whole new level of communication and collaboration that’s happening with First Nations, driven by the municipality.”

Agreeing with this shift in perspective and collaboration, O’Toole said a goal of the municipality is to engage neighbouring First Nations on an ongoing basis, rather than when something is needed from them. 

“What I’ve been hearing as I sit down with the Kukpi7 [chiefs] from the three different bands has – and this is also something that’s been passed on to me by the mayors of other communities that work closely with local First Nations – is the perception that in a lot of cases small municipalities like us tend to only reach out and have conversations and dialog when there’s a specific ask.”

“If we’re having the meetings on an ongoing basis on a wide range of subject matter, [the plan] is just part of an agenda rather than the focus of why we’re sitting there.”