What do housing, coastal Douglas fir, and Ganges Village have in common? The simple answer – EVERYTHING! A decades-old housing crisis continues on Salt Spring, along with growing climate and forest crises. Housing is a tool that can help address the climate and forest crises, while tackling glaring socioeconomic needs. Integrated solutions are both possible and urgent.
But there is a surprising and alarming difference among these three issues: housing is currently not a priority project for the Salt Spring Local Trust Committee! Let’s choose to thoughtfully make housing a way to meet the Islands Trust’s environmental mandate and implement solutions for social crises facing our community. For more background on the proposed project, please watch for a post by Laura Patrick to appear later today (Sept 23rd) on the Salt Spring Exchange.
Please help ensure that this project is given full consideration at the Local Trust Committee’s upcoming meeting on October 6th. To ensure your voice is heard and that elected Trustees take this small step in the right direction, send a short email ASAP requesting that a Housing Challenges and Solutions project be made a priority. Emails should go to ssiinfo@islandstrust.bc.ca with a copy to all three trustees: pluckham@islandstrust.bc.ca; pgrove@islandstrust.bc.ca; lpatrick@islandstrust.bc.ca
HERE IS A SHORT SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION AND THE ASK:
Our Housing Working Group report can be found in the September 1st LTC agenda package beginning on page 264. http://www.islandstrust.bc.ca/media/349794/ss-ltc_2020-09-01_rm_agd_pkg.pdf
The Climate Action Plan 2.0 is referenced and this project will deliver on multiple plan initiatives. Our report introduces the concept of ecosystem-based management (as progressively legislated in BC but not yet applied on SSI) and references the pioneering Coast Information Team materials on ecosystem-based management.
See this link for more: https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/tasb/slrp/citbc/ebm.html
Over the past two decades on Salt Spring, a well-recognized housing crisis has emerged concurrent with climate and forest (land use) crises. These issues are interrelated. Integrated solutions are feasible and increasingly urgent. This proposed project concerns housing, but in a broad sense. The time is now to pursue housing solutions that also support better solutions for other challenges and crises.
The objectives of this proposed project are to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of housing on Salt Spring, including its ecological, climatic, and socioeconomic dimensions. The goals for this proposed project are to develop new policies and regulations that will increase the quality and quantity of housing options, coupled with a high level of preservation and protection of the island’s biodiversity and freshwater, marine, and forest resources.
The full spectrum of housing policy is to be considered, from farms to denser villages to discouraging the carving up forests for mansions. Two phases of the new Housing Project are proposed:
Phase 1 begins with the appointment of a housing task force, which is a high-energy pivoting body representing environmental, social, and economic interests. A key action for Phase 1 is a robust public involvement strategy to ensure that the housing action plan to be developed will accurately reflect the public’s values and has community support — and that it is consistent and deeply aligned with other crucial efforts such as CAP 2.0 implementation. Phase 1 ends with the development of a prioritized action plan to retain and enhance the environmental and human dimensions of island ecosystems.
Phase 2 recognizes that housing-related social, economic, and environmental issues are beyond the capacity of any one organization. As with CAP 2.0, cross-sector partners are required to work collaboratively to develop and implement integrated solutions. A permanent, resourced community advisory body is proposed to develop a framework for actions to be implemented in a manner that integrates and considers both human and ecosystem needs through integrated planning, policy development and recommendations for urgent implementation by member agencies and organizations.
The housing working group seeks your support for this project. Please peruse the report linked above, add your conceptual support for the project to the public record, and request that the Local Trust Committee make this project a priority at its October 6, 2020 meeting.
The easiest way to do this is to send emails to ssiinfo@islandstrust.bc.ca and copy the three trustees: pluckham@islandstrust.bc.capgrove@islandstrust.bc.calpatrick@islandstrust.bc.ca
Individuals can address the October 6 meeting by Zoom during the town hall portion (approximately 9:45-10:15 AM) that is available via a zoom link that can be found on the meeting calendar page: http://www.islandstrust.bc.ca/islands/local-trust-areas/salt-spring/meeting-calendar-agendas-minutes/