Developer will give right-of-way through property until 2022 and work on new pathway if the project would not go ahead
(By News Desk)
Gibsons town council has given the developer of The George a two-year extension on the form and character development permit and land-exchange agreement for his George Marine Resort and Residences project. Councillor Annemarie De Andrade opposed the motion.
The extension was granted on condition that developer Klaus Fuerniss give a right-of-way through the property to Winegarden Park during the extension and work with the town on a long-term strategy to construct a pathway linking the trail in front of his property, should the project not go forward after two years.
Fuerniss had asked for a two-year extension to the permits, which would have expired on June 1, because of the “severe and adverse financial and market conditions precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic”.
On May 5, the town’s planning and development committee, which includes all council members, recommended a one-year extension. Mayor Bill Beamish and councillors Aleria Ladwig and Annemarie De Andrade supported the recommendation; councillors Stafford Lumley and David Croal were in favour of a two-year extension.
Before the council meeting on May 19, Fuerniss took Mayor Beamish and Councillor Ladwig, who is head of the planning committee, for a tour of the premises. On May 18, Fuerniss confirmed in a formal letter to the town that some landscaping of the site had been done, that he was willing to grant a temporary right-of-way through the property during the two-year extension, and that he was willing to work with the town on a long-term strategy to construct a pathway linking the trail in front of his property, should the project not go forward after two years.
The town received a number of letters from the Gibsons business community asking for a two-year extension.
“The reason I supported a one-year extension was that, frankly, I was tired of the project,” Mayor Beamish said. “That being said, I am quite aware of the economic importance of this project to the community if it goes ahead. In some sense, my sympathy lies with the developer.
“If any one of us came to us and applied for a building permit, and the two-year window was eaten up by 18 months of litigation, we would be concerned,” he said.. “And that’s a lot of what’s been happening here; the developer has not been able to proceed. Hearing him explain it, investors have come and gone because of the challenges and attitude of the community towards the project.”
The application for the water lot is still uncertain, as it is being reviewed by the Squamish Nation, which will take some time, the mayor said.
Councillor De Andrade asked what would happen if the developer builds the residences first and then decides the economic climate would not be conducive to building a hotel.
“Do we have any guarantees that the hotel will be built first?” she asked.
Chief Administrative Officer Emanuel Machado said he believes council made a resolution that requires that a hotel be built and that occupancy permits for the residences can not be issued until the hotel is completed. “That’s in the development agreement,” he said.
The above are screen shots from section 4(j) in the Development Agreement on the town’s website.
The planning and development committee had recommended that the fences around the property be removed, but the developer has objected to removing the fencing completely because it is a construction site, and said there could be negative impacts to the aquifer if the site was vandalized in any way. The fuel tanks also need to be kept fenced off, he said in a letter to the town. Council did not include the issue in a resolution.
During the inquiry period at the end of the meeting Suzanne Senger, president of the Gibsons Alliance of Business and Community (GABC) said that if legal challenges held up the development, the developer had brought them on himself.
“The developer has not met his own legal obligations [to clean up the contaminated Hyak site when he bought it in 2004]. He hasn’t done the due diligence. That’s what’s holding them up,” she said.
The May 19 council meeting can be viewed on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_jY0vBfeE8. The segment about The George starts at 32:01 minutes.
These are strange thought processes which blame litigants for the George problems instead of the source of the litigations. Litigation only arose due to the intransigence of the developer who refused to submit a design which could have brought the town together instead of splitting it apart. There are many problems with this project and they were instigated by a developer who put his own ego and personal dreams ahead of his fellow townspeople. He only has himself to blame for his refusal to work to unite his fellow citizens and now he has got himself into a major mess with a project that is now no longer financially viable and in all likelihood never will be. It was he that sowed the seeds of the wind and now he will have to feel the whirlwind. But of course, it is all someone else’s fault. Isn’t it?
Well said, Mike! The developer has been deaf to pleas to make this a smaller project, one that would fit in better with the character and ambiance of Gibsons. Is the mayor not aware that is what the opponents of the project as planned have been asking for all these years?
Dear Editor: I hate to quibble with you, but the screen shot you have provided does in no way say what it is purported to say. It says that a hotel will be built and that the building can only be a hotel, with a spa, retail, etc.. It does NOT specify that the hotel must be built FIRST, before the condos can be built. Please provide the appropriate section of the Development Agreement, where it specifies that the hotel must be built first.
The hotel needs to be completed first so that the town is not left with just the condos. Mr. Machado is quoted in this article as saying permits for the condos cannot be granted until the hotel is completed. So, yes, we all need to know where it says that in the development agreement.
It should have never come to pass if the former mayor and council had done things right the first time and not left too many questions having to be asked by all and anyone. It is a white elephant financed by tax paying residents of the town. To blame it on Covid 19? Please don’t expect me to believe that. Had it all been on the up and up we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
There are now three unfinished accommodation properties in Lower Gibsons. What an amazing turn of events.
First, and nearest to completion, is the Ritz, highlighted in an article by The Clarion a mere two weeks ago. Second is the George. Third is the hotel planned, partially built, and then abandoned by reason of bankruptcy by George Giannakos, owner of the former Omega Restaurant. The multi-level parking lot at the end of Molly’s Lane is the most visible remnant of the third site.
It is doubly ironic that two of the three could feasibly have been called the George.