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Official community plan stalled

The company hired by the regional district last year to complete an official community plan for rural Graham Island has stopped doing that kind of work, leaving the regional district with no OCP after spending over $90,000, says administrator John Holland."To date, the contractor has expended 90 per cent of the budget, provided no mapping products, and has provided an incomplete background report and a draft OCP with very limited time for local review and feedback," according to minutes of a regional district island directors meeting held July 8.The company, Smart Growth Advisory Services, told the regional district that it was restructuring at the beginning of June, Mr. Holland said, and would not be doing community planning work any more.Smart Growth told Mr. Holland it would hire a company called HB Lanarc to complete the Graham Island plan. Mr. Holland said a committee of islanders that was overseeing the OCP work will be meeting July 29 in Masset to decide whether to go ahead with the new company.If the committee approves, work could start again right away, Mr. Holland said. The regional district should not have to pay any more money, he said, as Smart Growth has said it will hire HB Lanarc at its own expense.Mr. Holland said the plan was supposed to have been done by this spring. Once complete, the OCP will provide a framework for development in the community, identifying land uses within the region and providing policy about land use.The money to pay for the official community plan came from a gas tax grant from the federal government distributed by the Union of BC Municipalities, Mr. Holland said.