Rezoning applications should be turned down
Re: Rezoning applications, council meeting May 2, 2018, agenda items 7.2 and 7.3.
I think that council is doing a very poor job in this area. I was looking at the agenda for the council meeting on May 2 and saw an application to change the UCB with application #3696 and an associated one for #3697. The whole application is bizarre and should be rejected. It raises several questions of ethics.
1. How can an application be made and accepted by council, to remove property from within the UCB so that its zoning can be changed from residential to agricultural and at the same time allow two homes to be constructed on each of them? It appears to me that the sole purpose of this application is to avoid paying the appropriate amount of property tax on this land. In simple terms, favouritism and a public rip off.
2. Agricultural land pays virtually no tax on land. I was looking at the annual report for North Cowichan for 2016 and noticed that all agricultural land in North Cowichan contributed a paltry amount of less than $50K in total of property tax. Just the 15 homes in my cul de sac pay more than that. That is disgusting.
3. The application also asks for the right to build multiple homes on the agricultural land after it is rezoned to agricultural from residential. I though agricultural land was to be used for farming, not development. Again another rip off of the public.
These applications should be turned down. The least the public should expect from our council is good honest decision making. If this application gets approved, I think that I will apply for rezoning.
Don Swiatlowski
North Cowichan