Insurance tangle for lakeshore property owners creates bureaucratic impasse
By Timothy Schafer
It was standing room only in Nakusp Village council chambers Tuesday, Sept. 13 as the village grappled with a change in the policies and procedures of several Nakusp insurance companies now affecting waterfront residents.
Eighteen people squeezed into the chamber gallery to hear how council would handle the insurance changes.
Currently, the Official Community Plan for the waterfront did not allow new residential construction in the lakeshore development area — extending from the boat launch on Nelson Ave. west to Eighth Avenue — without a rezoning process, but accommodated grandfathered (prior to 1993) single family homes, known as legally non-conforming.
The allowable uses in the Lakeshore Development zone (LD1) included retail sales, hotel, marina, multiple family residential and restaurant, and were made to the OCP in 1993 to ensure the lakefront properties would not be developed into private residences, making the property inaccessible to the public.
On Tuesday night several people had expressed concern they were having difficulty obtaining mortgages on their single family dwellings in the LD1, and that insurance companies would not provide maximum value for the homes — a situation not reserved for Nakusp, Mayor Karen Hamling reminded the gallery.
As well, with the current LD1 zoning from the Official Community Plan in place, unless a property owner applied to council to have their property rezoned, if their house was significantly damaged and destroyed (over 75 per cent of the structure) they would not be allowed to rebuild it as a single family dwelling.
On Tuesday night people indicated they believed council should overturn the bylaw and allow single family dwellings in the zone.
“It’s a misconception that the last time we went to a new zoning bylaw (2008) that that has changed,” said acting Village chief administrative officer Linda Tynan. “It has been consistent throughout since 1993. That is not to say that it is not time for council to look at the bylaw. That’s why I’ve cautioned on a knee jerk reaction to what one person has said. We need to have full public comment on this.”
And the voice of the people was heard, and will be heard, as council voted unanimously and without debate on setting an October public hearing for people to speak for or against changing the bylaw in the OCP.
One man asked if they would be paying a core commercial tax rate on the property as a result of the insurance changes. Tynan said BC Assessment would only assess a property as to its use — as a residence in this case — and not according to the zoning it resided in.
“You are taxed the same as any other residential property,” she said.
Section 911(1) of the Local Government Act allows land or buildings that do not conform to the current zoning bylaw to be continued as a non-conforming use if they were constructed prior to a bylaw prohibiting their use, and if they are continually used for that purpose (meaning, legally non-conforming).
There have been no changes to the LD1 zone since 1993, and were not an allowable use in the zoning bylaw prior to the updated bylaw adopted in 2008 when the OCP as a whole was revised.
Individual property owners could have avoided the insurance tangle entirely, however, and applied to council to have their property rezoned on an individual basis to allow for a single family residence.
To date, a Village staff report stated, “it appears that no property owners have done so.”
The public meeting might end up being set for early October — after it has been properly advertised — and the rezoning Village council meeting will likely be on same night.
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