Petition to the elected Trustees on the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee.  Please read and sign this petition in support of current growth limits.

Salt Spring’s Trustees are currently considering proposed major changes to our Official Community Plan (OCP) and Land Use Bylaw (LUB/zoning bylaw) that are unnecessary and unsustainable. This “major amendment" project, which will have long-term consequences for the whole island, is being pushed ahead with limited public discussion of the issues and no emphasis on environmental protection as required by the Islands Trust Act. 

 If implemented, these changes could:

·  Overload our island’s limited services and resources, including water supply, sewage disposal, hospital, roads, and ferries at a time of worsening climate change.

· Breach the OCP growth limits we have now, thereby undermining Salt Spring’s core environmental protection policies.

· Unleash greatly increased development across the island, without legally enforceable housing agreements to make sure new dwellings are truly affordable for working families and other lower-income full-time residents. 

We, the undersigned, urge the Local Trust Committee to:

1. Keep the current OCP policies that limit zoning changes exactly as they stand.  Zoning changes that increase the allowable density on private properties (upzoning) must apply only to affordable housing.*

2. Support non-market housing initiatives that respect existing growth limits and are legally required to provide long-term rentals at affordable rates. 

3. Hold a full community discussion of growth and sustainability within the mandate of the Islands Trust Act before making any changes to our OCP or Land Use Bylaw. 

*Our existing Official Community Plan states this clearly in OCP Policy B.2.1.2.1: “Zoning changes should be avoided if they would likely result in a larger island population than is expected under the development potential zoned in 2008. Exceptions to this policy are to be few and minor and only to achieve affordable housing and other objectives of this Plan.”  Our OCP already allows zoning for 5,000 more people in addition to the 12,000 here today.