The potential of escalating costs and significant delays for in-stream projects led council to cancel its review of retaining wall heights.
Manager of development services Lisa Pedrini described some of the preliminary work that had been done, including formulating a work plan to determine a reasonable maximum height for retaining walls in hillside communities, before requesting direction from council.
“Staff has had a chance to do some preliminary investigative work to look at what might be needed in order to justify a maximum retaining wall height,” she said. “We don’t want to choose an arbitrary number. We want to use data and have taken the time to do some analysis to come up with a number that is relevant and suitable.”
Pedrini expected the budget for the work would range from $7,000 to $12,000 with at least six months of analysis required before another month or two in the bylaw amendment process.
She also warned of the distinct possibility that the results may not be palatable to council or other stakeholders.
“We could do all of this analysis and we could come back, once we’ve analyzed the grades, and find out that the average retention needed in some of our hillside neighbourhoods is about four or five metres,” she said.
Ultimately, council voted to maintain the status quo of requiring engineering and vegetative screening for retaining walls greater than 1.2 metres, “with more focus on education and awareness of the Village’s preference for development that meets the Village of Pemberton Hillside Development Design Guidelines,” as described in Pedrini’s report.
In approving the motion, Mayor Mike Richman acknowledged that the decision will funnel landowners into the variance process.
“I want to make sure we’re encouraging developers and builders and homeowners to go through a process where they do have the ability to be heard and make their special case before council,” Richman said. “I want to make sure that the process has potential for an outcome as opposed to putting them through a process that will put them back to the start here."
