On Friday Supreme Court Justice John Truscott ruled that the city violated its own Official Community Plan (OCP) when it rezoned 5877 Leslie Rd. to facilitate a women's addiction treatment facility.
Truscott ruled in favour of Leslie Road resident Janice Sevin, who brought a legal challenge against the controversial rezoning on behalf of concerned area residents. The judge quashed the zoning bylaw, saying the city would need to pass an amendment to the OCP before the zoning could be valid.
In December, 2011 city council had approved the rezoning for the former Haldi Road elementary school. The Northern Supportive Recovery Society for Women had sought the change to a special therapeutic community zoning in order to allow a 30-bed residential women's addiction treatment facility.
Friday's ruling is the latest plot twist in this Mexican soap opera of a project. The divisive proposal has been the subject of enough overwrought histrionics and rhetoric, so there is no need to rehash it further.
It's clear that an addiction treatment facility for women is needed in the North, and it's also clear that some members of Haldi Road neighbourhood are vehemently opposed to the project in their area.
In an ideal world the society would find another location where the proposal will be welcomed - or remote enough no one will be bothered by it -and everyone can live happily ever after.
However the City of Prince George will almost certainly appeal Truscott's ruling, guaranteeing that La Batalla de Haldi Road returns for a second season.
Friday's ruling has implications which go far beyond Prince George and one proposed project.
Until Friday, city councils in B.C. have had the leeway to interpret their OCPs very broadly.
In his arguments to the court, city lawyer Raymond Young called the OCP, "just a series of statements that guide decisions."
Only a bylaw, "in direct and absolute collision with a specific rule of the OCP," should be quashed by the courts, Young added.
However in his ruling Truscott rejected the "direct and absolute collision," test. Instead he said the test of the validity of a bylaw should be based on a, "reasonable range of alternatives," under the legislative framework.
The creation of a special zoning in a rural residential area to allow a 30-bed addiction facility was not a reasonable alternative, Truscott ruled, based on the wording of the City of Prince George's OCP.
If Truscott's ruling withstands the almost-inevitable appeal process, it will change the weight of OCPs throughout B.C.
City councils which treat their OCPs as a list of friendly suggestions and guidelines, rather than as a legal framework for development, may be opening themselves to successful legal challenges.
As a result, some councils may choose to circumvent difficulties by gutting their OCPs of anything resembling a clear rule or guideline, so they can never be found to be opposition to them.
If Truscott's ruling is overturned on appeal, then city councils will be free to go back to treating their OCPs as an unenforceable suggestion. Cities, including Prince George, will continue to spend tens of thousands of dollars to regularly develop and update OCPs which are worth less than the paper they are printed on.
If any good can come of the melodrama surrounding the proposed Northern Supportive Recovery Society for Women, it would be changes to the province's OCP legislation requiring cities to spell out exactly what is and is not allowed in each area.
-- Associate news editor Arthur Williams
