Sicamous could see the establishment of a satellite firehall with the development of Old Town Bay.
The District of Sicamous and contractor, Urban Systems, are conducting an official community plan – development permit review, identifying potential issues and where there’s need for updating.
Community planning officer Mike Marrs told council at the last committee of the whole meeting that, based on what he’s seen in a preliminary report, the issues are fairly straight-forward. However, he did express concern regarding Old Town Bay and the need to look at extending district services. In particular, Marrs indicated an obligation to provide fire protection.
“If we get major development happening out in that end of the community, the response time is going to be more than 10 minutes,” said Marrs. “Under the development code, anything beyond 10 minutes has ramifications from a cost perspective on development.”
Marrs told council that, in negotiation with Old Town Bay’s upland developers, he has “made it very clear that we are going to be looking for a satellite fire department over in Old Town Bay.”
“For various reasons, the least of which is the building code requirement, you know, a 10 minute response or less…,” said Marrs, “but also because that area is cut off from our local fire department through the CPR railroad. If something happens there, they’ve got to be able to get across.”
Marrs said this is something that needs to be planned for. As for the review, Marrs said he hopes to present a report to council as soon as possible.