VICTORIA -- The Municipality of North Cowichan has been ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court to reconsider its denial of the expansion of a motorsport track near Duncan.
The dispute began last year after the Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit (VIMC) applied to expand its track and facilities onto an adjacent property which it purchased within the boundaries of the municipality in 2015.
For years, residents in the area complained of noise and other disturbances from the property and were concerned about its plan to expand to approximately three times its initial size.
According to the recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling, the VIMC purchased its first plot of land in the area in 2014 when the municipality said the company could build the motorsport circuit and a clubhouse facility on the land which is an I2 zone, also known as an industrial zone, under the municipality’s zoning bylaw.
The VIMC then sought to buy an adjacent plot of land, which is also an I2 zone, for similar development purposes in 2015.
In 2019, when the VIMC proposed expanding its facilities onto its second plot of land, the municipality held meetings and a public hearing over the matter, as residents had expressed concern.
In October 2019, council rejected the VIMC’s proposed expansion, saying that the motorsport circuit was not permitted to be built on an I2 zone.
According to Justice D. MacDonald’s ruling, the municipality said that North Cowichan’s former director of planning and development, Scott Mack, should not have approved the VIMC’s initial use of I2 land for a motor circuit.
However, MacDonald said the municipality did not voice any previous concern about I2 land being used for such a purpose, and the initial decision to approve the motor track was not Mack’s choice alone.
"The reasoning behind [Rob Conway, the current director of planning and development’s] denial of the application is sparse," wrote MacDonald. "Even now, he fails to provide an explanation for his decision to reject Mr. Mack’s interpretation."
"For six years, the municipality supported [VIMC’s] development and was satisfied that its uses complied with the zoning bylaw," added the B.C. Supreme Court judge.
"In these circumstances, it was arbitrary for the council to diametrically disagree with a past interpretation of the zoning bylaw without explaining the basis for the disagreement," she wrote. "There was a reason, the uses were not compliant with the zoning bylaw, but no explanation."
North Cowichan has now been ordered to reassess the VIMC’s application for expansion based solely on its technical merits.
In October 2019, the VIMC threatened to file a lawsuit against the municipality for roughly $60 million, which the company claimed was equal to its estimated loss of earnings due to the construction delay.
At the time, North Cowichan Mayor Al Siebring told CTV News that he stood by the decision, even if the municipality needed to raise residential taxes to cover the cost of the lawsuit.
"Fewer than 20 said, 'Mayor, council, we’re worried about that potential tax increase,'" said Siebring on Nov. 7, 2019, following a public hearing on the matter. "Everyone else said, 'You’re being bullied, stand firm, we’re with you, we don’t mind the tax increase. Go ahead we got your back.'"
Siebring says that North Cowichan council will be discussing the B.C. Supreme Court ruling at a council meeting on Wednesday evening, the first time that council will meet since the ruling was released.
