WHEREAS municipalities must have an Official Community Plan (OCP) and zoning bylaw to regulate land use and development and provide for sustainable current and future land use and development in the municipality;

WHEREAS municipalities’ OCP and zoning bylaw must adhere to the Statements of Provincial Interest Regulations, which came into effect on March 29, 2012; 

WHEREAS the Ministry of Government Relations identifies a municipality should provide for potential heritage sensitivity mapping in their OCP and zoning bylaw in the Statements of Provincial Interest Regulations Planning Handbook, 2012 and requires this to receive Minister approval for their OCP and zoning bylaw; 

WHEREAS the Heritage Conservation Branch requires developers to undertake a heritage resource review where the Heritage Conservation Branch has identified land to be potentially heritage sensitive; which creates another step in the development or sale of private property; 

WHEREAS this step was implemented without any prior knowledge or discussion with the private landowners and/or municipalities; 

WHEREAS this step may hinder or even eliminate a potential development or sale of private property which will remove the landowner’s control over their own private property;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the provincial government to remove the potential heritage sensitivity mapping and policy requirements for Official Community Plans and zoning bylaws and the heritage resource review requirements for development that currently exist.