Sunbury Neighbourhood Association

SFPR - Heritage Advisory Report

Memo To: Mayor & Council

cc: George Harvie; Kip Gaudry

From: Cllr. Vicki Huntington, Chair

Heritage Advisory Commission

Date: July 13, 2008

Re: “South Fraser Perimeter Road Heritage Assessment”

Background

At it’s July 10, 2008 meeting, the Heritage Advisory Commission passed the following resolution:

“That the South Fraser Perimeter Road Heritage Assessment document, dated June 2008, be presented to Council with the recommendation that it be forwarded to the Responsible Authorities (Ministers Penner and Chong) and that the Commission’s concerns regarding the assessment’s errors/omissions be documented by staff and appended to this report for consideration”.

As Council knows, a sub-committee of the HAC has worked diligently, for a least a year, with staff from both the municipality (including consultant Donald Luxton) and with Gateway and their consultant. The last meeting was a review and critique of the document, which did undergo some changes as a result of Delta’s final input.

As staff is unavailable within the time frame required for action, the Chair of the Commission agreed to write the memorandum to Council, while staff prepared hard copies of the document and this report for On Table distribution

Discussion

The HAC has reviewed the purported ‘draft’ (which we believe is actually the final document, submitted to Gateway in June) of the Heritage Assessment for the SFPR.

However, upon review of the ‘draft’, the HAC was extremely disappointed to learn that Gateway had no intention of submitting the document to either the EAO or to the Responsible Authorities. Rather, the document is intended to be used for consideration of the impacts during design and construction of the highway. Further, the document continues to contain errors and omissions that have considerable importance to Delta.

The HAC strongly recommends that Council immediately forward a letter to the Responsible Authorities (RAs) expressing these concerns in an effort to ensure the HAC comments are part of the record prior to an Environmental Certificate being issued.

Issues of Concern

Heritage impacts continue to be minimized, the report noting only two properties identified as “high impact”. The individual property assessments do not recognize the impact to the heritage context of the area.
The Report uses only the Heritage Register to define impacted properties, in spite of numerous comments that unlike most municipalities, Delta requires permission from owners in order to put homes on the Register. All heritage sites within Delta’s official Inventory have been recognized by Council as historically significant: the document, however, actually states that they have not been recognized by Council.
Gateway refuses to recognize the cultural connection between Annieville/Sunbury and Gunderson Slough – in spite of repeated insistence by HAC and Donald Luxton. Gunderson Slough has been treated as a stand alone cultural landscape, in an obvious effort to separate its historic nature from the remainder of North Delta. The HAC is concerned that this further enables the potential infill of the slough and gives Gateway carte blanche to ignore its historic context.
Access to Gunderson Slough from North Delta continues to be denied, separating the legitimate owners from their historic pattern of use. The report does not contain the photographs provided by HAC, nor does it recognize, the existing foot trails and stairways that extend from the fishers homes directly to the boat moorages on the slough. These paths are irrefutable illustrations of a single historic and existing cultural landscape.
The report mentions potential signage as mitigation, but mentions no land acquisition for signage and parking.
The report does not discuss the historic, documented ROWs some of the fishers have over the BNR tracks.
The Report does not respond to repeated requests that financial assistance be provided the Delta Museum and Archives in order that the Archivist can collect and preserve the oral histories and artifacts.

Conclusion

The HAC respectfully recommends that Council officially record Delta’s heritage interests by immediately forwarding a letter to the Responsible Authorities outlining the above issues. The document itself should be appended to the letter to ensure it is at least in the hands of the appropriate Ministers prior to the issuance of an Environmental Certificate for the SFPR.

SFPR - Heritage Advisory Report

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