Nanaimo’s downtown is poised for new possibilities now that the province has agreed that regulations governing possible underground drinking water do not apply in a part of the historic city partially built on fill from coal mines.
“It will be exciting to see what’s going to happen development-wise,” says Corry Gervais, chief executive of the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce.
“It could be a hotel. It could be condos … It is definitely going to open up doors for the property owners down there in whichever way they want to go.”
The Environment Ministry said in a letter July 29 that a 27-hectare area in the city centre will not be included in regulations that require groundwater quality to be assessed during site investigations. The investigations are carried out when a development is proposed.
Individual property owners in this area who want to redevelop will save time and money because they are no longer subject to drinking-water standards, the City of Nanaimo said in a statement.
The Terminal Avenue area from Comox Road to Esplanade is already serviced with municipal water and the more than 145 properties affected do not rely on groundwater.
Factors considered by the province include: These lands are in a tidal area, much of the area was marine and estuaries, it does not contain any mapped aquifers, former mine workings continue to exist underground, and poor quality fill such as coal waste was put down many years ago.
Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog praised the province: “It’s just good common sense.”
The decision removes a barrier to developing downtown, he said.
“The industrial practices of the 19th century laid the very ground we walk on downtown, but in the 21st century the mine tailings that underlie the Terminal Avenue area have made it very difficult to revitalize the heart of our city,” Krog said.
Exempting the properties from drinking-water regulations “opens the door to building the thriving and prosperous city centre so many of us, including council, have worked hard to achieve,” he said.
Darren Moss, a key volunteer in the area-wide application that went to the province, said individual property owners could face costs of $50,000 to $100,000 to show the province that water regulations should not apply to their property. They had to prove that there was no risk to aquifers.
“It’s big money,” said Moss, chair of the Planning, Design and Development Nanaimo committee.
Starting in 2011, that group and the former business improvement area started raising funds to pay for an environmental study. The goal was to convince the province that the area should have special consideration.
In 2016, the City of Nanaimo joined the effort, collaborating on a study and submitting the application to the province.
The study was funded by private property owners working with the design and development group, a B.C. Brownfield grant and the city.
“This project is a great example of how courageous and collaborative effort between the city, volunteers and stakeholders can accomplish meaningful change that would be almost impossible to achieve by any single party,” Moss said.
A letter from the Environment Ministry to the city said that the properties in the Terminal area will not be included in regulations that assess groundwater quality for drinking-water use. This simplifies the regulatory framework for individual owners, the city said. It will make it more affordable and will reduce the time it takes to develop.
The Terminal Avenue area from Comox Road to Esplanade is a former tidal inlet. About 100 years ago, it was filled with tailings from the city’s coal mines. Today, these lands are mainly filled with light industrial and office buildings.
The province acknowledged the long industrial history and unique subsurface and hydrological conditions in the study area, the city said.
The Terminal Avenue area of downtown has tremendous development potential given its proximity to Commercial Street, the waterfront and the proposed downtown transit exchange, the city said.
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