Press Releases

The City of Chilliwack is pleased to announce that the BC Supreme Court has ruled in the municipality’s favour and awarded costs, confirming that the City properly followed the legislated processes rezoning the property known as the Cattermole Lands.

In paragraph 50 of the judgement, the Honourable Mr. Justice Voith wrote:

"I am satisfied that the Notice described the “general purpose” of the Bylaw sufficiently to enable citizens to decide whether they wanted more information on the Bylaw or whether they wished to attend at the public meeting."

Mr. Justice Voith ruled that there was no merit to other procedural complaints raised by the petitioners and found that the City met its common law duty to act fairly in relation to the public hearing process.

On December 3, 2013, the City of Chilliwack held a public meeting regarding Aevitas’ application to rezone a 1.78ha portion of property from an M4 Heavy Industrial Zone to an M6 Special Industrial Zone to facilitate the construction of a waste recycling and transfer facility. On February 4, 2014, Council gave fourth and final reading to the rezoning.

“We are happy that this court ruling clearly demonstrates that the City of Chilliwack properly followed the rezoning process as legislated by the Local Government Act,” said Mayor Sharon Gaetz. “We hope this legal outcome helps others better understand the process that we follow for each and every rezoning application and the reason for strict adherence to the Act.”

“As we waited for the case to be heard by the BC Supreme Court, a lot of misinformation was spread about the City acting illegally and about a potential environmental disaster without taking into consideration any of the safeguards that will be in place,” said Mayor Gaetz. “This has been exceedingly frustrating, as we take our legal obligations and our responsibility to protect the environment very seriously. We want to thank those local residents that took the time to become informed both prior to and after the rezoning so as not to perpetuate false information.”

Chilliwack is an environmental leader in British Columbia and consistently strives to protect the environment, demonstrating leadership by protecting rivers, air sheds, watersheds, riparian areas and farmland. Now with the opportunity to recycle light bulbs, Chilliwack will continue to play a leading role in caring for the environment.

The next step in the process will be for Aevitas, the waste transfer operator, to obtain the necessary approval from the Ministry of Environment before redevelopment of the land may begin.