North Cowichan council is considering whether it will appeal a recent BC Supreme Court decision.
The court has ruled that North Cowichan must reconsider a decision to deny Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit a development permit for an expansion.
The municipality has 30 days to appeal after the date of the ruling and is awaiting the results of a review by its legal counsel.
Council is expected to discuss it again in a closed session at its next meeting on Wednesday.
In her decision last week, Madam Justice Diane MacDonald wrote that for six years, North Cowichan “supported the petitioner’s development and was satisfied that its uses complied with the Zoning Bylaw.”
She called it “arbitrary for the Council to diametrically disagree with a past interpretation of the Zoning Bylaw without explaining the basis for the disagreement.”
The Court concluded that Council’s denial of the Development Permit Application was unreasonable as Council did not provide reasons as to why it determined that the VIMC’s use of its property was contrary to North Cowichan’s Zoning Bylaw.
It has sent the matter back for reconsideration, together with the completed application materials and says that North Cowichan council must assess the application on its technical merits and reconsider it.
The Vancouver Island Motorsports Circuit facility was built in 2016 and is owned by GAIN Group.
The group had planned to expand the facility on an additional 42 hectares of land adjacent to the present high performance vehicle track.
