Very simply put Tourism Tofino is destroying its golden goose. Everyone will benefit from the tourism until it implodes on itself from environmental degradation and over crowding of everywhere.
Nowhere in their currently demonstrated policies can you see a requirement for all the visitors who come here each year to understand the fragility of the place and to respect the area and its residents.
They just want a giant party to keep on rolling along.
Well, the crash will come if they stay on the current path of advertising this place the way they do.
The crux of ALL problems EVERYWHERE - there are just too many f*** people on this planet !! Tourists are simply an example. Governments will never say so as they need the tax base - but the truth is !! We need a super bug or plague to wipe a good chunk of us out if this planet and all life has any hope.
You're suggestion to have all the visitors educated on specific fragility and how to respect the area is fairly unrealistic. They can do that through advertising but to have people forced to understand the areas fragility and to respect the people who live within it would be near impossible, unless you want to stop every person on the highway and lecture them on it.
I think it's fair to note that Tofino has gotten significantly busier in the last decade but have you ever considered the fact that the mayor and council have done little to nothing to deal with this increase in demand that is practical? Whistler created a housing authority that made over 3000 beds available between 2004 and 2015. On the other hand when looking at Tofino's housing authority one has to ask why the same hasn't occurred. The lack of affordable housing (not to mention sewage treatment and water capacity) fall on the shoulders of DOT Staff as well as mayor and council. So if you're concerned about Tofino I would start there and if you're concerned about Tourism Tofino's advertising strategies and policies then sit on their board.
Hey 12:50 I have spoken to Tourism Tofino people and they have laughed at the suggestion of cleaning up their social media messaging about being respectful to the area. They seemingly go out of their way to not remove posts from their instagram and other feeds showing as an example giant bonfires on the beaches and fireworks.
It isn't as though educating the visitors through their social media is going to cost anyone anything. It would help them continue to bring visitors here and keep the economy nicely rolling along if part of the allure of Tofino was being environmentally respectful.
The social media messaging promoting the responsible use of this area would be a win win for everyone.
The social media messaging also needs to be district wide with all the businesses buying into it so that there is a unified image being presented of respectful visiting.
The District just likes the tax dollars and has not I would agree done much of anything to deal with the problems tourism can create.
Agree mostly with 12:50. As well as abandoning water and thwarting housing, Council has done nothing to improve the parking situation, a major thorn in the side of locals. All their various parking schemes amount to nothing more than the inequitable distribution of a scarce resource. Akin to shuffling the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic. Could we have more chairs please. Oliver Twist wants more......outrageous! Who does he think he is..... Then there are their attempts at traffic flow and management. Their traffic "calming" schemes have worked so well traffic barely moves....we've seen vehicles backed up from fourth street to Olsen Rd. Surely there must have been an accident, but no..... We've been calmed to the point of suffocation. They some how think more of the same is better....how about "efficient" traffic movement.... where is the plan for that.
Anyway there are multiple examples of how council has failed to anticipate and deal with burgeoning tourism, to the overall detriment of the town.
We all need to remember that Tofino used to by a resource based community, similar to many Vancouver Island communities. When the loggers were chased out, in the 1980's and the fishing tailed off, we could have become a ghost town, like other small island communities. Because of our beaches, tourism has saved the day and allowed us to continue to live and work here and enjoy a wonderful life style.
Tofino is a special place, and now we have been discovered by the rest of the world. We cannot discourage visitors coming, but Council could manage things better, including allowing housing for people who live and work in our community. Nightly rentals is destroying the livability of the community and must be addressed.
A lot of the thinking that has gone into the development of Community Plans and seems to guide the decisions around rezonings etc., is the desire to maintain the appearance and atmosphere of the "village" as it existed 30 or 40 years ago. Tofino has been successful to a degree,in doing that, and it has been contributory to the great increase in Tofino's commercial activity.
For a while, we have been facing new and bigger challenges. This way of thinking about the "Village", comes with it's inherent restrictions. Some feel that nothing should change, but things are changing all around us, regardless, and not always in desirable ways. It now seems to be part of the problem preventing us from taking action to solve current problems. Problems that are frequently referenced on these pages. Problems that have plagued the community for a decade or more. We seem to be falling behind the curve of change rather than managing it.
The current levels of visitation are actually very "un-village" like. Who could disagree. Perhaps we need new blood on council, bringing new and more current reference points and new ways of looking at things that may be a little more "un-village like, but might enable us get ahead of the curve, to move forward.
Yes, yes, yes 9:23 The new blood for council HAS to come from progressive, forward & future thinkers. We need to encourage those very individuals to throw their hat in the ring. Groom them. We CANNOT afford to have more of the same antiquated thinking that has most definitely failed and stalled our progress. Things are and will continue to change. We are becoming much more than a "village" - like it or not.
Has it ever occurred to anyone to place a moratorium on any further new business licenses for vacation rentals or bed and breakfasts? probably not because people would just do it anyway without a business license. right?
12:24 there is no such thing as "wrongly zoned" - and that thought is a huge part of the problem. All properties are zoned for permitted uses, if someone wants to use a property for something other than what it is explicitly zoned for the must apply to change that, and they maybe successful or denied. Using a property other than what it is zoned for is illegal, it's quite simple.
it is a free-for-all with licenses brought to us by the district. also a feee-for-all with zoning....no concerns for the neighbouring properties negatively impacted by a gong show VR next door. its the free-for-all zone..
Tofino has always had a love/hate relationship with tourism - loving the income it generates for the town and its inhabitants but at the same time hating the strain it puts on the community and the local residents. Unfortunately it is unrealistic to expect the same amount of money and jobs generated without Tourism. The trick is to create sustainable and balanced growth. Put the necessary infrastructure into place before inviting the world and limit the growth of tourism to a sustainable level. But most importantly Tofino needs to enforce its bylaws. If they only exist on paper and everyone knows they are not enforced there cannot be any control of the issue. Every ten years DOT sends off a letter claiming they will crack down on illegal vacation rental (2006 and 2016/17). Last year they doubled the license fee under the pretense that they would use the money raised to enforce the bylaw (in reality the law abiding businesses are penalized and are subsidizing the illegal ones). There doesn't seem to be much evidence that anything is happening in terms of enforcement.
It is also a sad reality that many Tofitians are forced to rent to tourists to be able to stay in their home and afford the high cost of living in a tourist town.
Why not learn from other tourist destinations like Whistler and adopt what works for them. No consultants required. This is a quote from the Whistler Housing Authority:"Creating an inventory of price controlled units that are only available to resident employees has proven to be best means of reducing the impact of market forces, which for the last 20 years has driven the price of market housing out of reach for locals. Comfortable, good quality affordable living space fosters the well being of both the individual and the community as a whole. Access to affordable housing attracts skilled and energetic adults as well as young families with children to become part of the community. This in turn helps to ensure a stable resident workforce and a vibrant and diversified community. Today, Whistler has approximately 1,900 Units Of Affordable Rental And Ownership Housing." Now why can this not be implemented here in Tofino?
the 1st tofino housing did all of that 12 years ago for those exact reasons. most taken from whistler housing authority. councils have fiddlefarted around with putting off doing anything meaningful about it besides...hire more consultants. that was 12 years ago. so pray tell what has the latest housing consultant done to make reality happen?
$400,000.00, squandered 12 years ago. The tax payers don't want to revisit that scenario.
Whistler has a scale of development that allows large developers to contribute to housing initiatives and still make large profits. Whistler has actually approved large developments.
Tofino by contrast only approves small development. Witness the rash of small scale rezonings we have seen over the last few year or so. They try and squeeze small business for amenity contributions, but start up small business' have little to offer and the well quickly runs dry. Usually bad feeling is the residue with town officials and councils looking like racketeers. We were led to expect that amenities would pour in, those greedy developers would pony up or else. Tofino's coffers would be overflowing, and we would be able to solve all it's problems. I ask where are the visible benefits of a dozen years of amenity contribtions twisted out of small local entrpeneurs. Leaving a development pattern that is either "eclectic" or "hodge podge"depending on your point of view, and rife with traffic and parking problems
Every larger development proposal in the last ten years has been summarily dismissed.. I imagine that the people responsible for these proposals, acting rationally, would be open to give and take, if the bargaining was reasonable. Tofino Council seems only prepared to take and is unable to strike a deal. Somehow they feel entitled to their cake and eating it too. Developers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars advancing there proposal, often over the course of years only to find out, "we have no water", or "we don't like the style" or 'its too big" or "we want a 25 year plan" or we need a "Comprehensive Development Plan for the whole area" then to be told it is "too big" and we have no water anyway".
Not surprisingly there have been no takers to this proposition. One has to conclude for various reasons, Tofino doesn't want the kind of development that might be able to contribute to housing solutions in a way that might pattern Whistler or otherwise. So instead there is no cake. EAT THAT
9:13 you don't know what you are talking about. first off 400k is a number pulled out of thin air or donald trumps tweets. housing amenities have been negotiated that amounted to either cash or apartment units. the only problem with the district owning strata units is !. they are used for staff housing - gateway - and 2. that doesn't do anything to help create attainable housing for the rest of the community. whatever amount of money that has been earmarked as creating an attainable housing project is still right there in councils hands as the basic rules and regs, 4 acres of zoned district land, and the concept for about 80 different types of co-owned attainable housing. all that is needed is servicing surveying and pre-sold mini-lots for starters...then phased condos/townhomes. the money for servicing comes from pre-selling. or selling the condos the district owns now =2. no one seems to understand this is simple. its about 90% there. the districts solution to come up with a 'house fairy' that will do everything for free is wishful thinking. we can see where the house fairies have gotten to in the last ten years. same with a sewer system...someone forgets to get the grant application in year after year. last years outbreak of norm-viruss could have very well have been from us shitting in our own oysters.
The amount of money wasted on affordable housing is likely much higher than 400k. Years ago the previous treasurer showed me the number and it was just under 400k at that time. There have been thousands upon thousands squandered since then.
if the treasurer showed you a number to justify your projected bias against the spectre of socialized housing of course you claim its wasted......now that low income housing is inevitable much of whatever has been spent was required by the district to do the job right...in its eyes. and its still spending thats for sure. there are many areas for abuse of a housing scheme which need to be taken into account. otherwise whatever is put in place ceases to be used for what is intended and we have a repeat of the out of control zoning & land values as per residential zoning by-laws vis-a-vis short short term rentals. the same can be said for the sewage treatment plant in never never land: hundreds of thousands wasted.
$400,000.00 budgeted by council. years ago. Gone very quickly in s few short years. Spent mostly on committee expenses. The hired exec,s salary and expenses travel meals and the like, taking up the lions share. Where is the project? A few coloured conceptual drawings.....Money all gone..... pretty much a total waste. But this is pretty much beside the point.
Someone brought up Whistler.
My the main point is 1) 12 years of torturing small time business has produced what, interms of amenities.? Where are they? A condo unit? Is this possibly a failed strategy?
And 2) there are no useful comparisons to be made against a Whistler model....Tofino can't make a deal, and no projects large enough to make significant contributions have ever been approved or come to fruition. That is a fact....Just giving the facts here Ma'am.
Very simply put Tourism Tofino is destroying its golden goose.
ReplyDeleteEveryone will benefit from the tourism until it implodes on itself from environmental degradation and over crowding of everywhere.
Nowhere in their currently demonstrated policies can you see a requirement for all the visitors who come here each year to understand the fragility of the place and to respect the area and its residents.
They just want a giant party to keep on rolling along.
Well, the crash will come if they stay on the current path of advertising this place the way they do.
The crux of ALL problems EVERYWHERE - there are just too many f*** people on this planet !!
ReplyDeleteTourists are simply an example.
Governments will never say so as they need the tax base - but the truth is !!
We need a super bug or plague to wipe a good chunk of us out if this planet and all life has any hope.
Sad but true
Hey 12:49PM
ReplyDeleteYou're suggestion to have all the visitors educated on specific fragility and how to respect the area is fairly unrealistic. They can do that through advertising but to have people forced to understand the areas fragility and to respect the people who live within it would be near impossible, unless you want to stop every person on the highway and lecture them on it.
I think it's fair to note that Tofino has gotten significantly busier in the last decade but have you ever considered the fact that the mayor and council have done little to nothing to deal with this increase in demand that is practical? Whistler created a housing authority that made over 3000 beds available between 2004 and 2015. On the other hand when looking at Tofino's housing authority one has to ask why the same hasn't occurred. The lack of affordable housing (not to mention sewage treatment and water capacity) fall on the shoulders of DOT Staff as well as mayor and council. So if you're concerned about Tofino I would start there and if you're concerned about Tourism Tofino's advertising strategies and policies then sit on their board.
Hey 12:50
ReplyDeleteI have spoken to Tourism Tofino people and they have laughed at the suggestion of cleaning up their social media messaging about being respectful to the area. They seemingly go out of their way to not remove posts from their instagram and other feeds showing as an example giant bonfires on the beaches and fireworks.
It isn't as though educating the visitors through their social media is going to cost anyone anything. It would help them continue to bring visitors here and keep the economy nicely rolling along if part of the allure of Tofino was being environmentally respectful.
The social media messaging promoting the responsible use of this area would be a win win for everyone.
The social media messaging also needs to be district wide with all the businesses buying into it so that there is a unified image being presented of respectful visiting.
The District just likes the tax dollars and has not I would agree done much of anything to deal with the problems tourism can create.
Well stated 12:50
ReplyDeleteAgree mostly with 12:50. As well as abandoning water and thwarting housing, Council has done nothing to improve the parking situation, a major thorn in the side of locals. All their various parking schemes amount to nothing more than the inequitable distribution of a scarce resource. Akin to shuffling the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic. Could we have more chairs please. Oliver Twist wants more......outrageous! Who does he think he is.....
ReplyDeleteThen there are their attempts at traffic flow and management. Their traffic "calming" schemes have worked so well traffic barely moves....we've seen vehicles backed up from fourth street to Olsen Rd. Surely there must have been an accident, but no..... We've been calmed to the point of suffocation. They some how think more of the same is better....how about "efficient" traffic movement.... where is the plan for that.
Anyway there are multiple examples of how council has failed to anticipate and deal with burgeoning tourism, to the overall detriment of the town.
We all need to remember that Tofino used to by a resource based community, similar to many Vancouver Island communities. When the loggers were chased out, in the 1980's and the fishing tailed off, we could have become a ghost town, like other small island communities. Because of our beaches, tourism has saved the day and allowed us to continue to live and work here and enjoy a wonderful life style.
ReplyDeleteTofino is a special place, and now we have been discovered by the rest of the world. We cannot discourage visitors coming, but Council could manage things better, including allowing housing for people who live and work in our community. Nightly rentals is destroying the livability of the community and must be addressed.
A lot of the thinking that has gone into the development of Community Plans and seems to guide the decisions around rezonings etc., is the desire to maintain the appearance and atmosphere of the "village" as it existed 30 or 40 years ago. Tofino has been successful to a degree,in doing that, and it has been contributory to the great increase in Tofino's commercial activity.
ReplyDeleteFor a while, we have been facing new and bigger challenges. This way of thinking about the "Village", comes with it's inherent restrictions. Some feel that nothing should change, but things are changing all around us, regardless, and not always in desirable ways. It now seems to be part of the problem preventing us from taking action to solve current problems. Problems that are frequently referenced on these pages. Problems that have plagued the community for a decade or more. We seem to be falling behind the curve of change rather than managing it.
The current levels of visitation are actually very "un-village" like. Who could disagree. Perhaps we need new blood on council, bringing new and more current reference points and new ways of looking at things that may be a little more "un-village like, but might enable us get ahead of the curve, to move forward.
Yes, yes, yes 9:23
ReplyDeleteThe new blood for council HAS to come from progressive, forward & future thinkers. We need to encourage those very individuals to throw their hat in the ring. Groom them.
We CANNOT afford to have more of the same antiquated thinking that has most definitely failed and stalled our progress. Things are and will continue to change.
We are becoming much more than a "village" - like it or not.
Maybe the city will continue their crack down? TVR's new google reviews clearly show they are still operating units at SC
ReplyDelete(Ralph, feel free to put this in a new thread, and shorten the link if you can)
https://www.google.ca/search?q=Tofino%20Vacation%20Rentals&oq=Tofino+Vacation+Rentals&gs_l=psy-ab.3..35i39k1l2j0l7.2884.8433.0.11240.26.17.0.0.0.0.984.1987.4-1j1j1.3.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..23.3.1987.0...0.QNQi2idhYZc&hotel_dates=2017-11-05,2017-11-06&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=1&rlla=0&rllag=49145585,-125896601,940&tbm=lcl&rldimm=10781748052697326197&ved=0ahUKEwjezJnL8O3WAhVhxlQKHRhmDR8QvS4IZDAB&rldoc=1&tbs=lf_hd:-1,lrf:!2m4!1e17!4m2!17m1!1e8!2m1!1e2!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:6#lrd=0x5489972df33e54bf:0x95a076bad2c8a275,1,,&rlfi=hd:2017-11-05,2017-11-06;si:10781748052697326197;mv:!1m3!1d25237.229297666254!2d-125.88476754999999!3d49.1294222!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i124!2i232!4f13.1;tbs:lf_hd:-1,lrf:!2m1!1e2!2m4!1e17!4m2!17m1!1e8!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:6
Has it ever occurred to anyone to place a moratorium on any further new business licenses for vacation rentals or bed and breakfasts?
ReplyDeleteprobably not because people would just do it anyway without a business license. right?
it should be noted that people with licenses are abiding by the rules. its the wrongly zoned illegal VCs that are problematic and should be the focus.
ReplyDelete12:24 there is no such thing as "wrongly zoned" - and that thought is a huge part of the problem. All properties are zoned for permitted uses, if someone wants to use a property for something other than what it is explicitly zoned for the must apply to change that, and they maybe successful or denied. Using a property other than what it is zoned for is illegal, it's quite simple.
ReplyDeletepoor word choice but I was not saying otherwise. wrongly zoned for what the owner is or wants to use the property for was the implication.
ReplyDeletePutting a limit on licences for B and B s or vacation rentals makes the existing ones a more valuable property than their neighbours.
ReplyDeleted'uh
ReplyDeleteso be it 7:09
what's your point?
free for all with licences?
it is a free-for-all with licenses brought to us by the district.
ReplyDeletealso a feee-for-all with zoning....no concerns for the neighbouring properties negatively impacted by a gong show VR next door.
its the free-for-all zone..
Tofino has always had a love/hate relationship with tourism - loving the income it generates for the town and its inhabitants but at the same time hating the strain it puts on the community and the local residents.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it is unrealistic to expect the same amount of money and jobs generated without Tourism. The trick is to create sustainable and balanced growth. Put the necessary infrastructure into place before inviting the world and limit the growth of tourism to a sustainable level. But most importantly Tofino needs to enforce its bylaws. If they only exist on paper and everyone knows they are not enforced there cannot be any control of the issue.
Every ten years DOT sends off a letter claiming they will crack down on illegal vacation rental (2006 and 2016/17). Last year they doubled the license fee under the pretense that they would use the money raised to enforce the bylaw (in reality the law abiding businesses are penalized and are subsidizing the illegal ones). There doesn't seem to be much evidence that anything is happening in terms of enforcement.
It is also a sad reality that many Tofitians are forced to rent to tourists to be able to stay in their home and afford the high cost of living in a tourist town.
Why not learn from other tourist destinations like Whistler and adopt what works for them. No consultants required.
This is a quote from the Whistler Housing Authority:"Creating an inventory of price controlled units that are only available to resident employees has proven to be best means of reducing the impact of market forces, which for the last 20 years has driven the price of market housing out of reach for locals.
Comfortable, good quality affordable living space fosters the well being of both the individual and the community as a whole. Access to affordable housing attracts skilled and energetic adults as well as young families with children to become part of the community. This in turn helps to ensure a stable resident workforce and a vibrant and diversified community.
Today, Whistler has approximately 1,900 Units Of Affordable Rental And Ownership Housing."
Now why can this not be implemented here in Tofino?
the 1st tofino housing did all of that 12 years ago for those exact reasons. most taken from whistler housing authority. councils have fiddlefarted around with putting off doing anything meaningful about it besides...hire more consultants.
ReplyDeletethat was 12 years ago.
so pray tell what has the latest housing consultant done to make reality happen?
$400,000.00, squandered 12 years ago. The tax payers don't want to revisit that scenario.
ReplyDeleteWhistler has a scale of development that allows large developers to contribute to housing initiatives and still make large profits. Whistler has actually approved large developments.
Tofino by contrast only approves small development. Witness the rash of small scale rezonings we have seen over the last few year or so. They try and squeeze small business for amenity contributions, but start up small business' have little to offer and the well quickly runs dry. Usually bad feeling is the residue with town officials and councils looking like racketeers. We were led to expect that amenities would pour in, those greedy developers would pony up or else. Tofino's coffers would be overflowing, and we would be able to solve all it's problems. I ask where are the visible benefits of a dozen years of amenity contribtions twisted out of small local entrpeneurs. Leaving a development pattern that is either "eclectic" or "hodge podge"depending on your point of view, and rife with traffic and parking problems
Every larger development proposal in the last ten years has been summarily dismissed.. I imagine that the people responsible for these proposals, acting rationally, would be open to give and take, if the bargaining was reasonable. Tofino Council seems only prepared to take and is unable to strike a deal. Somehow they feel entitled to their cake and eating it too. Developers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars advancing there proposal, often over the course of years only to find out, "we have no water", or "we don't like the style" or 'its too big" or "we want a 25 year plan" or we need a "Comprehensive Development Plan for the whole area" then to be told it is "too big" and we have no water anyway".
Not surprisingly there have been no takers to this proposition. One has to conclude for various reasons, Tofino doesn't want the kind of development that might be able to contribute to housing solutions in a way that might pattern Whistler or otherwise. So instead there is no cake. EAT THAT
9:13 you don't know what you are talking about. first off 400k is a number pulled out of thin air or donald trumps tweets.
ReplyDeletehousing amenities have been negotiated that amounted to either cash or apartment units. the only problem with the district owning strata units is !. they are used for staff housing - gateway - and 2. that doesn't do anything to help create attainable housing for the rest of the community.
whatever amount of money that has been earmarked as creating an attainable housing project is still right there in councils hands as the basic rules and regs, 4 acres of zoned district land, and the concept for about 80 different types of co-owned attainable housing.
all that is needed is servicing surveying and pre-sold mini-lots for starters...then phased condos/townhomes. the money for servicing comes from pre-selling. or selling the condos the district owns now =2.
no one seems to understand this is simple. its about 90% there. the districts solution to come up with a 'house fairy' that will do everything for free is wishful thinking. we can see where the house fairies have gotten to in the last ten years.
same with a sewer system...someone forgets to get the grant application in year after year.
last years outbreak of norm-viruss could have very well have been from us shitting in our own oysters.
The amount of money wasted on affordable housing is likely much higher than 400k. Years ago the previous treasurer showed me the number and it was just under 400k at that time.
ReplyDeleteThere have been thousands upon thousands squandered since then.
if the treasurer showed you a number to justify your projected bias against the spectre of socialized housing of course you claim its wasted......now that low income housing is inevitable much of whatever has been spent was required by the district to do the job right...in its eyes. and its still spending thats for sure.
ReplyDeletethere are many areas for abuse of a housing scheme which need to be taken into account. otherwise whatever is put in place ceases to be used for what is intended and we have a repeat of the out of control zoning & land values as per residential zoning by-laws vis-a-vis short short term rentals.
the same can be said for the sewage treatment plant in never never land: hundreds of thousands wasted.
ReplyDelete$400,000.00 budgeted by council. years ago. Gone very quickly in s few short years. Spent mostly on committee expenses. The hired exec,s salary and expenses travel meals and the like, taking up the lions share. Where is the project? A few coloured conceptual drawings.....Money all gone..... pretty much a total waste. But this is pretty much beside the point.
Someone brought up Whistler.
My the main point is 1) 12 years of torturing small time business has produced what, interms of amenities.? Where are they? A condo unit? Is this possibly a failed strategy?
And 2) there are no useful comparisons to be made against a Whistler model....Tofino can't make a deal, and no projects large enough to make significant contributions have ever been approved or come to fruition. That is a fact....Just giving the facts here Ma'am.