Young would like to practice permaculture on their Gabriola Island property as well as grow a sustainable forest on their land, and they want to hear what Gabriolans think about their ideas.

But permaculture - “an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies” (Wiki) - is a labour-intensive agricultural practice, Gaudry says. He would like to add densities to his property to provide housing for an “intentional community” that would work the land and demonstrate permaculture practices to visitors.

At a Jan. 22 meeting at the Haven, Gaudry and Jack Anderson of Anderson Green Plan, a company from Cedar that provides sustainable development initiatives, met with about seven Gabriolans from various “stakeholder groups” as well as with Trustee Deborah Ferens, and Regional Director Gisele Rudischer.

Dale Stevens, also of Anderson Green Plan said that they had invited people from a number of groups to the meeting, including Sustainable Gabriola, Gabriola Land and Trails Trust (GaLTT), and the Commons, and a few local farmers to give input into the plan. He said the group would like to access as much expertise as they could from such groups, knowing that they would be going through a public process on their plan. He said he wished more people had come.

In describing his thoughts for the property, Gaudry said he was inspired by Merv Wilkinson’s sustainable forestry operation in Nanaimo. He said he and Young bought the 78 acre parcel (adjacent to the 707 Acre Wood Park, and between the park and South Road) with the intention of practicing sustainable forestry.

Gaudry said that some spots on the land had potential for agricultural use, and wanted to use five to six acres of his property to grow organic food, using permaculture.

Gaudry said he would use the produce to stock his Nanaimo pub, to sell locally, and possibly to sell to a larger Vancouver Island market.

Guadry said that although the property is only zoned for two residences, he would like to build a few small residences for farm workers to live in while they husband the land. Anderson said that permaculture is labour intensive, requiring more workers than other forms of agriculture.

Asked why not just hire people already living on Gabriola, Anderson said that much of their plan revolved around the creation of a community to work together collectively and to teach and inspire. He said they were also concerned about the security of the property.

Anderson said the intention was to create a community of people similar to One United Resource Ecovillage - a “sustainable learning community and demonstration site” in the Cowichan Valley. Anderson added that incorporating a teaching component would make the farm more financially viable.

Gaudry said they wanted to build the residences out of natural materials, to demonstrate cob and straw bale buildings. Rather than building a very large building to house the farm workers, he wondered about the possiblity of a number of small buildings with approximately the same footprint.

Anderson said the couple is also planning to dig a one to two acre pond on the property to capture some of the run-off of rainwater that flows through the property, to irrigate the land, and for fire-fighting and possible recreational purposes.

Anderson said that Islands Trust Regional Planning Manager Chris Jackson had recommended that they consider “split zoning” their property (zoning for more than one use on a property). He said they had also considered putting the six agricultural acres into the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). He noted that there is support in the ALR for “what level of accommodation might be necessary in order to meet the agricultural levels within the intent of being sustainable”.

In response to a suggestion that the community may not want to see any increase in density on the island, Stevens said he hoped people would not get dogmatic about that issue. Rudischer said: “If someone is going to give me a choice between green development and no development I’ll go for no development every time”.

Concern was also expressed about creating a “thin edge of the wedge” for yet more increases in density, or through an abuse of precedents set.

Gaudry said that if the community does not like their plan, they will probably do a different type of agriculture on that six acre site. Ferens asked him if he was open to some middle ground between what he can do with the land now, and his vision for it. Gaudry said he was.

Jenni Gehlback of GaLTT said it would be good to have a legal easement or covenant on trails going through the property. Gaudry said that he and Young agreed and were very committed to that idea “regardless of whether this ends up going forward or not”. Anderson said there was some concern that people were walking through the area off a designated trail during fire season. Gehlbach said GaLTT would be very interested in creating a designated trail there.

Gaudry also said he wanted to covenant the land to protect the forest for the purposes of sustainable forestry. He said: “I would hate to work for a life time to help create and foster a really vibrant and mature forest only to have some future owner come along and say ‘oh, look at all this cash standing here’ and liquidate it”.