July 6, 2009 - District of Mission

36At present only two jurisdictions have adopted levels of safety; Fraser Fort George RegionalDistrict who implemented their "levels of safety" in 1999 and Fraser Valley Regional Districtimplemented the Hazard Acceptability Thresholds criteria 17 years ago. The District of NorthVancouver is in the process of adopting similar policies as a result of the devastating landslidein January 2005.According to Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists:"It is not the role of the Professional Engineer or ProfessionalGeoscientist to define such levels of safety; they must beestablished and adopted by the local government or provincialgovernment after considering a range of societal values" p.4The Hazard Acceptability Thresholds paper supplements "the Guidelines" with levels of safetyfor various types of hazards and development.iii) Assistance to Developers and Building Permit Applicants undertakingGeotechnical StudiesThe third document required to complete the Development Permit Guidelines is the Assistanceto Developers and Building Permit Applicants undertaking. Geotechnical Studies (Appendix 7).This document is a detailed list of the questions that a Qualified Professional must addresswhen preparing a report within the District of Mission.This document enables a Qualified Professional to provide comprehensive reports and staff toreview those reports against a specific set of criteria, to ensure the report is comprehensive andaddresses all potential hazard issues. The District of North Vancouver, the Corporation ofDelta, as well as the Fraser Valley Regional District all have similar lists of criteria which requirethe geotechnical report be acceptable to the approving jurisdiction, prior to issuing developmentapprovals.The Municipal Insurance Association promotes the development of comprehensive geotechnicalreports. In 2002 the Municipal Insurance Association sponsored a paper entitled "Guidelines forPlanners, Approving Officers and Building Inspectors for Landslide-Prone Areas in BritishColumbia" written by Nigel Skermer, P.Eng. The paper outlines the criteria that eachgeotechnical report should address, including: description of the land, history of the property,description of the solid and rock conditions, surrounding influences, and that the reports shouldpresent hazards, consequences and risks in a clear manner. The paper goes on to say that:"If you as the regulator feel the report submitted to you by anowner is inadequate, MIA recommends that you either reject thereport, ask for clarification and expansion, or call for a secondopinion carried out independently on your behalf. Alternatively,the report may conflict with other reports which you have on theimmediate area, or it may seriously contradict overview hazardassessments. p.8 "Including the Assistance to Developers paper in the Development Permit Area Guidelines, willassist staff in determining if the geotechnical report has been prepared in a thorough, logicaland rational manner; allowing a lay person to follow the report, understand therecommendations and conclusions, and determine if the recommendations were achieved usingsound scientific methodology.PAGE 6 OF 73