Inaugural meeting: Comox Council considers a six-storey project, Mayor Minions’s address

Inaugural council meetings usually don’t include regular business, let alone discussions and motions about contentious issues. Most often, the mayor makes an inspiring address, councillors take the oath of office and get their assignments for the next year. Then everybody celebrates for a minute and gets to work for the next “real” meeting.

But Comox Town Council couldn’t follow that happy formula this year because of a deadline imposed by a building permit application to build a six-storey apartment complex on Comox Avenue.

Developer Rick Fisher, an owner of Central Builders Home Hardware, submitted a development permit application for the pre-zoned project on July 30, just over two months before the municipal election. It is now in the final stages of approval.

Comox voters, however, elected a new council with an overwhelming mandate to pull back the updated Official Community Plan change to raise maximum building heights along Comox Avenue from four stories to six.

That OCP was approved in February 2026 by the previous council controlled by a four-vote majority that favored taller buildings throughout the downtown core.

At the inaugural meeting on Nov. 4, the newly sworn in council needed to consider how to balance playing fair with the developer with the mandate given to them by the community.

To gather more information, Town Council unanimously decided to ask town staff to analyze the impact of down-zoning the property from RM-3 to RM-2, essentially reducing building height from six storeys to four.

In addition, council asked staff to report back on the development’s impact on traffic, the environment and earthquakes, and to provide 3-D models of how the proposed building projected onto the site to assess its effect on neighboring properties. And, also to consider revising RM-3 zoning town-wide down to five storeys.

The staff report will consider how any and all of the council’s information requests could affect the project’s feasibility and whether any potential legal implications might arise.

The 1890 Comox Avenue project already has a Development Permit and Fisher has the legal right to submit a building permit application under the current zoning, even before council receives the staff report and makes any decisions.

“This election sent a clear message”

Speaking to the motion, Councillor Jonathan Kerr said that during the OCP process, the feedback from residents (by letter, email, and in person) was overwhelmingly opposed to six-storey buildings in the downtown core.

“Despite this, the last Council did two things that went against this community feedback,” he said. “First, it included six storeys downtown in the OCP; and, second, it upzoned 1890 Comox Avenue to six storeys on the side.”

Survey data collected from the doorstep campaign by Kerr and the other elected candidates, showed a combined 32 percent, or one-third of Comox residents, said their top priorities for the next council was to preserve Comox’s community character and oppose six storeys downtown.

Kerr added that residents also didn’t like how the previous council had voted against what the majority of Comox residents told them.

“And then we had an election, with an overwhelming result,” he said. “The two councillors who voted against six storeys downtown were voted back in.
And the four councillors who voted for six storeys downtown, were not.”

“This election sent a clear message,” he said.

The new Town Council may also be relieved of the pressure to build fast and tall because the new provincial government has promised to repeal Bill 44, which had demanded tough housing targets.

MAYOR MINIONS’S ADDRESS

But before the Town Council took up the development question, Mayor Nicole Minions revealed that the Town of Comox has a superpower: “We show up,” she said in her inaugural address to kick off the 20260 to 2030 municipal term.

“As I look around this room, I feel proud of our community and proud of this Council. I see people who have stepped forward with a willingness to learn, to serve, and to work on behalf of the entire community,” Minions said. “In many ways, that is Comox’s superpower: we show up.”

“We show up for our neighbours. We show up and volunteer. We answer the call when help is asked of us,” she said.

Minions thanked her new council and members of the outgoing council for their service. She thanked staff. She thanked the community for being active this year.

The mayor said she felt optimistic and a strong sense of purpose about the four years ahead.

“What I see on this Council is a group of educated, compassionate, and dedicated individuals who bring a wide range of skills, experiences, and perspectives,” Minions said. “The reality is that the status quo is not working in many areas across North America. Many communities and individuals are facing significant social and economic challenges, and Comox is not immune to them.”

Minions also spoke about a value that is “deeply important to me: compassion.” In her two terms in local government, she has embraced the idea of radical compassion.

“Radical compassion is not something we show to only people with whom we agree. It asks us to extend understanding and respect to ourselves, our colleagues, our neighbours, and those with whom we disagree,” she said. “It asks us to approach one another with curiosity rather than assumptions and hold open minds.”

Looking ahead, Minions said this value will be important.

“In 2026, choosing compassion in the face of division can feel like an act of rebellion. Yet it remains one of the most powerful actions we may choose to take.”

COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS

Mayor Minions and Kerr will continue representing the town on the Comox Valley Regional District board, the Waste Management Board and the Comox-Strathcona Regional Hospital District board. They will be joined by Bourgeois on the Sewerage Commission

Councillor Meilleur and Kerr will serve on the regional Water Committee. Councillor Kerr and Bourgeois will represent the town on the regional Parks and Trails Committee.