Editor's note: The following statement was presented by councillor Gwyn Sproule at the Cumberland Council Meeting Feb 8th 2010 at which time Trilogy Properties Corp. won final approval of their development proposal.
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I want to be clear that I am strongly in favor of development for Cumberland. I support economic opportunities for our citizens and a range of housing options that are close to the Village core.
The deep division that has occurred in our community over the Trilogy development has been characterized as an argument between those in favor of development and those against. Not so. The argument is about defending a plan that delivers the greatest benefits to our community into the future. That plan is laid out in our current Official Community Plan, the 2004 OCP. It is a sound plan, agreed upon by the community and Council after extensive public consultation.
The plan recognises the economic opportunities of the Interchange to provide a pool of commercial lands, and employment opportunities well into the future.

It acknowledges the importance of keeping the working forests around the Village to provide sustainable employment, both in silviculture and eco-tourism.

It identifies Greenways in order to preserve wildlife corridors and to protect the many salmon bearing creeks that arise on these lands.
It identifies a residential containment boundary to avoid the urban sprawl and car dependency which exist in other parts of the Comox Valley and the Lower Mainland.

The Trilogy Development goes against all the key policies of the OCP.

Trilogy requires that half of the commercial lands along the Comox Valley Parkway be given to residential use, thereby greatly reducing our commercial opportunities into the future. It demands that a large tract of working forest to the south become a housing estate. It wants rid of the Greenways identified in favor of mixed use commercial/residential use. The main attribute of the Trilogy plan is massive residential development. This would double our existing population yet would not be part of the Village core. It would be well outside the Residential containment boundary. The taxes from residential would not be as great as those from commercial uses and would be offset by the considerable cost of maintaining infrastructure far from the Village centre.

I believe that, if these bylaws pass, we will be giving away so much of what the community values.

I have never wavered in expressing concern over the Trilogy plan, the loss of economic opportunities, the loss of Village life.

I can not support these massive changes to the Official community Plan.