Huge residential and commerical development in Cumberland gets council's go-ahead

Marcel Tetrault
Comox Valley Echo

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Cumberland council voted to approve the key third reading for the various bylaws that will allow the 300-hectare Trilogy project to move forward just 48 hours before Saturday's municipal election.

Both of the councillors who voted to support the bylaws - Bronco Moncrief and Leslie Baird - were re-elected to council, as was the lone vote against - Coun. Gwyn Sproule.

Coun. Dale Frame was not at the meeting to vote while Mayor Fred Bates, a supporter of the project, typically votes only to break a tie.

"I think we're in need of development," said Bates, after the vote was taken. "I think we do have to go forward.

"This is not going to change the community overnight, it is not going to be urban sprawl. When we look at the potential size of Cumberland, if it were to triple, it is still a village. We're not going to become Burnaby.

"But we do need the change. I don't believe the status quo is an option. The pipes beneath us are rotting away. The status quo will just mean deterioration over the next three years."

Coun. Sproule supported two out of the 11 bylaws -- lot 8b, which will allow a 25-home subdivision on one chunk of land as well as lot 9a, a nine-hole golf course.

She said she was opposed to the residential component of the project, which she characterized as "sprawl," and was opposed to building on parcels of land designated as working forest in the village's official community plan. She supports commercial and industrial development along the highway.

Moncrief said he was concerned that those opposed to Trilogy are opposed to all development in the village, while Baird said she was initially opposed but she likes the project's concept of "nodes" of development. She was also concerned that nobody opposed to the development has presented an alternate plan to deal with aging village infrastructure.

One resident present for the meeting became very angry that the vote was taken just days before the election and called Bates "gutless" for doing so.

"There are soldiers fighting for our democracy in Afghanistan and you are selling it out," he shouted, as he was escorted from the meeting by Cumberland Fire Chief Ken McClure.

"You are totally unethical and corrupt."

But Bates said after the meeting that deciding on the project just prior to the election is the opposite of cowardice.

"I think (council) did do its duty," said Bates. "That's not gutless, frankly, I think it shows that they're willing to stand up and be counted."

He said that staff had been directed in the spring to complete agreements with the three developers proposing large projects in the village - Trilogy, the Bell Group and Coal Valley Estates - without any regard for elections.

In a seemingly remarkable coincidence, all three of the comprehensive development agreements council demanded before they vote were ready and presented at the October 27 council meeting, two weeks before the election.

Each of those agreements was unanimously approved by council.

Trilogy Properties CEO John Evans did not return phone calls.

© Comox Valley Echo 2008