Planner to set Glencoe Cove covenants - by Jeff Bell - Times Colonist staff
Jeff Bell.  Times - Colonist Victoria, B.C.:Mar 16, 1995.  p. 1 

People:

Moore, Bill,  Hopper, Alan

Author(s):

Jeff Bell

Section:

News

Publication title:

Times - Colonist. Victoria, B.C.: Mar 16, 1995.  pg. 1

Full Text (456   words)

(Copyright Times Colonist (Victoria) 1995)

It was a case of hell and high-water marks this week in Saanich.

The fate of waterfront land near Glencoe Cove was the subject of storm-tossed debate in council chambers as nearby residents repeated concerns about preserving the area habitat.

Their biggest problem was with a stretch of shoreline known as North Beach, where property developers the Stanrick Group want to build on a handful of waterfront lots.

The provincial government put up $3 million and Saanich $750,000 last spring to purchase 3.31 hectares of parkland at Glencoe Cove from the Moore family, longtime property owners, as part of the province's Commonwealth Nature Legacy.

That left about 13 hectares in the cove's environs still subject to development by the Moores and their development company. Part of the park-purchase deal gave the Moores a density bonus for housing, raising the number of units they can build from 29 to 88.

Since the parkland was set aside, negotiations have been ongoing over covenants controlling how development can proceed. Close attention has been paid to sensitive sites such as a cormorant nesting area, a rare-plant colony and the bank above North Beach.

But a neighborhood committee calling itself the Friends of Glencoe Cove has been critical of proposed covenants it says have been watered down from pronouncements made when the parkland was purchased.

Fears expressed this week include the North Beach bank being weakened by private stairways and fences built beyond the beach's high-water mark.

The end result could be significant erosion, the group said. "That's a prescription for building seawalls, and seawalls destroy beaches," group member Calvin Sandborn said.

Harming the beach would destroy a "natural link" in the exisitng "greenway" that ties natural areas together along the coast, he said.

Moore family spokesman Bill Moore said private, technically designed stairways could actually benefit the bank by keeping people from walking on the bank itself.

Proposed covenants are already among the toughest ever devised in Saanich, Moore said, and further restrictions could devalue the worth of the waterfront lots.

Saanich councillors voted this week to send the covenant issue to municipal planner and approving officer Alan Hopper, who will make a binding final decision on the matter.

Hopper will base his decision on council concerns and an existing report on the covenants by municipal solicitor Chris Nation.

Hopper said the referral to his office, a move supported by the Friends of Glencoe Cove, signals the end of the public process on the covenants. He said he will consult a number of experts, including those at the Ministry of Environment, before finalizing the covenants in several months.

In the meantime, it is likely the Moore family will proceed with development planning on some of the less-contentious land, he said.