Comment on - Development Permit with Variances Application No. 2024-03 - 294, 296 Eltham Road and 242 Helmcken Road

To: View Royal Town Council

Hello members of Council, this letter concerns the “Development Permit with Variances Application No. 2024-03 - 294, 296 Eltham Road and 242 Helmcken Road”. This is also a follow up to our original letter titled “Upkeep of 294, 296 Eltham Road and 242 Helmcken Road” sent on January 30, 2025.

First off we would like to thank you all for taking our original letter under consideration and for your thoughtful discussion. We would also like to thank all members of View Royal staff (bylaw in particular) who assisted in responding to the situation described in our original letter. We see ourselves as active participants in improving our community, many of us volunteer or otherwise contribute to our town. Our feeling is that we are very much partners in addressing matters such as this.

Secondly, we would like to reiterate that we do not object to development or densification of our town. All residents will benefit from improvements to our community. Where we have concerns is how that development impacts the community while it is under construction.

Regarding the proposed development 294, 296 Eltham Road and 242 Helmcken Road, we continue to have concerns. Since our last communication with the Town Council and emails with the developer/owner there has been no meaningful improvement to the situation. Shortly after our last correspondence we observed an escalation in behaviour on the part of the contractors/residents (intentionally parking on sidewalks, parking in Lions Cove/Ashley Gate visitor parking, increased dumping of refuse, etc).

We firmly believe that the responsibility (and accountability) for property upkeep and safety should reside with the owner/developer of a property. Measures such as strengthened bylaws and the BC Offense Act are the tools that should be used in such cases.

Ideally, these tools would not need to be used and all members of our community would undertake similar efforts to upkeep properties, or hire qualified services to do so. It is unfortunate that the state of Eltham Rd had to degrade to such a degree that letters such as this need to be sent.

While deliberations continue and time ticks on, the properties in question continue to be in a poor state. This has been ongoing for 3 years since development started, we expect nothing will change in the future if the situation is not addressed.

Our concerns if this proposed development goes forward continue to be:

• The safety of all those that transit Eltham Rd. before and during construction. The situation these last years with Eltham Rd and the construction site on the corner has been concerning. We have observed a lack of safe traffic control measures, safe sidewalk access, alternate walking routes, cleanup of construction debris, etc. A full-time on site safety officer and traffic control person seems like it would resolve these.
• The lack of upkeep of the properties and lack of cleanup of trash from construction workers has continued, as described above and previously. If trash is going to be deposited daily, a daily cleanup crew should be employed. Similarly, if renters are not going to upkeep properties lawn maintenance crews should be employed to do so.

Thank you for your continued efforts and engagement. Please let us know if we can provide any other information or address any questions you may have.

Kind regards,

Alex McMillan President Ashley Gate Strata