Correspondence from Sue-Anne Carter regarding Eagle’s Nest Development
Letter from an OCP Committee member thanking Council for rejecting a project she views as poorly laid out and too dense.
-----Original Message----- From: Sue-Anne Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 1:10 PM To: Ron Mattson RMattson@viewroyal.ca; Gery Lemon GLemon@viewroyal.ca; David Screech MayorScreech@viewroyal.ca Cc: Mayor And Council Email mayorandcouncil@viewroyal.ca Subject: Eagle’s Nest development proposal by Invictus Development
Your Worship Mayor Screech, Councillors Lemon and Mattson,
I am sending this to the 3 of you to say thank you on behalf of our Eaton, Burnside, Stancil Lane and Tawney Place neighbourhood area for your steadfast commitment to bring meaningful development to ‘our neck of the woods’ in the northern most point of View Royal. I only speak for myself in this letter, but given we have a very close knit community, I know I share the views of many of my neighbours.
Your Option 3 vote at the Sept 10, 2019 COW was not only a vote to send the developer back to the drawing board for a more meaningful plan that fits better with our unique community qualities, but also supports View Royal staff in their perseverance for high quality development and not ‘good enough’ because the developer has already spent enough money on this. He flat out said he did not communicate well with staff. He also did not communicate well with the community. He had a plan from the beginning and was going to build it. He has had not 1, not 2 but 3 chances now to get it right. He asked for an unreasonable amount of storeys but said he would ‘settle’ for less...still higher than the OCP allows. This was a blatant disregard and disrespect for View Royal staff, in my opinion, so thank you for the respect you showed them in voting for Option 3.
I sat on the OCP Committee. A lot of volunteer hours went into determining those community values and qualities. Exceptions can happen, in exceptional and extenuating circumstances for an OCP Amendment. Is this one of those situations or is the developer just not a very good listener? That is for Council to decide. Our community has overwhelmingly decided this particular application is much too dense, poorly laid out, poorly communicated, has traffic flow issues, the land use is still unclear (subdivision or not?) and many other smaller issues laid out by View Royal staff in the report recommendations.
I hope you vote on Tuesday with all of these important reasons in the forefront of your mind. We are truly counting on you to get the best development for our neighbourhood on that site. I am not opposed to development on that site. I just want a fantastic development, not just ‘good enough’. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
With kind regards,
Sue-Anne Carter 8 Eaton Avenue View Royal