Letter to the Editor:
Sage Hills Development, (a wholly- owned subsidiary of IAC Independ- ent Academ- ies Canada Inc.) made a submission to the CVRD (Regional Growth Strategy) dated December 16, 2009 in order to persuade the committee to reclassify their project as “Compact Nodal Growth with New Settlement Areas.” Sage Hills took issue that the RGS consultants had classified Sage Hills as only “Compact Nodal Growth”.
There are several issues concerning the Sage Hills plans. The shear size of the project should be raising a number of concerns. They own 2,083 acres in the Royston area by the Trent River and the Inland Highway. From page 5 of their proposal: “Sage Hills is planned to open with 700 full time jobs.” On their website is mention of “3500 housing units.” These figures suggest a student population of 5,000-10,000. This suggests a community maybe more than twice the size of Cumberland or approaching the size of Comox or approaching half the size of Courtenay.
The development is planned for land that is currently undeveloped. There is no infrastructure in place. Imagine starting from scratch to build a city a little smaller than the size of Comox out of the ‘Sage Hills desert.’ On the subject of water, from their proposal: “Sage Hills takes the view that connections to existing systems and/or support for new, proposed systems is preferable.” However, just obtaining a permit to tie into the Cumberland water system has become a rare occurrence recently. Also, try to image where all the sewage and garbage will go in such a highly concentrated population.
There are 14 provincial goals for RGS including: “Avoiding urban sprawl and ensuring that development takes place where adequate facilities exist or can be provided in a timely, economic and efficient manner.” Currently there are other large projects that will be competing for currently scarce infrastructure resources: Trilogy, Kensington, the possibility of one at Longlands, each of which individually may build out 1,500 to 2,000 housing units (so times three) let alone other ongoing housing that will normally be built. Recently the number of housing units being built in the entire Comox Valley has been averaging about 500 per year. Now imagine what this will do with the already poorly designed traffic flows we now have--too much traffic funnels over the two bridges in Courtenay.
As an economic model Sage Hills doesn’t make a lot of sense either. >From their website: “Sage Hills is proposing the world’s only community destination integrating education and sports with a healthy balanced approach to living.” Becoming the only one-of-a-kind in the world suggests that it is unproven. Dr. David Strong, a former President of University of Victoria, founded Canada West University in Victoria as the first private, for-profit university in British Columbia. He is on the Development Team for Sage Hills. After a few years, in 2009, the Vancouver Sun reported that University Canada West had been losing $300,000 per month and was sold by David Strong to Eminata Group, who owns small colleges in Vancouver.
Also, the amount of money to be raised to build the housing, the facilities and infrastructure will be enormous. Just to build 3500 housing units, at, say, $ 125,000 each, would require $ 437 million-- and the available labour force, service and trades contractors will be very limited given all the other plans for proposed projects.
From the point of view of sustainability Sage Hills is a poor candidate. It is the “white elephant in the room.” There is no room for Sage Hills in the sustainability room. From an economic point of view it does not seem viable. How will the Comox Valley look both physically and politically, should a project of this size begin and not get finished?
Read the Follow-Up Editorial: What is Sage Hills Really Up To?
**published in the Comox Valley Record on September 16, 2010 http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_north/comoxvalleyrecord/opinion/letters/103103584.html
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