A group of us went to the Saanich Council’s “Meet and Greet” last night. Great meeting many of you, and thank you for attending.
A few important things came out of this that I wanted to share.
1.) Aragon has not yet submitted their formal proposal as most of us already know.
2.) It was also communicated that the Province DOES NOT dictate or “force” housing requirements to the municipalities.
3.) Saanich has also met “their numbers” for housing so far. This may contradict point number 2 above when you think about it, but that was what we were told.
4.) Once the formal proposal gets submitted by Aragon, it should take up to a year for Saanich to review, and that it won’t be immediately “rubber stamped” for approval.
5.) Most importantly, the residents of Cordova Bay WILL get a chance for input to Council. Again, as I was told.
The worry there, of course, is just because they give us the chance for input, doesn’t mean they have to necessarily listen and implement any of it.
I believe that Aragon is definitely using the housing crisis to their advantage here, by bloating the numbers and reaching for the stars. They are a business, so why wouldn’t they if they think they can get away with it. If you were at the meeting in November at Cordova Bay school, the arrogance that the principal demonstrated was in full form, but I don’t think he should confuse our politeness with anything else.
I have been told by several folks out in the community, that Aragon can’t be profitable unless they are able to build the latest proposed number of 1165 units. That seems extremely questionable! As mentioned before, his profitability is not our problem.
Speaking of profitability, the Trio property was purchased by Aragon for 6.1 million dollars. So, if you divide 6.1 million by the number of proposed units of 1165, this equals $5,236 .00 per unit. I’m no property developer, but clearly that kind of profit potential seems very, very good! Compare this to a lot for sale on Del Monte Avenue, where the asking price for JUST the lot is well over one million dollars to build a single-family home. Wow! That paints a pretty clear picture.
I also looked back over the last ten years, reviewing this property’s development numbers and I have yet to see ANY numbers that are even close to what is being put forward by Aragon right now. In 2015, 385 housing units were proposed. Google “385 housing units pitched for Trio site in Cordova Bay” for more details and a graphic of the development as presented then. The link is also included here below. I was told that the 335 number was a result of Aragon reducing the number from 385 because of resident concern. So now 1165…really?
Also at the meeting, Councilor Colin Plant was good enough to talk to our group about the development. He said that the Councilors are not really engaged on this yet, as the development has not yet been formally submitted to Saanich. However, he has generously offered an in person meeting with him to help answer the many questions that we all have and fill in some of the general confusion surrounding the many details around this development.
The next step is to set something up with Colin, so please look out for any updates on this in the near future. We will of course STILL continue with our petition though, the more support from OUR community the better.
Will keep you updated.
Best Regards,
Dan Horth