Hi Everyone.

Since we haven't heard back from our Mayor about improved governance, we have tried again. 

Dear Mayor Murdock,

When I attended the last town hall meeting in September you personally asked residents to bring forward ideas to improve governance and community engagement. Cordova Bay residents took that to heart. Since then, we have submitted multiple detailed letters and meeting requests, that we feel are constructive input - especially around the scale, safety, and transparency of the Aragon Trio Lands mega-development at 755 Cordova Bay Road.

It has now been over two months since that request by you for improved public engagement, but still no response.

As you are aware, this project has grown drastically, from an earlier community supported 330 unit low rise plan to a 1160 unit high rise mega development, with virtually zero meaningful engagement with residents. Our community has been ignored, while the developer has had years of direct access to municipal staff and decision-makers—access that has not been afforded to residents. This is not some small, inconsequential project within our municipality, it is a major development that requires your attention and meaningful community discussions.

Although we understand your busy schedule, we have however been requesting attention on this issue for nearly a year. This matter requires your direct involvement, as its urgency was clear at the September 2025 Town Hall, where 25% of speakers addressed this development.

The community deserves visible, action-backed leadership and your response will be widely shared within our community, specifically with over 2,100 petition supporters, the Cordova Bay Association for Community Affairs (CBACA) and the Cordova Bay 55+ Association. The CBACA also recently voted unanimously to oppose the Aragon Trio Lands mega-development and submitted their position to Saanich over a month ago, but have yet to receive any feedback.

For nearly a year now, our community’s request has remained consistent, simple and entirely reasonable - When will the District commit to a fully open community engaged process before any decisions are advanced on the Aragon Trio Lands project and how will you ensure that residents input can genuinely influence the outcome?

Given the recent provincial bills enacted over the past few years—including the successful vote of the  second reading of Bill M216 this week—you can appreciate our concern and the importance of our community remaining especially vigilant. Our community is still awaiting an invitation to discuss this development. If you wish to include the developer in these discussions, that would be welcomed. 

To help facilitate a more efficient communication process, we propose sending ten community-selected questions for which we would appreciate written responses. We will provide the questions after your initial reply to this letter, and we hope a two week period will be sufficient for your responses. This approach will improve the process for everyone and enable our community to receive direct answers from our mayor. We sincerely appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to your prompt response and to establishing a more open, effective dialogue. Thank you very much. 

For additional information please review the following link to our Cordova Bay Community Petition (signed by over 2,100 supporters, and growing) here:

Proposed Aragon Development of Former Trio Lands at 755 Cordova Bay Road

Respectfully,

D. Horth

Cordova Bay Resident

FYI, please see the following list of people we copied this to :

Brent Reems, Chief Administrative Officer, District of Saanich
Lindsay Chase, Director of Planning, District of Saanich
Cameron Scott, Manager of Community Planning, District of Saanich
Harley Machielse, Director of Engineering, District of Saanich
Shelia Allen, Director of Corporate Services, District of Saanich
Barb Lucas, President, Cordova Bay Association for Community Affairs (CBACA)
Don Hinz, Planning Co-Chair, Cordova Bay Association for Community Affairs (CBACA)
Janet Munson, Planning Co-Chair, Cordova Bay Association for Community Affairs (CBACA)
President, Cordova Bay 55+ Group
Christine Boyle, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs
Lana Popham, MLA for Saanich South and Minister of Agriculture and Food
Councilor Susan Brice, District of Saanich
Councilor Judy Brownoff, District of Saanich
Councilor Nathalie Chambers, District of Saanich
Councilor Zac de Vries, District of Saanich
Councilor Karen Harper, District of Saanich
Councilor Teale Phelps Bondaroff, District of Saanich
Councilor Colin Plant, District of Saanich
Councilor Mena Westhaver, District of Saanich