Vancouver Island Real Estate – Comox Valley Water Sustainability
On Friday, September 25, I attended Learning Lunch Seminar for the CAVI group (Convening for Action on Vancouver Island, Leadership in Water Sustainability). The meeting took place in the Comox Valley, which has been designated as the provincial pilot for a “regional team approach” to implementing green infrastructure practices that in turn will lead to water sustainability. Many people shared their expertise and gave the diverse group an update on the primary question, “How we will simultaneously work together as staff within a municipality and as a region and externally with the stewardship sector, developers and other private sector players to ensure we implement sustainable approaches to development”? In addition to this question is, how will this statement impact new Comox Valley real estate projects?
That is a big question and requires a well thought out process that will be efficient and easy to understand for the Comox Valley development community. In my opinion, the goal of this group is admirable, but my question is, how does the development community find out about it? There is a gap between the focus of this group towards the “new paradigm of development” and the actual development community. Most of the builders and developers have not even heard of the key concepts and messages that are being presented within this forum. A developer could be working on a new project right now and will have his consultant, or engineer or architect walk into one of the Comox Valley municipalities to present their application, and what will happen? The planning staff will inform them that their application is not acceptable, because it does not contain the sustainable elements that CAVI is looking for. So how can this be resolved? By educating the Comox Valley development community and by talking about it. Comments can be made directly to Kevin Lagan, Director of Operational Services for the City of Courtenay. He has agreed to form a group with planning staff from the other municipalities to listen the concerns of developers. If you are interested in participating with this group, please contact Kevin Lagan directly, at 250.334.4441. Email: klagan@courtenay.ca Learn more at: http://www.waterbucket.ca/gi/
