Saratoga Beach Development Granted Approvals

A significant residential development at Saratoga Beach on Vancouver Island has finally been approved – more than five years after the company owning the land first applied for permission.
The Comox Valley Regional District has passed final readings of zoning and community plan bylaws for the 143-lot project at the end of McLary Drive.
Because the development will make use of infrastructure installed years ago for manufactured homes that were never built, the residential lots on the 36-acre parcel of land will be relatively small, at around 50 by 100 feet. Most of the bare land strata lots will cover about 5,000 sq. ft – comparable to many city lots, but unusual for a rural area.
It has been more than a year since the regional district board gave third reading to the necessary bylaws, but then a legally enforceable ‘master development agreement’ had to be drawn up as one of the conditions set for final approval.
In part, that was to ensure proper arrangements were made for sewage disposal – including agreement that the proposed waste treatment plant could be expanded in future to take in many more properties outside the development boundary.
The landowner’s agent Jay Oddleifson said the plant that would go in and be paid for by developers would be capable of serving up to 450 people. But the facility would be designed specifically to ensure it could be expanded in stages to service as many as 4,500 people in the long term.
The 143 lots now approved form phase one of what is eventually envisaged as a larger project, but the current approval only relates to the first phase, including improved road access to the lots.
Oddleifson said the opportunity was now there to make progress on the development, and he was keen to hear from builders who might be interested in developing some of the lots.
“Design guidelines will ensure that this will be a really attractive development of modest homes close to both the ocean and the Oyster River with recreational facilities close by,” he told the Comox Valley Echo.