Construction on this vacant lot on the south block of Willow Street was to begin this summer but now the development is in jeopardy.
Plans for a commercial/residential building in the south commercial block of Willow Street are on hold.
Jason Meng of MC Builders had hoped to begin construction this summer on the project that would include eight residential units and two commercial spaces on the ground level. A house on the property was demolished to make way for the development.
“We’re waiting for the Municipality to give us confirmation of water supply and sewage capacity,” Meng said. “We’ve been waiting patiently for the planning department to give us a yes or no.”
Meng says the owner was given a development permit but is awaiting approval of a building permit.
“It has been very time consuming and budget consuming,” Meng says of the delay. “It has been pretty frustrating.”
Meng says the delays have the owner of the property considering her options.
“We should hear something from the Municipality fast or it will leave us with no other choice but to abandon the project.”
The Willow Street development appears to be caught in what has become a crisis at the Municipality of North Cowichan.
Councillors are wrestling with the challenge of balancing the demand for development with the municipality’s ability to provide water and sewer services for new projects.
Chris Istace, a councillor and Chemainus business owner, says the problem is a result of rapid growth and a lack of planning on the part of previous councils that were determined to keep tax increases at a modest level.
“There has been unprecedented growth,” Istace says, pointing to applications representing more than 7,000 units in the planning stage. More than 3,000 housing units have been approved but are in limbo as they work their way through the final approval stages.
“Right now we have 370 land development applications with only six planning department staff to handle them,” Istace says.
Last spring, Mayor Rob Douglas said rapid growth has stretched the municipality’s ability to provide services.
“The challenge is we have capacity in our water and sewer systems for about 4,200 housing units, so in order to accommodate all that projected growth we’re going to have to make some major upgrades to our infrastructure right across the municipality,” said Mayor Rob Douglas.
Istace says if all the housing units that are in the various stages of development were built, it would more than double North Cowichan’s existing housing stock.
It appears that council first became aware of what Istace described as “a bit of a chaos and crazy time” when a special closed meeting was held to discuss the legal implications and the need to amend bylaws relating to waterworks, sewer service and building permits.
Coun. Mike Caljouw expressed concern at a March 11 meeting that the Municpality had a major problem on its hands when it became clear that development was being significantly reduced throughout the municipality.
“Two weeks ago, none of this was on the table,” Caljouw told council. “This came out of the blue like a lightning bolt.
“This is a radical change to what was going on and what was rolling forward. All of a sudden it’s like we dropped off a cliff and we’re in free fall.
“Maybe there were signs out there, but I didn’t see the signs,” Caljouw said.