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www.theprogress.com
Thursday, May 17, 2012 The Chilliwack Progress
Live and learn: The Canada Lands Company’s redevelopment of military base combines residential community with higher education Master-planned developments are often simply tracts of housing, unlike Canada Lands Company’s redevelopment of the former Canadian Forces Base Chilliwack, which was designed to be a “complete community”. The May 11 opening of the University of the Fraser Valley’s newest building at the Canada Education Park is just the latest stage in the adaptive re-use of the former military lands and infrastructure. When CLC acquired the former engineers’ training base in 2001, one of the conditions imposed by the federal Treasury Board was that it cooperate with the city and province to create an education centre, says Randy Fasan, senior director, real estate, for CLC. Two years later, the City of Chilliwack approved CLC’s plans to develop 153 acres of the land as the Garrison Crossing
mixed-use community and in 2005 with the Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation (CEPCO), 200 acres as the Canada Education Park. Located south of Garrison Crossing across Keith Wilson Road, the Canada Education Park was planned to accommodate a variety of educational and training facilities including the RCMP Pacific Regional Training Centre, the Justice Institute of BC, the Canada Border Services Agency, and a new Chilliwack campus for the UFV. In 2007 UFV purchased the largest single section of the Canada Education Park from CEPCO and undertook the major renovation of an existing 115,000-square-foot building on the former military base, for re-use as a new Trades and Technology Centre which was relocated from the UFV’s Abbotsford campus and opened
elements describing the rich military history of the site for the faculty, staff and students of the education campus to enjoy. It is also home to the Cheam Leisure Centre, which boasts a large gymnasium, workout rooms, and new aquatic facilities as well as adjacent parkland with a
children’s spray park, picnic benches, and playgrounds. The former military complex that was CFB Chilliwack for 56 years has truly been rejuvenated into a place where people can live, work, learn, and play in a beautiful, walkable setting.
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in September 2007. In true community spirit, the Canada Education Park and Garrison Crossing are mutually supportive. The Canada Education Park brings a vibrant university campus and population to the area while Garrison Crossing provides a wide variety of housing choices for university faculty and students in freehold and rental forms. In addition, the Garrison Village retail complex includes a grocery store, restaurants, private liquor store, dental clinic and space to accommodate a future drugstore, medical clinic and financial institution. Designed to be pedestrian friendly, Garrison Crossing is connected to a network of parks, bikeways, pathways and nature trails that connect with the Canada Education Park and through it to the Vedder River. It features a “Legacy Walk” with 27 commemorative
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