FRIDAY March 8, 2013 Vol. 28•No. 20 ••• $1.25 inc. H.S.T.
COMOX VALLEY
ARTS
SPORTS
A duo with five Vancouver Island Music Award nominations performs in a Cumberland house concert. page B4
The Comox Valley Glacier Kings stole home ice advantage away from Nanaimo Buccaneers. page B6
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Publication days will alter soon Record Staff
The Comox Valley Record is changing publication days, switching from Wednesdays and Fridays to Tuesdays and Thursdays, beginning March 19. “The change to Tuesday/Thursday afternoon distribution of the Record has been under consideration for some time now,” says publisher Joanna Ross. “This change will allow our readers a more timely delivery of local news; in addition, our readers and advertisers will both benefit from having advertisements and flyers delivered one day earlier.” Last month, the Record was nominated as one of three general excellence finalists (within a predetermined circulation category) for this year’s Ma Murray B.C. community newspaper awards. The paper finished first in general excellence at the 2010 Ma Murray award presentations and fourth last year, when we finished second in two ad design categories. The Record also placed first last year in the Canadian Community Newspapers Association’s Great Ideas Awards. The very first issue of the thentitled Courtenay Comox Valley Record hit newsstands March 26, 1986. The Record celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011 and is owned by David Black’s Black Press, the largest independently owned newspaper company in Canada, with more than 150 titles in print and online. Victoria-based Black Press has operations in B.C., Alberta, Washington, Hawaii, California and Ohio.
AN ARTIST REPRESENTATION shows the proposed Comox Bay Marina Resort, which features a restaurant, spa, hotel and 40 apartment units.
Updated Comox waterfront plan unveiled Concerns include sight views, traffic noise and waterfront walkways Erin Haluschak Record Staff
A vocal group of Comox residents repeatedly expressed their opinions Wednesday evening during a development information meeting about the proposed Comox Bay Marina Resort. Primary concerns included sight views, traffic, noise and a waterfront walkway. Richard Iredale, partner in Iredale Group Architecture, the Vancouver/Victoria-based company behind the resort, presented to a packed standing-room-only crowd of around 150 people in the lower level of the Black Fin Pub. He explained developers have a development permit for one building on the former Edgewater Pub
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site — a hotel/restaurant/spa/ shopping mix with apartments on the top three storeys, but not yet one for a proposed four-storey second building uphill exclusively with apartments, which would have to meet current Official Community Plan requirements. Iredale added the second building, if approved, would not be built for another 10 to 15 years. The buildings would be of timber construction, with heavy timber structure inside, and a metal roof. In total, Iredale said in the first building there would be 30 hotel rooms and 40 apartment units with a mix of one-, two- and threebedroom units; the second building would have 40 apartments. There would be an allotted 105 parking spots for the hotel building, and 90 for the second, with a planned underground parking lot for the hotel building. In addition to expressing their concerns about having the hotel building built on fill, citi-
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zens questioned if parking would accommodate the marina, and if the increase in residents would increase vehicle traffic in the town. Iredale explained they will do a traffic study to look into the issue. “(The development) will put more people in the centre of town, and they can walk and bike without needing to get into a car,” he added. Residents also questioned the height of the building and the impact on the overall waterfront. Iredale said the hotel building was originally planned to be four storeys, but after hearing concerns by neighbours, they reduced the building to three. Questions were presented about the overall benefit to the community, and one resident noted some citizens are feeling “gun shy” about new developments in the town not being completed as originally presented in plans. One resident supported the
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hotel/apartment plans, and added the waterfront project would add vibrancy, variety and employment to the town. “Projects need to be respectful of neighbours and it needs to go both ways,” he said. “We have to evolve — and we have to evolve carefully. We need to give (the developer) and the Town a chance.” After the meeting, Iredale said he understands the concerns presented and carefully will consider and incorporate the feedback. “When people haven’t yet seen it and haven’t seen the overall site plan and know how it’s going to work vis-a-vis their lives, I can see why people are nervous and so the goal of this is to communicate … what they want us to do,” he told media. “People are really concerned about view; maintaining the view of the mountains and maintaining the view from the park and Beaufort (Avenue). The view is
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