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Agreement #40110541
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Derek Parkinson 250-642-0405
Plans for resort development moving ahead Britt Santowski Sooke News Mirror
The Cheanuh campground, owned by the Beecher Bay First Nations (also referred to as Scia’new), has announced they are going full steam ahead with converting their campground into a town resort. As stated in their press release, “The Scianew First Nation welcomes its partner, the Trust for Sustainable Development in moving forward with the Spirit Bay sustainable resort town development on its Beecher Bay lands 30 minutes from Victoria, BC.” “September 2 we’ll start cleaning, and then we will be out here marking lots and getting ready, and we’ll be registering people who have an interest in buying a home and living out here or working out here,” saidc David Butterfield, the developer and owner of TSD. The sales will not be for permanent ownership, but for a 99-year lease. This complies with an election held by the band to modify their land agreement. The vote for the Beecher Bay Land Code Amendment took place on July 10. Of 179 eligible names, 90 band members turned out to vote. Seventy voted in favour of amending the Land Code allowing for the
lands to be leased for up to 99 years. Although Butterfield is not directly involved with the campers, he is aware of their resistance to moving within a short timeline. “I did manage to meet with the former head of the association today, and he was very supportive and pleasant, I think, you know with the extension that was given,” commented Butterfield. “Also that with my experience, this is a very compassionate group of people (referring to the Scia’new band). They already had made plans to make exceptions for people and so it was a little bit, maybe, break down in communications there that was unfortunate. I think there are number of people who have gotten extensions. I think it’s pretty much resolved. There may be some exceptions, but, yeah.” Aaron Reith, the economic development officer for the band, said, “There has been folks that have asked for an extension, if they’re not in the phase one area and they are in good standing with the band and signed the release form that says that they will take their stuff with them and that they will leave on that date, all the folks that have asked for extension have been granted extensions by council.”
mination of the agreement is sought. As of August 1, 2013, no such notice has been properly delivered to most of the residents. The result,” the letter goes on to state, “ is that the Beecher Bay Band is not in a lawful position to demand vacant possession of the ‘camp-
‘The band has acted in good faith.’
— Aaron Reith Economic Development Officer Svia’new First Nation
Britt Santowski photo
Developer David Butterfield with an artist’s rendering of the proposed resort at Cheanuh Marina. Reith acknowledges there are still some campers who are “threatening a court injunction, which is unfortunate.” He says as this is First Nations land, the campers really “don’t have a leg to stand on.” The council has provided
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a track record in this regard, Shoal Point was one of the leading projects in Canada in terms of energy efficiency.” When asked about his involvement in Bamberton (an ambitious plan for a selfcontained community that never got off the ground), Butterfield
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a relocation expert, and the original agreement with the campers was always for 30-day notice. “The band has acted in good faith.” A letter from L. John Alexander, the lawyer representing the campers, dated on August
12, says that official notice has not yet been received. “Our clients say that, under written campsite agreements with Cheanuh Marina they are entitled to 30 days written notice prior to the first of the month in which a ter-
sites’ on August 31, 2013.” The clean-up scheduled to begin on September 2, according to Butterfield, is to make the area more accessible for housing, including road improvement, paving, broom bashing and clearing up the many ad-hoc septic tanks that have been installed in the campground over the years said Butterfield. Servicing is still a few months away. Addressing his vision for an eco-friendly village, Butterfield said “We’ve built a couple of benchmark developments for North America in terms of sustainability. One in Tucson Arizona, it’s Civano, one that unfortunately got caught in a crunch in 2007, but up until 2007 was very successful community down in Loreto Bay. So we have
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said Bamberton was where he had “the start of the dream of sustainability, the start of my understanding of sustainability, thanks to a number of environmental activists who I’ve always, since that day, had high regard for.” The 2007 project that Butterfield references in Loreto Bay that according to a recent Forbes. com article was a $3 billion project, backed by funding from Citigroup Property Investors, that went sideways as the result of the 2008 economic crisis. In selecting Butterfield for the project, Reith said “there’s a due-diligence process involved with any kind of undertaking, and he has scored very high on that. All the consultants that we had, they said he is the best at doing Continued on page 3
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