Colwood council has directed staff to gather more information about a potential deal between developer Land Vision Group and neighbours of a Sooke Road property pitched as the site for 67 apartments after new details came to light.
At its Tuesday (Oct. 10) meeting, council was scheduled to vote on first and second reading to a bylaw to enact a rezoning previously approved at their Aug. 28 meeting. The rezoning would allow the developer to build a 67-unit apartment building at 2324 Sooke Rd.
But debate on the rezoning bylaw quickly zeroed in on the issue of whether it was possible for the developer to purchase neighbouring properties to expand the size of the lot for the new apartment building, which would address many of the concerns council had about the proposed building.
Earlier in the meeting, council heard from a resident whose mother is a neighbour of the subject property, who said that despite the developer telling council during the August meeting they had attempted multiple times to purchase neighbouring properties, his mother had not received a genuine offer from them.
Representatives of the developer countered this claim, saying they could produce documents proving an offer was on the table with the resident’s mother before she pulled out at the last minute.
Given a situation that Mayor Doug Kobayashi described as “he said, she said,” council agreed they did not feel they could move forward with first and second readings of the rezoning bylaw as scheduled.
A motion to defer the decision to a later date failed.
After much discussion, in which council both acknowledged that Land Vision Group had shown plenty of willingness to compromise on their proposal in response to resident and council concerns with it and that they had heard residents’ concerns loud and clear, Coun. Ian Ward moved that council direct staff to meet with both the developer and the neighbour in question to determine whether there is a possibility of a land sale and report back to council in no more than 60 business days.
Council passed the motion.
READ MORE: Colwood approves rezoning for 67 condos on Sooke Road