The Garibaldi Springs development will head to a public hearing after a tight 4-3 vote on second reading by council on Tuesday night.
The plan by Polygon Homes to redevelop the Garibaldi Springs Golf Course includes 350 new homes and 86 acres of public parkland and habitat restoration.
In order to build on the land, the developer is requesting an OCP amendment and zoning changes.
After councillors expressed concern about the cost of maintaining the new park in previous meetings, Polygon agreed to fund the maintenance of the park through strata fees. On Tuesday evening Coun. Doug Race asked district staff to examine a tax-funded alternative.
Race supported moving the project to the official consultation phase, as did Coun. Karen Elliott, Coun. Ted Prior and Mayor Patricia Heintzman.
A public information meeting will be held April 5, with a public hearing set for April 24.
Opposing councillors Peter Kent, Susan Chapelle and Jason Blackman-Wulff said they couldn’t support the development on the area currently designated as greenway, and were concerned about the pace of development in the community.
“We have five to six-thousand units coming online in the next little while, and I’d like to see the ripple effect of that on the highway and the hospital, all of that, before we go developing something else on such a massive scale,” said Kent.“The idea of pulling green space in our OCP, there is a really high threshold that needs to be obtained in order to justify that,” said Blackman-Wullf.
Correction: the original story incorrectly stated there were 43 acres of public parkland and habitat. Polygon is actually offering 86 acres. A public information meeting will be held April 5. The Chief regrets the error.
