Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Bringing West Van to the Highlands

It seems the can-do attitude is catching on huge out in Victoria's Westshore. It would appear that despite the long-term efforts of The Land Conservancy, the greenbelt from Thetis/Goldstream through to Gowland Todd will only serve to sweeten the view of monster developments for wealthy boomers. This quote especially highlights the plan:
It would eventually have more than 1,000 single-family homes, 4,000-plus condominiums, and 285 townhouses. Golf, restaurants, a spa, hotel, and a village are part of the development.
So who's a gonna build this you ask? Quigg. Nope, no gesundheit necessary, but thanks anyway. Quigg is a Vancouver Corp that has done its fair share of "creating nothing short of living art" since 1986. I guess that's better than since 2003. Their claim of "Breaking new ground on an unprecedented community" is a bit vague: was it Bear Mountain that is unprecedented or is it Quigg's presence there?

Actually, putting my cynicism aside for a moment, and ignoring the environmental impact assessments, not to mention the ensuing NIMBY-fuelled protests to come, this may actually be good long-term for Victoria. It's what we need. I hope developers come here in droves and mass-produce luxury living in "remote" areas. The buyers of these places drive fast cars; this'll speed up the "crawl" on HWY 1. The luxury-owners in town will move out in droves, freeing up space and demand for us FTBs to live closer to where we work. T'is all good.

I think we should start a bookmaking service on projects suggested, approved and then uncompleted. I'm guessing this one is as likely to happen in its "approved" form as the Bay Tower development. I'll put money on if they happen, they happen nothing like their intentions are today. Economic cycles have a way of doing that to a development.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was going to post some articles from today's Times-Colonist but there are too many. There is an interesting one about Canadian timber and the US housing market.

S2

Anonymous said...

I put this on the other blog. Do you think it is a sign of a change when builders start going nuts?

Prairieboy said...

I think that nuts going can only be determined post-mortem. I thought people were nuts 3 years ago. Boy, was I wrong. Nevertheless, they are nuts now.

HHV, you hit the nail on the head. Build Bear Mountain Build! Retirees, feel free to move to the mountain in droves! That will leave beautiful Fairfield, Fernwood, James Bay, and the rest to us FTBs and families! We'll leave our cars behind!

Anonymous said...

S2, I'd be interested in checking out your blog, but I have not been able to find it. Would you mind posting the url? That'd be great ;-).

Anonymous said...

I don't have a blog jasonr.

I can not come close to HHV or Victoria Truth and won't even try.

When I said I was going to post some articles from the TC, if that is what you are wondering about, I post them on HHV and VT that way the most amount of people (bears) see them.

I do frequent the Kids in Victoria website which is a mostly bull website for moms and dads in Victoria. They are mostly homeowners in the 30 to 39 age range.

I go on and pull their chains once in a while. Mostly I'm just trying to get them to see what is going to happen. They don't like me very much :(

S2

StevenHWicker said...

Very informative and impressive post you have written, this is quite interesting and i have went through it completely, an upgraded information is shared, keep sharing such valuable information. Commercial drive real estate