by Roger Stonebanks, citizen journalist

Aragon Properties has scaled back its proposal for housing in the former Trio quarry and industrial site at Cordova Bay Road/Fowler Road/Alderley Road by one-quarter from its initial plan in 2015.

The revised proposal calls for 330 dwelling units compared with 385 previously and 440 initially. The latest reduction has resulted from the elimination of six-storey condos in a redesign of the north end of the property in favour of single-family homes.

David Roppel, director of planning and development for Aragon Properties, told Saanich Voice Online (SVO) the changes are in response to input from the community and Saanich.

“The (revised) plan is with the District (of Saanich) for comment and we are continuing to work closely with Cordova Bay community groups to get input,” he said.

Still being worked on with Saanich is the matter of insufficient downstream sewerage capacity for the proposal. Any downstream sewerage upgrades will be at Aragon’s expense – Saanich has said it made Aragon aware of sewerage flow limitation before it bought the property. The property is within the Sewer Service Area and within the Urban Containment Boundary.

Contacted by SVO, the Cordova Bay Association for Community Affairs said in a statement it does not support the development “as currently presented.”

The community group spelled out several reasons for its opposition that are to do with road safety.

As for the  overall densification of the project, criticized earlier by the CBA, “the CBA it will not comment until such time as a fully comprehensive traffic study/assessment has been conducted to demonstrate conclusively that traffic usage of the neighbouring road network is sustainable beyond the build-out period, regardless of development size.”

The CBA acknowledged that the revised plan is a partial submission and further work is to be done and it remains concerned about other issues it raised earlier. The group said it “is committed to ensuring a community-wide acceptable residential development of the former Trio lands by Aragon Properties Ltd.”