EDITORS NOTE: I do not understand why the citizens of every community on this Island have not started to go after their councils and Boards of Directors to impose rigid Urban Containment Boundaries and Zoning that will not allow for development to occur without approval of the tax payer in the area! What about environmental studies? What about access to quality drinking water? What about our watersheds!? The silence is deafening!!

TimberWest picks Island spots for development
Jeff Bell, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, June 28, 2008

TimberWest, the Island's largest private landowner, has identified forest lands where it might seek development.

The areas range from Sooke and the Malahat to Coombs, Mount Washington and Dove Creek.

John Hendry, vice-president of real estate for TimberWest, said the company has about 325,000 hectares of land on the Island and is looking at about 15,800 hectares of that total "on which to focus our approach to real estate." He said the land identified for possible real-estate ventures was chosen over the past two years.

Areas on the Island where TimberWest is considering real estate projects and
maps identifying the land have been kept deliberately general.
Considerable consultation is still to come with communities over details of developments that could take place. "Really, the communities are, for the most part, in the driver's seat here," Hendry told the Times Colonist editorial board.

He said a realistic timeline for dealing with the 15,800 hectares is 15 to 25 years. Possible sites for initial development could be next to Campbell River, where TimberWest owns land around the airport, or near Mount Washington, Hendry said.

"As a timber company we're used to looking in the long term," he said. But the real-estate activity does not signal a shift from logging. "The company is a timber company. Over 80 per cent of our land continues to be productive timberland, and we're planning on that for generations to come."

Ken Wu of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee said his group has concerns about TimberWest's direction. He said the area being looked at for development is huge. "The land itself is bigger than the City of Vancouver. We have a big concern, as well, because the places that they're interested in selling off tend to be in the rarest ecosystem type, which is called the coastal Douglas fir ecosystem, and also the dry maritime forest."

Waterfront and lakefront properties, which can be home to endangered species, are also prime spots for possible sale, Wu said.

Mayors in some of the areas being looked at said they have had little contact with TimberWest on the issue so far.

"We haven't had any face-to-face meetings," said Sooke Mayor Janet Evans.

Lake Cowichan Mayor Jack Peake said Timberwest has not approached his municipality about development, but it has been asked about extending its boundaries to take in one of the company's properties.

He said development of big TimberWest holdings around some communities could bring significant changes.

Hendry said TimberWest is aware of its responsibilities as a major landowner. "Our land is solely on Vancouver Island, and our future is on Vancouver Island, and as a stakeholder on Vancouver Island we take very seriously our role. Clearly, we're the largest private landowner on the Island, and that brings with it tremendous responsibilities," he said.

"We are able to look at our entire land base and look at how it can be best used in all sorts of different ways, not only just forestry, not only just real estate development, but other ways, as well.

"We're being approached now regularly by the industries that are looking at alternative-energy sources, particularly run-of-the-river type sources of energy and wind energy. We're taking that seriously because, frankly, the land mass allows us to do that."

TimberWest can delve into specific community issues such as watershed protection, Hendry said. "It goes beyond simply asking that community for an opportunity to develop."

jwbelltc.canwest.com