Excavation starts next month; construction of a road to Shaw may start earlier than originally planned; 25 units are sold
(By News Desk)
PLEASE NOTE: This article has been updated with news about the intersection at Pratt Rd and Chaster Rd. See below.
Excavation on Gospel Rock for construction of roads and civil works will start in July on the east side of Block 7, says James Askew, president of rareEarth, the firm marketing the Touchstone Development on Gospel Rock. The six lots down on Gower Point Road will also be graded and staked.
The Town of Gibsons requires an access road to Shaw Road be built after the completion of the first 250 units, but Askew says it may be constructed sooner. “The developer has secured the lots necessary to create the roadway and would like to expedite the process because of residents’ concern over increased traffic on Pratt and Chaster.”
He is not aware of plans to widen Chaster Road until the connection to Shaw Road is built.
Town planner Lesley-Anne Staat said no building permits have been issued yet. The subdivision of the six lots on Gower Point Road at the corner of Franklin and Glassford is being finalized, after which the subdivision of the rest of Block 7 will be completed. In addition, the servicing agreement needs to be finalized.
The first phase of construction, 49 condos and 48 town houses, will start on the eastern side of Block 7. Twenty-five of the 97 units have been sold, Askew said, and are scheduled for occupancy in the late Fall of 2022 to Spring of 2023.
Later this summer, 20 of the planned 55 home sites will be offered for sale. They will be available for construction six to nine months later, after the servicing is completed. The buyers can be home-builders who will sell ready-for-occupancy houses, or individual buyers who use their own contractor to build.
A 55-room boutique hotel is scheduled to open around 2024, he said.
A little less than ten per cent of the 360-unit entire development, 35 units, will be market rentals. There is no provision for affordable housing. Market rentals are included in the town’s definition of affordable housing.
About 200 multi-family homes are planned in a future development on Block 6.
Just under 50 per cent of Block 7, mostly the slopes and the cross on the rock, is designated as a protected nature area. The Sunshine Coast Conservation (SCCA), the Land Conservancy of B.C. (TLC), the town and the developer were to sign a covenant to protect the nature areas, but the town’s plan to build a bicycle and pedestrian path has thrown a wrench in the process.
“The whole thing could unravel if the town decides to destroy part of the nature area,” said Dan Bouman, chair of the Friends of Gospel Rock Society (FoGRS) and director on the board of the SCCA. “We need to be clear at the outset that the purpose of the covenant is to protect the ecological values that are found at the site.”
The boards of the SCCA, the TLC and the Friends of the Gospel Rock Society have not made a decision about what to do if the town insists on a bike road.
What would it mean if there is no covenant? Bouman is not sure. “The town obligated the owner for a covenant. Other than the TLC and the SCCA, I don’t think there is anybody else who could be a covenant holder.”
The trail proposed by the town would be parallel to the boardwalk planned along the other side of Gower Point Road, which is wide enough for pedestrians and bicycles. A 20-kilometer speed limit on Gower Point Road along Gospel Rock would also make the road safer for bicycles and pedestrians so an extra trail would not be needed, Bouman says.
Developer Ji Yongqiang and his son Ji Yan are not to blame, he says. He has met them, and Ji Yongqiang’s wife. “They are very long-term kind of people, and they’ve been very good to work with. They have no previous experience with covenants,” he said. “We have had very healthy conversations with them, and I have a lot of respect for them. They say they will not sell the property. They were straight, upfront and honest with us.”
Lee Ann Johnson, chair of the SCCA and a director on the board of FoGRS, told The Coast Clarion that Ji Yongqiang is a major real estate developer in China who has bought the Gospel Rock properties for his son. She is full of praise about them.
“They have been totally cooperative with the town and with us. They have gone above and beyond. For example: instead of hauling the trees off, they chipped them, which improves the soil and is environmentally far more beneficial than anything else they could have done. They have also stored the significant trees to be incorporated in the hotel. Relatively speaking, they are the most cooperative people we’ve seen in a long time.”
As much as is possible on Gospel Rock will stay on the site, Askew said. The excavated rocks will be crushed and used in construction out of respect for the place.
“The owners have a strong vision of what Gospel Rock could be for the community. They prefer to stay in the background, but they have been a strong supporter of the Public Market and the Marine Education Centre financially, and they have donated $10,000 to Habitat for Humanity.
Last year, the Touchstone Development Discovery Centre in Gibsons held a community day with fun things for kids, hot dogs and local radio. This will be an annual event, and five years down the road, it will be held at the Touchstone Village Plaza.”
In November 2017, residents in Area E asked the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) and the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) for the installation of a pedestrian-activated flashing beacon crosswalk on Pratt, and four-way stop signs at Chaster and Pratt because of increased traffic for the development.
The SCRD is still waiting for a commitment from MOTI, Area E director Donna McMahon said in an email. “A four-way stop and crosswalks are overdue there, especially since it’s on a route to school and a bus route.”
A MOTI spokesperson told The Coast Clarion on Wednesday there are currently no plans for changes to the Chaster/Pratt intersection.
“The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure will continue to monitor the intersection as construction at the nearby development gets underway,” she said.
“I wish I was surprised to hear this,” Area E Director for the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) Donna McMahon said in an email to The Coast Clarion. “Probably the biggest problem with roads in unincorporated rural areas is that there is no avenue to address residents’ legitimate concerns about our local roads, and no accountability when poor decisions are made.
“To find myself having to petition my MLA for a four-way stop sign is ridiculous,” she said.
Thanks for the update. I have looked on a map to try to get an idea where the Shaw Road extension would go. Is there a map from the developer that shows this?
Can see the plan on page 10 and 11. Not sure that exactly what they’ve got but it was determined early on that the crossing of the creek would not be supported and then had to go around as documented here,
https://gibsons.civicweb.net/document/42311
No affordable housing. Instead, a $10,000 donation to Habitat. How did the town allow this?
Also, Chaster will not be widened. Has anybody seen how narrow that road is? What if there is a wildfire? People fleeing and first responders trying to get in? Trees everywhere? A disaster waiting to happen.
On the bright side: we will get free hot dogs once a year.
A puny donation, when you consider the cost of housing these days.
Ten per cent will be affordable, the Mayor said on the record on this website in January:
“Ten per cent of the housing units on Gospel Rock are required to be affordable rentals; 25 units in the first phase, expected to be completed in two or three years, and another 11 in the following phase. The owners will administer a program whereby people can apply for housing in the project and pay no more than 30 per cent of their income, Beamish told The Coast Clarion.”
COMMENT FROM THE COAST CLARION:
The Mayor has sent us the following email: “As a result of your inquiry I checked with staff and am informed that market rental housing is included in our definition of affordable housing. I incorrectly assumed that ‘affordable housing’ was all the same: the 30% formula that we are using for housing provided by the Affordable Housing Society on Franklin and Shaw roads and supported by BC Housing. It is not apparently so, the affordable housing in the Gospel Rock Project is market rental housing. So it remains that 10% of the Gospel Rock housing units will be market rental within our definition of affordable housing. I am sorry for any confusion I caused in my not understanding this.”
The logical way to control traffic is a roundabout. A four way stop is a detriment to traffic flow as the long lineups at stop signs with Pratt being already at maximum would seriously affect anyone living along Chaster and Pratt roads. Does anyone care or even think about the repercussions to health and the environment when 30 vehicles at a time are spewing exhaust. All anyone has to do is observe the traffic at Pratt and Gibsons Way, especially during ferry times to get a good idea of what to expect. Just yesterday it was stopped from Pratt all the way to North Road and beyond. We have all witnessed this. What has MOTI missed? But instead of a major 4-way stop intersection in a residential neighborhood, maybe it would be better if they did nothing. The traffic volume on its own will be enough to slow things down to a crawl.