October 3, 2025

BY EMAIL:

Town of Qualicum Beach

#201 – 660 Primrose Street

PO Box 130

Qualicum Beach, BC V9K 1S7

Re: Eaglecrest Golf Course Public Hearing – Official Community Plan (OCP) Amendment Bylaw 800.08, 2025 and Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 900.06, 2025 (together, the “Bylaws”)

Mayor, Councillors and Staff:

Since 1993, the Eaglecrest Residents’ Association has been working to enhance the quality of life of residents and protect the residential character of Eaglecrest. At this important time, we have sought a consensus among our members, with input from the broader Eaglecrest community. This summary of feedback is drawn from many letters and emails, countless personal conversations, and input received as a result of the Town’s open house on Sept. 9th and some 200 attendees at our association’s community meeting on September 23rd.

We have heard from people from all areas of Eaglecrest, all ages and stages of life, newcomers and old-timers, golfers and non-golfers. This is an increasingly diverse neighbourhood and, while it was originally developed with a golf course at its core, the community desires a broader range of recreational options, public access to green space, and gathering places. The deterioration of the golf course lands and facilities in the last several years has had a profound negative effect on our community.

We all hope for a thriving, integrated and unified neighbourhood with diverse recreational and social opportunities where we can enjoy our beautiful setting and maintain strong social and personal connections.

It is in this context that we provide the following comments. All property references used in this letter are the subject property numbered areas set out in the Town’s public hearing notice.

Support for Town Acquisition

In concept, our community supports the Town purchasing the private Eaglecrest golf course lands and using the lands for a golf course, parkland, and new housing. We appreciate that the Town and this Council have pursued this opportunity to acquire a valuable, large tract of private lands and preserve a substantial proportion as green space, potentially making better use of these lands to meet community needs, including more diverse housing options and recreational opportunities other than golf.

We also believe that public ownership is a better alternative, providing the best opportunity to have an on-going and constructive role in the revisioning of Eaglecrest. That will only be true if the Town, as the owner/developer, mandates that the Eaglecrest community, but more importantly those directly impacted, be given an active role in the development and application process.

This acquisition and proposed revisioning of Eaglecrest will bring significant and long-lasting changes to our established suburban neighbourhood and Qualicum Beach as a whole. The proposed Bylaws are not minor or typical. They establish a broad framework of land use designations and pre-zoning, introducing new commercial and institutional uses and concentrating residential development in one area of Eaglecrest, for which there is no precedent in Qualicum Beach.

Community support is based on changes being made to the Bylaws to limit or remove some uses and reduce density before Council gives third reading and adopts them.

Support also comes with on-going concerns about the Town’s unwillingness and/or inability to release information to the public throughout this process, and the need for a clear and meaningful commitment from the Town to include on-going community representation in the revisioning process.

Although not strictly the subject of the Bylaws, key to our support is the long-term protection of the golf course and park green space to ensure that more areas are not subject to being carved off and developed based on the views of the Council of the day without elector approval.

Lack of Information and Transparency

It is essential that the public have as much information as possible to fully understand the Town’s rationale for what is proposed, to grasp the implications for the neighbourhood, their homes and lives, and to assess how they feel. The Town’s approach has made that difficult, whether it is inadvertent, purposeful, or the result of not having enough time or human resources. It started during the Town’s purchase agreement negotiations this past year and has continued through the public engagement process, including the Town’s open house on September 9th.

It is not an overstatement to say that people are alarmed by the lack of information about the Town’s due diligence and the basic purchase terms, including the purchase price and the Town’s self-financing strategy.

Many feel misled by the Town and its consultants having attended a September 9th open house that seemed exploratory and welcoming of public input only to now realize that the Town had already made specific decisions which were reflected in the draft Bylaws released just three days later. If Council genuinely believes we should go into this with “eyes wide open”, then the Town should have been more forthcoming.

There is now little time before the official public hearing after which the public can no longer communicate directly to Council.

This is important. We are seeing a change in sentiment and rising concerns once people are aware of the proposed uses and density in the Bylaws. To this day, many are still unaware that there could be multiple 4 and 5-storey buildings in Eaglecrest. We scheduled our community meeting after the date we expected the draft Bylaws to be released to ensure that people had as much information as possible. In our view, the Town should have done the same. If participants at the September 9th open house and people completing the online survey were not aware of the use and density specifics, the utility of some of the responses is questionable.

The Town contemplates new development permit areas and design guidelines for Eaglecrest, but these are not included in the Bylaws, and the Town has never developed multi-family design guidelines as contemplated by the 2018 OCP. This will require further OCP and zoning amendments to implement and the community must be consulted.

We must find a way going forward to better inform the public and to seek, listen and incorporate community input.

Inclusion of Community As Partner

Our community support is based on the community being a true partner with the Town with on-going input and dialogue to create an Eaglecrest neighbourhood master plan and on site-specific guidelines and development applications.

We feel strongly about this. It is not a “nice to have” but essential, and we feel the need to emphasize this given what has occurred – the short timeline for the acquisition, limited available public information, and a bylaw framework that gives the Town and potential developers significant flexibility. There must be a clear and meaningful commitment from the Town to include on-going community representation in the revisioning of our neighbourhood.

Community Support for Acquisition Requires Changes to Bylaws

Our support for the Town moving forward with the acquisition is based on specific changes being made to the Bylaws to address our concerns before Council gives third reading and adopts these Bylaws. We do not support the Bylaws as they are. In our view, some proposed uses are inappropriate and the level of density is excessive.

There is also a concern about what many see as an imbalance in the Town’s plan, the rationale for which has not been explained to the public, and this imbalance has been divisive. The proposed land use plan would have almost all the new development concentrated on the west side of Eaglecrest and all the public access green space on the east side. West side fairway areas and subject properties #5 and 6, the only existing green space and forested areas, are all wildlife areas and are all potential new housing areas.

Subject properties #5 and 6 may also have a role in flood protection and appear to have limited potential for development. The Town can achieve more substantial revenue from other parcels. To many, trying to raise additional revenue from these properties is asking too much. Developments on the subject properties on the west side must include public green space for gathering and green buffers to mitigate negative impacts on neighbouring homes.

There is no compelling reason for the Town to implement some of the broad OCP designations and zoning regulations at this time before meaningful community consultation and the development of a more robust plan. This is particularly the case given recent legislative changes that may prohibit the Town from holding a public hearing on future zoning amendments. When additional planning is done after consultation with the community, if some higher density zoning is considered appropriate, the Town can advance applicable amendments at that time.

Potential Impact of Bylaws

If this broad framework is implemented without changes, by our calculations based on the limited information available, housing units in Eaglecrest could increase by approximately 70% with 1,000 or more people. If the Town has different projections, it should release them to the public. The reduction in parcel size for new parcels to 500 m2 could create more densely compacted housing. There will also be additional housing units and people over time as the recent zoning change to Residential 1 (R1) to permit up to 4 dwelling units in buildings up to 11.0 m (3 storeys) is realized on existing lots.

With Residential 20 (R20) zoning, which permits density bonusing, there could be approximately 90 to 135 housing units on subject property #2 and 185 to 275 units on subject property #4, in multiple 3 ½ to 4-storey buildings. This will impact existing homes even with the retention of a sizable green buffer. These are shocking numbers. Even if the zoning is changed to Residential 1 (R1), there will still be hundreds of new housing units albeit on a smaller scale.

The Town appears willing to throw out long-standing principles of the OCP and allow a concentration of density in Eaglecrest that it has not supported elsewhere in the Town, even in the Village Neighbourhood.

This Council has approached private developments within the Village Neighbourhood or broader Town core with a concern for buildings over 3 storeys but seemed unconcerned about multiple tall buildings in Eaglecrest at the September 17th council meeting when the Bylaws were given initial readings. What is being proposed is out of character not only for Eaglecrest, but Qualicum Beach as a whole.

This density would occur in a suburban neighbourhood with an existing commercial operation that will see more golfers and others using golf club facilities, and popular beach accesses, on the eastern boundary of the Town with no nearby shops, services (including health care), or community facilities, limited public transit, inadequate drainage, and an already challenged road system and safety issues both within Eaglecrest and on Hwy 19A.

What is the Town’s vision? How will Eaglecrest function during and after the revisioning is completed? How will people’s needs be met? We have seen nothing from the Town to answer these questions.

The Town’s financing strategy dictates that lands for new housing be sold at a price that will be both financeable and marketable, which will be impacted by the permitted use and density. Some people believe that density is driven, at least in part, by an excessive purchase price. But we must all recognize that the purchase price is just one factor and substantial revenues from land sales are required to make this a viable and beneficial long-term change for Eaglecrest.

No substantial development can occur on the subject properties fronting on to Country Club Drive, where most of the potential new housing will be built, without making infrastructure improvements, including on the Hwy 19A corridor between Yambury Rd. and Country Club Dr. There must also be a comprehensive approach to improving the roads and incorporating pathways/trails, etc. within Eaglecrest to ensure that people can move around safely and enjoy the public spaces. Other capital projects will be necessary to deal with long-standing drainage issues. The list is long requiring substantial funds that the Town does not want borne by taxpayers and for which higher level government funding may not be available.

Bylaw Changes

In general, changes must be made to:

• remove the commercial use in Subject Property #1 as a commercial use on this property, in addition to the adjacent golf course clubhouse, is not appropriate and will bring more traffic, noise, light, etc. to that corner. We question why the Town is not removing this property from the Bylaws entirely if development is dependent on work shed relocation that may not occur for some time, if at all;

• reduce the multi-family density proposed for Subject Properties #2 and 4 to Residential (R1) as applicable to neighbouring homes. Multiple 4-storey buildings on each of these properties is not acceptable;

• address the concern that the “Institutional” land use designation proposed for Subject Property #3 would allow institutional uses that would not be “residential” in nature and incompatible with the neighbourhood, and for the number of buildings over 3 storeys (11.0 m). There should be a diversity of housing types providing lower density options for seniors with community gathering spaces, not multiple tall buildings; and

• remove the residential use on Subject Properties #5 and 6 retaining them as green space on the west side of Eaglecrest and then legally dedicate as park.

Here are our detailed bylaw changes:

Official Community Plan Amendment Bylaw No. 800.08, 2025

In this Bylaw, change the land use designations as follows:

• Subject Property #1 – from Commercial/Residential to Single-family Residential or remove entirely from the Bylaw;

• Subject Properties #2 and 4 – from Multi-family Residential to Single-family Residential;

• Subject Property #3 – if the Town cannot restrict this land use designation to seniors’ care, change to Single-family Residential; and

• Subject Properties #5 and 6 – from Single-family Residential to Parks and Recreation.

Either in this Bylaw or the broader OCP amendment to be adopted by the end of 2025, include reference to an Eaglecrest neighbourhood plan to be developed in consultation with the community, including representatives from Eaglecrest.

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 900.06, 2025

In this Bylaw, change the zoning as follows:

• Subject Property #1 – remove commercial use and make solely residential use with Residential (R1) zoning or regulations equivalent thereto, or remove entirely from the Bylaw;

• Subject Properties #2 and 4 – change from Residential 20 (R20) to Residential 1 (R1) zoning or regulations equivalent thereto;

• Subject Property #3 – if a seniors’ care land use designation can be put in place, limit the maximum number of residential units based on 80 units/ha, not including care beds, and the maximum number of buildings over 11.0 m to 1, and change the “personal care facility” permitted use to exclude “hospital” except if required for a multi-tiered seniors’ facility. Otherwise, make solely residential use with Residential 1 (R1) zoning or regulations equivalent thereto; and

• Subject Properties #5 and 6 – change from Residential 1 (R1) zoning to Recreation 3 (F3) and change the subdivision district to “Z”. As with all green space in Eaglecrest, this area should be legally dedicated as park.

Golf Course

While the Town has delineated the golf course area, there is concern about the reconfiguration of the golf course within this area and that it be a viable course. There has been much speculation about the reconfigurations, and the public does not know the rationale for why the Town has determined it should be located within Country Club Dr. to the west and Eaglecrest Dr. to the east.

Other configurations could include extending the golf course east of Eaglecrest Dr. and freeing up green space in the west for public use, connecting with the existing green space in Subject Properties #5 and 6.

We hope that the Town is willing to explore alternatives. Ending the golf course at Eaglecrest Dr. and retaining all areas east as green space divides the community in half and is a factor in the perceived imbalance of the Town’s overall land use plan.

Preservation of the golf course green space has been an issue in the past when development was proposed and this green space was not protected for the long-term. This green space should be legally dedicated as parkland to ensure long-term preservation as green space and not developed in the future without elector approval.

Long-Term Protection of Park

All new parkland areas, subject properties #5 and 6, and Yambury Park must be legally dedicated as parkland so that these areas are not subject to being developed in the future without elector approval.

Although Yambury Park was removed from potential development, it was a shock to many that it was not designated park and therefore protected.

Questions continue to be asked about the status of the covenants on the proposed parkland affecting homes on Yambury Road and around the Oceanside and Eaglewood Court stratas. It is in the best interests of the Town and the community to clarify if and how these covenants will apply.

While there will undoubtedly be many ideas for the new parkland areas, many would like to see interesting and meandering trails for public use, respectfully situated to protect the privacy of homes, incorporating native plants, pollinator pathways, etc. to create a natural and beautiful setting. From the outset, it will be important for the Town to maintain this parkland, and establish and enforce rules for use, including public access and parking.

In conclusion, the purchase of the private golf course lands is supported by the Eaglecrest community. The rush to enshrine uses and density intensification incompatible with the form and character of the adjacent community, and the imbalance of parkland, are not.

Sincerely,

Eaglecrest Residents’ Association Board