New Monster Development in Langford Lurches Forward

Skirt Mountain: New Monster Development in Langford Lurches Forward Local group calls for a halt, citing abuse of process and environmental damage.

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Editorial: Over the past two years, Langford City Council and Skirt Mountain developers have carved out an appalling legacy that includes the destruction of million-year-old caves, terraforming wildlife habitat into golf courses, a river of toxic orange sludge flowing downhill from Len Barrie's mansion, repeated threats to sue their critics, a reprimand from the BC Civil Liberties Association, public
intimidation by gangs of abusive thugs, and an army of Special Forces police attacking a small tree-sit camp. Anyone who values free speech, civil society, environmental protection, native heritage, and intelligent urban planning is urged to speak out for an end to this insanity.
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On Monday, June 15, Langford City Council is set to give final approval to South Skirt Mountain, a new monster condo development adjacent to Bear Mountain Resort, Goldstream Provincial Park, Florence Lake and the TransCanada Highway. Four developers plan to build 2800 condos along the new Bear Mountain Parkway above the half-built Spencer Interchange. A local environmental group, Vancouver Island
Community Forest Action Network (VIC FAN), is preparing to file a petition in BC Supreme Court to overturn the development bylaw.

Skirt (or Spaet) is the same mountain that was half-demolished by Bear Mountain Resort during the building boom, the same mountain with the rare cave (now destroyed) and the still-undisturbed native grave sites, and the same mayor and council abusing the public process to benefit private developers, again.

Spaet Mountain is considered shared territory between several First Nations, although only two have given "permission" for destruction of indigenous grave sites.

The initial outcry earlier this year over wrecking the Garry Oak bluffs, arbutus groves, native sites, and waterways has been joined by new charges that accuse Langford City Council of bias and withholding public documents about the development. Local residents are calling out the mayor and council for acting in bad faith and violating provincial statutes.

The February 23 public hearing on the South Skirt Mountain project was a fiasco, with Mayor Stew Young "bullying, berating and browbeating" citizens who spoke against the development. A repeat public hearing was more restrained, but speakers were heckled and requests for public documents were refused by deputy mayor Denise Blackwell.

In their haste to approve this development, VIC FAN submits that Langford's mayor and council have ignored due process and disrespected procedural fairness.

More info, news archive, analysis, videos and photos at www.forestaction.ca.

The developers are the owners of three separate land parcels who have joined for the project: Totangi Properties Ltd., owned by Blair and Warren Robertson; Skirt Mountain Village Ltd. owned by Ron Coutre and Russell Trace; and Bear Mountain Estates Ltd. — no connection to the existing Bear Mountain development — owned by the Marquardt family.