A new townhome condo development planned on golf course land will go to public hearing on Monday, and a number of neighbours say they’re hoping to convince city council to reject the project.
Nelson’s West Creek Developments hopes to construct three, 10-unit buildings that would look similar to its previous Rosemont development, The View on West Richards. The new neighbourhood would be called The Crossing at Granite Point and would be located off Choquette Avenue, just North of Forin Road.
But neighbours say the relatively high density development wouldn’t fit in with the existing bungalow-style homes that would surround it and the 30 new residences would result in too much traffic on the narrow roads, particularly around Rosemont elementary school.
Hubert Nyst has lived on Forin Road more than 25 years. He organized a neighbourhood meeting this past Wednesday for opponents of The Crossing to plan their plea to city council.
“We bought our properties here knowing the vacant land around us was zoned R1 (light residential development) and we want it to stay that way,” Nyst said, noting that he would prefer to see the golf course land left undeveloped but if anything has to be built on it, he thinks it should be single storey homes.
“Choquette is not built to accommodate heavy traffic,” he said, calling the prospect of having more vehicles on the road “an accident waiting to happen.”
Doug Cavicchi lives one house away from the development site on Choquette. He can look out his window and see down the valley over Kootenay Lake, and he worries that soon all he’ll be able to see is the side of a building.
Asked to list his top concerns, Cavicchi said, “It’s going to block everyone’s view, it’s not going to fit with the neighbourhood at all, and it’s going to increase traffic.”
Richard Metzner, who’s lived on the corner of Choquette and Forin for 25 years, said his neighbourhood is being built up too fast. He’s been living among noisy construction sites for the past decade and has had enough.
“I realize things have to change but it’s been too much, too fast,” he said. “This was a rural area and now it’s going to be turned into condo-land.”
He and his neighbours wrote letters of concern and submitted a 20-signature petition following a public meeting on the proposed development, but he feels their opposition was ignored.
Neil Emery is a golfer who lives on West Richards near where The View was built. He said that when the golf course was initially rezoned for development, he was “one of only two people opposing it.”
He fears that most people who would purchase a home on a golf course wouldn’t be year-round residents and he doesn’t think it’s good for Nelson to have absentee home owners buying up properties.
He said people near the development site for The Crossing have good reason to be concerned.
“I hate living by The View and what’s planned for The Crossing is even bigger and more invasive,” he said. “I think the city council needs to proceed cautiously. They need to really think about what allowing another development like this will do to our neighbourhood.”