The new owner of the former Trio Ready-Mix Ltd. lands will hold meetings in the new year to hear from Cordova Bay residents.
Aragon Properties Ltd., of Vancouver, took possession Monday of the 26-acre site at 773 Cordova Bay Rd.
Meetings will be held in late January or early February to receive input from neighbours, including the Cordova Bay Association for Community Affairs, David Roppel, Aragon’s director of planning and development, said Tuesday.
At least two, possibly three, consultation workshops will be held, he said.
Aragon has developed residential real estate in places such as New Westminster, Vancouver, Port Moody and Toronto.
The developer is not presenting a plan and intends to first listen to the community to find out what is “relevant, useful and appropriate,” he said.
Aragon wants to know what level of density the community favours.
The firm now sees the Saanich property as a residential development, with medium-to-low density, and possibly a small commercial corner at Fowler and Cordova Bay roads, Roppel said. Parks and landscaping will be a major part of the project, he said.
Ideally, Aragon will submit a rezoning application in spring or summer 2015, he said. If rezoning is approved, 2016 is the soonest construction would start, he added.
The property includes an area zoned for mini-storage, but Aragon is not interested in that use, he said.
Aragon takes over the site from the McLaren family, which ran an industrial business. The relationship between Trio and the neighbourhood was been rocky for years, due to issues such as odour, noise, trucks and land use.
Gravel was last mined there in the early 2000s. The property was rezoned 15 years ago, allowing
110 units on 12 acres on the southern part of the site. Nearly 7.5 acres was designated as green space and 6.79 acres was for the proposed mini-storage. The site was not developed.
