I reside in the Swan Lake neighbourhood where Saanich council recently approved two outrageously over-dense projects within the watershed of the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary under the flyway of migrating birds and requiring extensive logging of native Garry oak trees on a protected ecosystem – all without environmental and hydrological assessments.
Surveys indicate that some 90 per cent of the community were in favour of development but with greatly reduced density to that proposed by the developer.
At public hearings held for these projects, UVic students as members of the UVic Real Estate Club, who do not reside in the community, spoke in support of Abstract Developments (the developer), and against the wishes of the neighbourhood and other friends of the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary.
The UVic Real Estate Club is a proxy for a developers' lobby group known as Urban Development Institute (UDI) and as such is well-known by community associations throughout Greater Victoria. This lobbying for developers causes considerable resentment among residents, who present at municipal public hearings alternative points of view to those presented by developers.
Does the club’s lobbying for developers strengthen or weaken the university’s reputation as an independent contributor to the public good? Kevin Hall, president of UVic, needs to answer this question.
Anthony Britneff
Saanich
