Cumberland is looking at servicing the new industrial park area slated for Bevan Road.
The site holds most of the available industrial land in the Comox Valley and is being developed by the owners of Tree Island Yogurt for its new home. The village is working with the owners to develop other sites for businesses.
At the Jan. 10 meeting, council received an update from staff about the implementation plan, including a proposed servicing study for the site, especially with more land potentially available.
“This was a real cross-departmental project,” chief administrative officer Clayton Postings told council.
RELATED STORY: Bevan Road in Cumberland is Valley’s industrial future
He noted it is tied to other work the village is already undertaking such as a master plan for transportation and a review of development cost changes, but staff wanted more information on plans for the Bevan area, including a look at the services needed.
“Basically, we want to provide what the road map looks like,” he said. “This will just help from a staff’s perspective, and hopefully council, understand what the next steps look like.”
Economic development officer Kaelin Chambers talked about previous work around a concept plan and how to provide answers for developers. The servicing plan, he said, would provide these pieces of information.
“This preliminary servicing plan is going to give us those pieces,” he said.
Manager of development services Courtney Simpson added the study will allow the village to get some consulting help to provide answers on services along with other issues such as cost-recovery tools for the infrastructure when development proposals come forward.
“It should be more streamlined and more clear,” she said. “Things should move smoothly and more quickly.”
Council raised questions around a number of topics, such as environmental and watershed protection, as well as better connectivity for transportation at the site.
One change since the project was proposed was the scale of potential services needed, which has grown and has pointed to connecting to water and eventually sewer rather than relying on well water and septic sites, though manager of operations Rob Crisfield added Bevan Road would be part of a study of liquid waste management for several areas in the village.
“We’ll have to look at a number of areas in Cumberland, including Bevan Road,” he said. “The treatment capabilities will be assessed through that report.”
Council passed a motion to approve the implementation plan, to have staff bring back additional items not in current work plans and to approve up to $25,000 from the Infrastructure Asset Renewal Reserve to fund the servicing study for the site, as well as have staff bring back an amendment to the financial plan to reflect the expense.
mike.chouinard@comoxvalleyrecord.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.