April 16, 2007

Platinum Award

Vancouver Island projects strive for LEED certification

PARKS CANADA

$4.5-million Parks Canada operations centre in Sidney stands next to house which served as headquarters before staff moved into Platinum-award facility in November, 2005.

KING LEE

correspondent

VICTORIA

One LEED project on southern Vancouver Island has belatedly received the highest certification from the Canada Green Building Council but another in downtown Victoria is having a financial hiccup in the early construction stage.

The $4.5-million, 12,000-square-feet Gulf Islands National Park Reserve operations centre in Sidney, 30 kilometres north of Victoria, was presented with the council’s platinum award – one of seven globally but the only one in Canada so far. The ceremony took place last Sept 20, more than a year after construction was completed.

“We didn’t get a lot of media coverage on it,” said Meredith Reeve, communications manager for the Parks Canada reserve.

The building takes advantage of Canada’s west coast climate by using a 30,000-litre rainwater catchment basin for toilet flushing and plant watering, sun panels on the roof for about 25 per cent of lighting requirements and a geothermal loop system using ocean water for heating purposes.

Reeve said architect Ron Kato of the Vancouver firm of Larry McFarland Architects Ltd. included all park staff in the planning process.

Prior to moving into the state-of-the-art building, seven Parks Canada staff worked out of an old house which still stands in front of the new building. There are now 30 employees working out of the new headquarters which overlooks Tsehum Harbour.

Meanwhile, the $500-million Dockside Green which has attracted worldwide attention has run into a speed bump in the form of rising development cost charges which threatens to add $1.7 million in costs over the next eight years to project partners Windmill Development Group and Vancity.

Managing partner Joe Van Belleghem downplayed the disagreement with the city of Victoria by assuring the project will continue without cutbacks to the $25-million amenities package promised by the developers.

“We’re going to do what we said,” stated Van Belleghem, who is overseeing the construction of 26 buildings which will contain 1.3 million square feet of residential, office, retail and industrial space.

“The issue is when we purchased the land from the city we asked what the charges were. They were very low,” Van Belleghem said.

He added that his principals purchased the land at a premium price on a clear understanding that the development cost charges would remain low.

Last October, the city hiked development cost charges by as much as 2,000 per cent in some cases, a move that would increase Victoria’s revenue from the project by $17 million over the next two decades.

Van Belleghem, who had accused the city of bargaining in bad faith, said Windmill and Vancity could legally pay the penalties and walk away from the waterfront project but quickly added that they will not exercise that option.

Instead, Van Belleghem has written to city council and asked them to live up to the spirit of the agreement. He expects to have the dispute settled within the next two months.

Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe said the city has never told Dockside Green developers that DCC charges would be frozen or even that the city would keep the charges low.

The project is one of the largest in the Capital Regional District, rivaling the massive Bear Mountain development in Langford, on the western outskirts of the city.

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