A controversial development project on Donnay Drive is inching closer to reality.
Councillors in the Municipality of North Cowichan voted 4-3 to give third reading to the development proposal at a special council meeting on Oct. 28.
Councillors Maeve Maguire, Kate Marsh and Rob Douglas voted in opposition to the project.
The Donnay Drive proposal calls for the construction of 39 housing units on a 2.65-hectare site just north of Maple Bay Elementary School.
North Cowichan mayor Jon Lefebure said council’s fourth and final reading on the project is expected within a few weeks.
“It’s fair to say that there were a number of opinions expressed around the council table before the vote on the third reading was made,” Lefebure said.
Some council members had wanted the final decisions on the project to be delayed until after a staff report on proposed changes to the Official Community Plan, which is considered by many of the Donnay Drive project’s neighbours as an integral component of the proposed development.
That is scheduled to be tabled in early December.
Many residents of the mainly rural neighbourhood have raised a number of objections to the project, including their contention that the housing density proposed would be too high for the area.
The main issue for many of the project’s opponents is the ongoing and proposed modifications to the OCP that could radically change a number of areas of their mostly rural community to high-density neighbourhoods, without adequate community input.
