The City of Langford is entertaining a $2.9 million offer from Seacliff Properties for a plot of land at the south end of Langford Lake by the Trans-Canada Highway.
The city bought the land a decade ago with the idea of building a highway overpass. Part of the land, formerly an industrial site, is reserved as a right of way. That is to say, while it might look natural, it “has been disturbed from its natural state,” Langford’s director of corporate services Braden Hutchins wrote in a public notice.
As part of the deal, a portion of the Ed Nixon Trail will be moved and a full circuit of Langford Lake will be connected.
READ MORE: Langford mulling sale, development options for property near Langford Lake
The land has been subject to public dispute in recent weeks since Langford issued a request for proposals in June. A group of citizens organized a petition – gathering 2,676 signatures – calling for the land to be preserved as a park, saying it’s an ecologically sensitive piece of land, home to the endangered western painted turtle.
City council will review the purchase proposal at its Aug. 16 meeting. Interested parties can write to council, or call in during the public participation portion of the meeting.
Seacliff Properties is a Vancouver-based firm that already owns three other properties on the West Shore: land at the base of Skirt Mountain where it is building houses and townhouses, 50 acres across McCallum Road from Costco in Langford that will eventually host mixed-use commercial and residential buildings, and 130 waterfront acres at Royal Bay in Colwood.
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