A proposed $600-million resort near Ucluelet, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, sounds like a tourist's dream destination.

A Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course. A condo-style hotel along with luxury homes. Rugged coastline. All right next to Pacific Rim National Park, within UNESCO's Clayoquot Biosphere Reserve.

"It's a wild place," says Stephen Duke, director of sales and marketing for Vancouver-based Marine Drive Properties Ltd., which is developing the site.

It's also one of many environmentally sensitive areas that are posing extra challenges to B.C. resort developers as they try to capitalize on the province's abundance of waterfront locales - while still keeping their projects sustainable.

Illustration courtesy of Osoyoos Shoreline Development Ltd.
Projects in environmentally-sensitive areas, like Watermark in Osoyoos, must meet several tests.

Developers say resorts on environmentally sensitive sites cost more and take longer to plan and build. Meanwhile, the province's real estate market is becoming increasingly competitive.

Duke says it's widely acknowledged projects in environmentally sensitive areas cost more, but it's difficult to say how much more unless you evaluate all projects together.

The Ucluelet project is likely to come under considerable scrutiny, because it is located near Tofino, where several businesses were forced to close over the Labour Day long weekend because of an extreme shortage of clean water. Emergency water supplies were eventually trucked in from Ucluelet, and Tofino realtor Chris LeFevre spent $50,000 of his own money to speed up the process.

Tofino business operators, residents and politicians have cited the lack of a large enough water-treatment facility as the primary cause of the shortage.

But Duke says the same problem won't occur in Ucluelet, because the local government sold municipally owned real estate to developers eight years ago to fund a new facility. "Ucluelet has an enormous water supply," says Duke. "That's because it went through a significant upgrade about six years ago."

He says Ucluelet residents are "dealing with the future with their eyes wide open" by getting developers to fund infrastructure projects. "They have prepared for the development. They have prepared for the growth, whereas Tofino grew in fits and spurts."

Duke says Ucluelet is balancing development and sustainability through legislation and negotiation. Marine Drive Properties is legally required to build staff accommodation, and it has donated money to a daycare while also voluntarily building a skateboard park and multi-sport facility, including basketball courts.

The resort will contain only low-density buildings and preserve 70 per cent of its 370 acres as green space.

"It would not make sense to put a highrise building in there," says Duke.

"It would not be part of the West Coast experience."

The firm is also working with a bear-awareness society to reduce conflicts between bears and humans, has bear-proofed its garbage cans and is helping to raise funds to hire a conservation officer for the area. Duke says the company is also employing alternative design standards that are "a little bit more expensive, but in the long term more sustainable."

Glen Harris, project manager for Osoyoos Shoreline Development Ltd. (Shoreline), which is building the Watermark lakefront residential and condo-style hotel resort by two community parks in Osoyoos, says a resort property's biggest environmental challenges relate to water management.

Riparian regulations and stormwater run-off rules can pose the biggest hurdles. A riparian area is a "no-go zone" between a building and the bank of a shore. Stormwater management systems hold up and treat precipitation that hits impervious surfaces such as sidewalks and roads before it can flow into the ground or a body of water.

If not properly treated, storm- water can carry oil and other pollutants into ecosystems.

"Town planners are being very adamant about a strong water-management plan," says Harris.

He says projects in a small town such as Osoyoos can obtain a building permit in six months, while a Vancouver site requires nine months to a year. But riparian regulations and storm-water management issues can extend waiting times in Osoyoos by 100 per cent.

"If you just want to build a house (in an inland area) in Osoyoos, you can probably get a development permit in three or four months," says Harris.

Shoreline is a joint venture between Ralli Estates and Wescirque Enterprises Ltd., which holds controlling interest, Hasskenson Development Corp., where Harris serves as general manager, and Darwin Construction Ltd. The developers are building an offsite stormwater "ceptor" (i.e. storage tank) that will cost $80,000 to $100,000.

Watermark was approved by the local government in July after facing a lengthy delay - but not because of environmental issues.

"The challenge for our project was height," says Harris. "We made an application to build a 12-storey building last year and the town definitely didn't take kindly to a highrise in their community."

Shoreline felt it needed 10 storeys to make the project economically viable, so the company reduced the building to four storeys and spread it out over a wider area. Watermark will now include 30 townhomes and a 123-unit condo-style hotel.

"It all depends on how you engage the community," says Harris. "If I learned anything from my first-time involvement (in a resort property), community involvement is essential from the start."

Shoreline agreed to provide public access to about 300 feet of private beach. The company and local government are collaborating on a boardwalk-like public pathway that will surround the park and development.

Shoreline will pay for the portion of the pathway on its land while the town will cover the costs of the public stretches. Harris says Shoreline will spend $200,000 to build its portion and an additional $75,000 to $80,000 to spruce it up with more appealing stones and other features, as opposed to concrete.

Defining a site's environmental sensitivity is difficult, given the pristine features of many B.C. waterfront locales. Many projects are not in or near national, provincial or other parks, but they can still evoke people's environmental sensitivities, says Harris.

Lenny Moy, president and CEO of the Aragon Group, which is considering a possible 250-acre residential resort on land it owns near Sooke on Vancouver Island, says developers must be more conscious of public perceptions and switch their practices accordingly.

"Practically speaking, we have to retain more consultants, because we don't have all of the knowledge necessary in the land-development areas which are seen as green settlements," says Moy. "So (a development) takes more time - and more thought."

Aragon's Sooke site could include 500 to 600 residential units, but the Vancouver-based firm is not ready to bring the project to market yet. He says developers can no longer go into a project with the attitude that a property belongs to them and they can do what they want with it, subject to zoning and other regulations.

"People are seeing us more as stewards of the land and, therefore, we need to pay more attention to it," says Moy.

A future project that is likely to garner plenty of attention is The Benchlands, Naramata, a 44-estate home project in the tiny village of Naramata, located across Lake Okanagan from Penticton.

It is being developed by Naramata Benchland Properties, a partnership between Locations West Investment Group and T&M Management Services Ltd.

T&M's diverse businesses include Boston Pizza International Inc.

The Benchlands site is the first new subdivision in Naramata in 30 years to contain more than 25 homes.

(Monte Stewart can be reached at monte@businessedge.ca)