Greenpark

The Opportunity

The Greenpark subdivision is a 30-lot subdivision located on a 30-acre parent parcel, adjacent to Horth Hill Park in the District of North Saanich. The property was initially zoned such that it could be subdivided into 1 – acre lots, however, in the interest of preserving a large tract of land, the developer rezoned the property to reduce the sub-dividable lot area. The rezoning allowed for the same lot yield permitted under the previous zoning to be maintained, while also preserving 40% of the parent parcel as park.

The Approach

The developer held multiple neighbourhood meetings prior to appearing before council in order to incorporate the ideas and visions of the local residents into the final product. Among the top concerns that emerged from the meetings were pedestrian connectivity through the property to Horth Hill Park, as well as preservation of the mature trees. As such, over 2 kilometers of trails have been incorporated into the development design and a covenant will be placed on the property to limit tree removals. The project will also retain the trees on the individual lots, thus permitting the home builders to create custom house designs that are integrated into the existing landscape.

Westbrook Consulting provided the preliminary and detailed design, construction survey, and inspections for the project. Westbrook’s involvement also included storm water modelling of the rainfall runoff for the pre-development and post-development conditions, and designing an onsite detention system to ensure no negative impact of the downstream receiving environment. Close coordination with the District of North Saanich, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, and the developer was required to ensure the success of the project.

A challenge of the project was a strong need to minimize impacts to the surrounding environment. This was achieved through the refinement of mass excavations and fills during the detailed design stage.

The Result

The project is currently in construction and is anticipated to be completed in spring 2019.