The West Shore’s Olympic View Golf Course lands situated along Langford’s and Colwood’s Latoria Road corridor could be up-zoned to 1,000-units of residential density and hotel capacity for 200-rooms in Langford, while the first phase of an allotted 456-units in Colwood is now underway.

 

 

GolfBC Holdings is seeking approvals to more than double its already approved density within its developable Langford real-estate spanning some 127-acres.

 

Already approved with 461-units of housing stemming from an application process undertaken with Langford two decades ago, the density boost would yield a maximum of 500-units of single-family-dwellings, with the remainder developed as multi-unit housing in highrise and lowrise formats at up to 12-storeys in height.

 

As part of the latest rezoning, 51-acres, or 40% of developable lands, will be dedicated as open space. This represents a significant increase from earlier plans that allocated only 19-acres as undeveloped land. Planning documents identify open space as dedicated public parkland, “private covenanted open space, or golf course.”

 

In addition to housing, a commercial component is envisioned by GolfBC with a concentration of retail spaces among the project’s higher density development sites that could straddle the Langford/Colwood divide as per a site plan referenced in the City of Colwood’s Draft Official Community Plan.

 

Within Olympic View’s approximate 140-acre developable Colwood portion, GolfBC is currently working on extending Veterans Memorial Parkway’s Latoria Road terminus onto its lands as an access artery to its future developments, along with a first phase of housing comprised of 34 single-family-dwellings and approximately 40 townhomes, according to a City of Colwood project update. The already endorsed density of 456-units could change pending revisions and a pursuit of higher density aligning with what became a stalled rezoning effort from 15-years-ago (please see below for more). Housing will be in the form of single-family-dwellings, townhomes and higher density apartments. A hotel is part of the concept, although both Langford and Colwood have provisions for a potential transient lodging-zoned complex.

 

Opened in 1990, the 18-hole, 72-par Olympic View course is situated within the municipalities of Langford, Colwood and Metchosin at 643 Latoria Road. However, the actual golf course is solely within Metchosin and development lands are in Langford and Colwood.

 

The course’s ownership group (Burrard International and GolfBC) has been pursuing a housing component on its lands since the 1990s. An earlier iteration of approved plans dating to 1997 had envisioned 237-units of housing within the City of Langford, according to planning documents from the City.

 

In the mid-2000s – subsequent to rezonings that secured roughy 900-units of housing split between Langford and Colwood in the early 2000s – plans were underway seeking approvals for approximately 1,800-units of housing with towers rising as tall as 33-storeys. The latter vision was retired due to the market crash of 2008 and a prolonged slump in real-estate activity thereafter throughout the south Island. C

 

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