Postponed Lost growth

46-home subdivision, 1085 Ravensbourne Lane

A rezoning for 29 parcels holding 46 homes next to the airport. In July 2024 Council sent the plan amendment to the 2025 plan review and postponed the rezoning until after it. The review finished a year ago; the file is still in staff review.

Town tax lost (our estimate)
$79K a year
Not built
46 homes
Where it stands
Held up since July 2024. Rezoning for 29 parcels holding 46 homes: 15 detached, 11 duplexes and 3 triplexes. Council sent the plan amendment to the 2025 plan review and postponed the rezoning until after it, both unanimous. Staff recommended that, and said the application was still incomplete. The 2025 plan was adopted a year ago; the Town’s tracker still shows the file in staff review.

What it is

1085 Ravensbourne Lane is a rural-zoned parcel north of the Qualicum Beach Airport. The applicant asked to subdivide it into 29 parcels holding 46 homes: 15 single detached houses, 11 duplexes and 3 triplexes.

Two changes were needed. The Official Community Plan designation had to move from Rural to Single-family Residential, and the Urban Containment Boundary — the line the Town draws around where urban development may go — had to be widened to take the property in. The zoning would move from Rural 1 to a new site-specific zone, because no existing residential zone fits the proposed density.

On July 17, 2024 Council referred the plan amendment to the 2025 Official Community Plan review for discussion, and postponed the rezoning until after that review concluded. Both motions were unanimous.

What happened

  1. April 9, 2024The rezoning application is made (file 2024-ZBA-02).
  2. July 17, 2024Council refers the plan amendment to the 2025 Official Community Plan review and postpones the rezoning until after it. Both unanimous. Staff recommended both.
  3. December 11, 2024Council drops the multi-topic plan review and runs a narrower housing-focused review instead.
  4. 2025The new Official Community Plan, Bylaw No. 918, is adopted. It sets the airport area toward light industrial and silviculture, and says a separate Airport Area Plan will be developed to explore other uses for the land to the north.
  5. September 20, 2026The Town's development tracker still shows the file at “Staff Review”.

Why it matters

  • Town property tax: about $79,000 a year, our estimate, once built. That is 15 homes at the Vancouver Island benchmark single-family price for August 2026 ($788,100) and 31 duplex and triplex homes at the townhouse benchmark ($550,000), times the Town's 2026 rate ($2.7401 per $1,000).
  • Staff gave reasons for waiting. Deciding a single-property plan amendment immediately before a full plan review would duplicate the work and confuse residents, and housing was to be a major topic in that review.
  • Staff also raised a real conflict. Town policy supports the long-term operation of the airport, and housing close to an airport tends to generate noise complaints and land-use conflicts. Staff said the two competing interests would have to be weighed by Council, and that there may be ways to manage the conflict through design, construction requirements, notice on title and legal agreements.
  • The application was not complete. Staff listed missing items including an existing site plan, planning analysis, floor plans, elevations, a landscape plan and a stormwater management plan, and said they had brought it to Council before asking for those because of the coming review.

Sources

Last checked October 3, 2026. Report a mistake.