The City of Colwood is growing, with major projects like Royal Bay and Beachlands expanding at an incredible rate. That growth comes with benefits to the community, such as park space and commercial opportunities, although it also brings some potential pressure points that the municipality is trying to get ahead of. Georgia Desjardins is the vice-president of Seacliff Properties and Jon Stovell is the president of Reliance Properties. Those are the two companies that have joined forces to bring The Beachlands development along Colwood’s shoreline to life. “It has been a labour of love,” said Desjardins. “It has been a big journey and we are well on our way to what is probably a 15-year total build-out here,” said Stovell. The Beachlands is a 54-hectare former gravel pit that, once built out, will be home to 2,850 residential units. Two hotels have been pitched for the site, along with thousands of square feet of commercial space. More than $150 million has already been invested into servicing roughly one third of the development site, including creating nearly two kilometres of roadway. “Tomorrow we’re celebrating the opening of our first park dedication to the City of Colwood,” said Desjardins. It is the first piece of what will become a 20-hectare park dedication to the City of Colwood. A local tender has just been awarded to a local company to construct the next phase of park space along the upper bluffs of the site overlooking the ocean, which will include an amphitheatre. “I’m going to say it (The Beachlands) is going to be the cultural downtown of Colwood, but not the commercial downtown,” said Stovell. On the cultural front, across the road from The Beachlands, construction is well underway on the Royal BC Museum’s Provincial Archives and Collections building (PARC). “The concept of the building was actually a purpose-built facility for our collections,” said Allison Bond, CEO of the Royal BC Museum. Millions of artifacts that museum goers have never seen before, as well as the provincial archives, will be moved to the new Colwood location. “People will see our curators and our collections managers working with the items,” said Bond. “They will be able to see some smaller displays, not big exhibits but displays of the work that are in the museum. We are going to have learning spaces, engagement spaces, we’re going to have opportunities for people in the community to come and see what we do at the museum behind the scenes.” The Royal BC Museum plans to open the PARC building in late 2027. It sits in Colwood’s Royal Bay neighbourhood that, once built out, will be home to more than 8,000 units of residential housing, as well as its own commercial space. Over the coming years, the once quiet corner of Colwood will become very busy, and it has already hit Colwood Council’s radar with one goal in mind. “Keep the traffic flowing,” said Doug Kobayashi, the mayor of Colwood. There are only two options for commuters to get in or out of The Beachlands area, either along Latoria Road or Metchosin Road. Kobayashi says council’s focus is on how to keep traffic flowing along Metchosin Road, which is why it has embarked on its Metchosin Road Corridor Study looking into future design options for the thoroughfare. “What does that road look like, is it going to be three lanes or is it four lanes,” said the mayor. Turning lanes are being considered, sidewalks, bike lanes and a traffic light at Lagoon Road. “This will be a medium- to long-term fix that we will be putting onto Metchosin Road to look after all our traffic concerns,” said Kobayashi. Colwood’s mayor says with Beachlands still in its relative infancy, time can be taken to make sure the municipality gets it right, although with multiple projects well underway in the seaside area, traffic woes are sure to follow sooner rather than later.
