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Revelstoke Mountain Resort owners criticize council over treehouse hotel vote

The owners of Revelstoke Mountain Resort are “dismayed and very concerned” by council’s vote in support of treehouse hotel development.
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Tom Gaglardi

The owners of Revelstoke Mountain Resort are “dismayed and very concerned” by council’s vote to approve the treehouse hotel development last week.

In a statement issued Thursday morning, Northland Properties and Revelstoke Mountain Resort re-iterated many of its criticisms of the proposed re-zoning for David Evans' 18-acre property on Camozzi Road, just south of the resort’s base lands.

“We believe Revelstoke City Council voted to ignore official community development plans and previous formal agreements, created by and for the community and the resort,” said Graham Rennie, the President of RMR in the statement. “These plans and agreements were developed over a number of years by committed and well informed stakeholders and experts. Council chose to ignore these plans and commitments made in good faith in order to support the interests of one developer who has now, in less than 12 months, been granted residential and commercial developments rights for more than 53 acres in Revelstoke.”

Rennie said council ignore the advice of experts and rushed the re-zoning process and didn’t fully consider the impacts the treehouse hotel development will have on the resort and the community.

“This decision will divide Revelstoke by allowing accommodation and retail development on both sides of the resort,” he stated. “This in the long term is bad for the economic health of the community and downtown, devalues the resort’s base lands and inhibits the ability for the resort to recover its infrastructure costs to date and to invest in future improvements through real estate sales.”

They also say the vote runs counter to the results of a poll the resort conducted in the days leading up to the vote.

Council gave third reading last week to adopt a Comprehensive Development zone on the property that would allow for multiple hotels on the site. The city and Evans still need to sign a Master Development Agreement before the re-zoning bylaw can be adopted and the development can proceed.

Under the plan approved by council, Evans can develop one-third of his property once re-zoning is finalized, a second third in five years, and the final third in 10 years.

In a follow-up e-mail, the Review asked how the vote would impact the resort's plans moving forward. Rennie declined an interview, saying he "cannot comment on any future development plans or updates to the Master Development Plan."

The complete statement from RMR and Northland follows:

Northland Official Comments on Treehouse Development by AlexCooperRTR on Scribd