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Developer hosting second open house for Shelter Bay project

Developer Ender Ilkay is returning to Revelstoke on Tuesday to show new plans for his proposed 5,200 acre development near Shelter Bay.
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Shelter Bay developer Ender Ilkay during his last open house.

Developer Ender Ilkay is returning to Revelstoke next Tuesday to show a new set of plans for his proposed 5,200 acre development near Shelter Bay south of Revelstoke.

Ilkay will be hosting an open house and presentation at the community centre on Mar. 27 from 4:30-9 p.m., during which he will go over the changes to the 722-unit development.

He held his first open house for the development in November 2010. Since then, he said he went through the feedback and fine tuned the plan.

He said the new plan has a smaller footprint. “The amount of area of the land covered by development ends up being a little smaller,” he said. “The unit count stays consistent. It’s basically configuration is the key thing that’s changed.”

He said that more units will have full water and sewer services rather than be on their own well and septic systems.

“We’ve increased the amount of units that can actually have full services. That took some work to adjust the layout and so forth,” he said. “I don’t want to give everything away because I want people to come and see it.”

Ilkay acquired the land when the forestry company Pope & Talbot went bankrupt in 2008.

Ilkay recently met with the Area B Advisory Planning Commission to go over the new plans.

“He definitely has listened to what the APC has had to say,” said Area B director Loni Parker. “Of course there are some outstanding concerns because it’s still early on in the process.

“I think he’s really trying to do his due diligence to make sure that he puts something together that would be acceptable to the community.”

At the last open house in 2010, Ilkay’s proposal was supported by some people for the potential economic benefits, however it also came under criticism for the potential environmental impact.

Since the last open house Ilkay saw one of his proposed development near Victoria turned down by the local government. He said that decision has not had any impact on the Shelter Bay development.

“It’s a completely different project,” he said. “I learn from every experience so in that aspect I think it helped but has it changed anything? No.”

He said he is aiming to start the official zoning process with the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District after the open house.

“If all that goes well, then obviously we’d like to get underway,” he said. “I’d love to see actual development on Phase 1 starting next year.”