Skip to content

Editorial: Managing the change new hospital will bring to neighbourhood

The biggest change will come from the inevitable development around the hospital.
12933105_web1_180508-CCI-M-180411-CCI-M-cdh

It was inevitable that when the site was chosen for the new Cowichan District Hospital along Bell McKinnon Road the character of the immediate environs would change.

Not only will the area see a lot more traffic, with people coming to and from the hospital, but a large institution changes the landscape, which is mostly small farming properties (whether they are being operated as such or not) or large rural lots, with not a tall building in sight.

But the biggest change will come from the inevitable development around the hospital. People will want to live in the immediate vicinity and so more housing will be built. This means subdivision of properties and a lot of construction. With people and the hospital itself will come the demand for amenities, this means shops and offices.

Look at the area around any hospital anywhere and this is true.

So the days are likely numbered for the big properties with a single house in the midst of a hayfield or brushland in the local neighbourhood. Some owners will be thrilled, others not so much.

But North Cowichan has done some due diligence on this impending building boom. They’re in the final stages of passing a bylaw that will limit what they’re calling the core village area to 1.51 hectares of land situated at the northwest corner of Bell McKinnon and Herd roads. They’ve designated that this is where the main development can occur, particularly in terms of commercial development and other amenities.

It’s a decent compromise. We don’t want another downtown to spring up. Successive councils have always resisted, rightly, the ambitions of various developers to stretch the urban core out along the highway in an ugly sprawl.

But with the hospital going in there will be change. Better to manage the flow than be swept away.