Just north of  Echo Heights, on an adjacent property, there's a new development underway. Between Ash Road and Cook Street, forested land has been clearcut. It's all part of a plan for at least a subdivision of about 15 acres.

North Cowichan Mayor Jon Lefebure talked about such subdivisions in the May 3 edition of the Cowichan Valley Citizen newspaper. He talked about one of the reasons council wanted to go ahead on plans to develop the Echo Heights property. "Lefebure said they'd like to show developers a way to create mixed housing," reporter Andrea Rondeau wrote.

Now let's get this straight. The mayor is a former developer. During his many years building houses, he wasn't able to figure out how to create mixed housing. When his company built those two large houses on Esplanade across from Kin Beach, for example, he didn't think of going to the council of the day and asking that the property be rezoned for mixed use housing, including affordable homes.

But now that he's mayor, he's suddenly seen the light and figured out a way to build mixed housing. On municipal land! 52 acres of pristine second-growth forest! With a view! Hmmmmm...

Getting back to that clearcut pictured above, council could have easily put restrictions on development of the 15 acres and forced the developer to follow North Cowichan's own subdivision guidelines. But council, in its wisdom, forgot its own words about landscaping, the environment, etc and allowed the clearcut.