what's going to happen to the rest of Rainbow Ridge?
Development

What’s going to happen to the rest of Rainbow Ridge?

A small portion of the property is going to be used for affordable housing. Some Cortes residents have asked what will happen to the rest of Rainbow Ridge?

Roy L Hales photo

“If there are a few people, there are several people who haven’t come forward to say anything,” said Elizabeth Anderson, President of the Cortes Community Housing Society.

So she sent the following letter out to the community:

Dear Friends & Neighbours, Residents of Cortes Island,

As you may know, Rainbow Ridge is a 51 acre property, located in Mansons Landing. Recently 6 acres of the property has been rezoned allowing us to create 20 Non-Profit affordable rental homes on the northernmost portion (directly south of the Firehall).

We have received some questions about the status of the remaining 45 acres and we would like to publicly restate that our Board of Directors and staff are committed to the following:

  • Maintain a permanent public trail connection from Beasley Road to Cemetery Road.
  • Maintain a wildlife corridor along the west side of the property.
  • Maintain a green buffer along the east side of the property.
  • Include two east-west forested zones and wildlife corridors.
  • Protect the wetland/bog at the south-east corner of the property.
  • Join all other community efforts to continue protecting Hague Lake.
  • In the very unlikely event of the sale or lease of any portion of the remaining 45 acres, then we are committed to placing a covenant on that specific parcel to ensure that all our above mentioned protections are honoured by the new owner/leasee.
The rest of Rainbow Ridge
Map showing where the 51 acres called Rainbow ridge are located. A 6 acre parcel at the top will be used for affordable housing – courtesy Cortes Community Housing website

Our year-end appeal raised all the funds required to retire 100% of the outstanding land loans in 2021, thanks to the immense generousity of local donors, who helped us to take the brave step of purchasing and owning outright these large and important legacy lands.

Through community visioning and collaborations with other Non-Profit groups, we will in time be able to determine specific trail routing, wetland restorations, as well as specific habitat conservation areas, all of which will be sensitively integrated with future housing clusters.

‘It takes a community to raise a village’ and together we can continue to both protect these lands and see our vision of affordable housing on Cortes become a reality.

Thank you all for your interest and your caring.

Sincerely, Elizabeth Anderson, President, on behalf of Cortes Community Housing Society (CHS)

Top photo credit: From the Cortes Community Housing Development in Manson’s Landing  – Priya Huffman photo

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