Skirt Mountain condo developer sues Bear Mountain
Posted by Steven Hurdle on February 28, 2008
Skirt Mountain condo developer sues Bear Mountain
LANGFORD, BC — Victoria resident Ben Isitt has obtained a Statement of Claim filed on February 20, 2008 in the Vancouver Court Registry against the Bear Mountain Master Parternship (BMMP), LGB9 and Len Barrie, CEO of Bear Mountain. The applicant, QMP Developments Inc. (“Quigg at Bear Mountain”), is a holding company associated with Vancouver developer Robert Quigg, who Langford mayor Stew Young described as “‘the’ developer in Canada right now” in a May 2007 interview. Quigg had planned to build 1000 luxury condominium units on Skirt Mountain, valued at $1.4 billion.
In the lawsuit against Bear Mountain, Quigg’s company QMP alleges that Len Barrie made false and negligent representations including “that a new Bear Mountain interchange was being built by BMMP to connect to the Island highway, and that construction would be complete on the interchange by the end of 2008.”
The lawsuit alleges that BMMP and LGB9 breached contracts signed on 7 July 2006 and 1 June 2007, by taking “steps to develop the Skirt Lands and the Skirt Parcels, including clearing the lands…without consulting with QBM or obtaining QBM’s first approval.” QBM had “sole and exclusive options to purchase” these lands (near the Skirt Mountain summit), the suit claims, however in mid-February BMMP began logging the area. BMMP and LGB9 were also late in transferring eight hectares of nearby lands to Quigg (“The Crusher Lands”/Goudy Lands) and failed to provide Quigg with “full access to BMMP’s list of real estate purchasers, potential client data base, and other relevant marketing information.” The lawsuit alleges that Len Barrie “has wrongfully interfered and intentionally taken steps to cause a breach of the Agreements.”
Finally, the suit alleges that Len Barrie made “pre-contractual representations” to Quigg “that the units that had been sold on the Bear Mountain Lands to date were sold at prices which were overstated by Barrie.”
Quigg requests a court injunction restraining LGB9, BMMP, and Len Barrie “from taking further steps to alter the physical condition of the Skirt Lands, to further subdivide the Skirt Lands, or to dispose of or otherwise encumber the Skirt Lands, in whole or in part, without prior consultation with and approval by the Plaintiffs.” Quigg also claims damages from LGB9 and BMMP for breach of contract and claims damages from Len Barrie for “inducing breach of the Agreements and misrepresentation.”
Sue Hughes said
Well could you be surprised? Not really. When you read the back grounder for Len Barrie actually posted on the bare mountain “resort” (as in …last)
web site. Len describes his activities as naive and that he didn’t know any better. Heck, he started this whole thing by cutting down trees that weren’t on his own property. Then the “prowess of his athletic background” took over (could we read EGO?) and egads… bare mountain was the fix to the fact that it looks like the tree cutting fiasco got him chucked out of the Royal Colwood Golf club.
He seems like a clueless nut bar. However…. according to the back grounder… like all good hockey coaches, (not that he’s even close, apparently his hockey career is a bit lack luster) his big asset is having “great people working on the project from construction to the executive offices” Oh and who could that be, we wonder… the current council and the local development gang? Yikes…
There’s a block busting, industrial human farming league if ever there was one. Easy step up to raw land conversion and baiting the rich folks to the bare mountain “wonderland”.
So in all, it’s quite hilarious that the big money net has snared it’s own players. Not surprising , but somewhat sad that the ernest actions of the people who really live here and have to put up with the environmentally destructive onslaught are met with police action, while the big money gets a legit legal venue and we still get stuck with the highway over pass risk and likely bill.
I’m all for a citizen’s tole booth on the bare mountain side, extracting all the tax payments we’ll be facing when the developers get out of the bill by deciding not to develop the area because it’s tied up in court!!!
Carol Ramsey said
Thank you for posting this information. I notice that the Times Colonist and the Goldstream Gazette didn’t pick up on it, though I see it did get some coverage on local news channels and CFAX last night.
karel roessingh said
Quigg’s allegations against Len Barrie sound all too familiar to Highlanders. In 2002, Bear Mountain cut down acres of trees on their newly-acquired Highlands property (after Len Barrie cut down trees on Colwood Golf Course property without permission) and performed extensive land alterations, all without the proper permits. Clear now, ask later.
During the rezoning process, Bear Mountain promises of annual municipal tax income were overestimated by a factor of about four, discovered by Highlands Council when they did their own math, but not until long after the rezoning was approved and a municipal election had been held. And yet both Langford and Highlands Councils continue to bend over backwards to accommodate Bear Mountain’s voracious appetite for profit and increased density where it is not at all appropriate. Highlands Council recently approved a Langford Bear Mountain sewer pipe to run through the Highlands, without knowing its route, size or capacity, or how it would affect Council’s ability to lay pipes in the future.
Sincerely
Karel Roessingh
Highlands
Spencer Road User said
HAPPY 10,000th!