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Emil Anderson planning new subdivision in Silver Creek, starting with re-activating a gravel pit

Council to consider company’s application to extract gravel from 20060 Hockin Rd.
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A regional district map shows the location of where the gravel operation’s various portions will be located, on 20060 Hockin Road. (FVRD map)

Emil Anderson Construction have plans to build a new subdivision in Silver Creek, with a first step being to get the permission to extract and process gravel at the company’s 20060 Hockin Road property.

The company is requesting a temporary use permit to be able to extract and process gravel at the site, as well as store equipment. Council will consider the application at a meeting Monday, Aug. 24.

Gravel extraction will primarily be at the eastern part of the lot to ‘direct any noise away from the residential subdivision’ to the west of the property chairman of the Emil Anderson Construction board Michael Jacobs stated in a letter to the district. “We’ll be at least a couple hundred metres away from the subdivision, and we will be digging into a bank that will block the noise from going to the west,” he told the Hope Standard. “Most of the extraction, the sound will be bounced off the bank, away from the subdivision.”

Trucks will be using Hockin Road and onto Flood Hope Road to exit the property – dust won’t be an issue on Hockin, Jacobs stated, and the company would be using measures to mitigate dust on the haul road between the gravel face and Hockin.

“We’ll either improve the road and make it mostly dust free by putting recycled asphalt pavement down, or if necessary, run a water truck occasionally,” Jacobs said. He added that magnesium chloride, a dust repellant that Emil Anderson uses on Silver Skagit Road to keep dust down, is available if needed.

“(Emil Anderson) has worked in the Hope community for decades and can perform the gravel extraction without undue disturbance of the neighbourhood,” Jacobs stated in the letter to council.

The construction company has been using the property as an aggregate source of gravel since before 1977, when the company bought the property Jacobs stated.

The lot has previously had a permit to extract gravel dating back to 1994, which expired in 1998 district documents stated.

Since then, the firm has been doing minor gravel extraction at the site, unaware that this had since become a non-conforming use.

The long-term plan for Emil Anderson is to turn the piece of land into a residential subdivision, which would require extracting surplus gravel that covers around 35 per cent of the lot and re-shaping the land Jacobs stated in the letter. The company is already involved in land development in Kelowna, together with Dilworth Quality Homes.

Plans for the subdivision aren’t yet in the detail stage and no timeline can be given, Jacobs said, yet the possibility exists to one day have over 100 home sites on the property. “We would look for them to be similar in size to the neighbouring development to the west, although we would probably prefer to do it fee simple,” he said.

The subdivision will be developed in phases. Emil Anderson will look at trends including the COVID-19 driven trend of people working from home and possibly looking to get out of the city. “Is Hope a desirable place to escape out of Vancouver? Maybe it is,” he said. “There’s all kinds of destinations for people leaving the city, depending upon their lifestyle. So that will be part of the analysis we go through, determining just what type of subdivision we do there and what price range we want to have homes in that subdivision.”

Council is set to discuss the temporary use permit at an Aug. 24 7 p.m. meeting that will be livestreamed via the district’s Facebook page. Jacobs added that Emil Anderson will respond, to the district, to concerns expressed in any letters received from community members.

Written comments on the application can be submitted to the district. Those who want to speak at the meeting can call Donna Bellingham, director of corporate services, at 604-869-5671 to be added to the speakers list.

Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email:
emelie.peacock@hopestandard.com


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A District of Hope map shows the location of the Emil Anderson property where the company is proposing the temporary use of a gravel extraction operation and the long term plans for a new subdivision. (District of Hope map)