A grassroots movement to form neighbourhood associations is growing in Comox

First in a series of articles about neighbourhood associations

What causes a homeowner quietly minding their own business and enjoying their small town home to one day suddenly morph into a determined political activist, printing leaflets and going on the stump.

For some Comox residents, it was last year’s OCP process.

Every five years, British Columbia municipalities must update their Official Community Plan, a document that presents a shared long-term and comprehensive vision created by citizens and municipal partners, and the means to achieve that vision together.

But within neighborhoods from east to west across the town, citizens discovered they did not share the updated OCP’s vision for their community. According to some, the final product didn’t look like what people said that they wanted at two public hearings.

Slowly, a grassroots movement grew as neighbors formed associations, some more casual than others, out of concerns that the Town Council majority had not listened to the community or had simply ignored them.

As one neighborhood activist told Decafnation, “It was supposed to be my community plan, our community plan.”

These informal associations have strengthened relationships among neighbours over the last seven months and brought attention to other neighbourhood issues, such as traffic and quality of life. They have spawned family events, potlucks, beer nights and fire engine tours.

And it seems to have energized people to take active roles in the current municipal election.

Today, we look at three neighbourhood groups, the Pritchard Road Neighbourhood Association, and the as yet unnamed groups in the Pioneer Park/Manor Drive area and Buena Vista Avenue.

Here are their stories.

Pritchard Road Neighbourhood Association member Glenn Lawson at his Balsam Avenue home

PRITCHARD ROAD NEIGHBOURHOOD ASSOCIATION

When Glenn Lawson heard in January 2025 that the property at 1533 Cedar Avenue, which shares a property line with his home, was sold, he inquired about it at the town office. A planner he knew showed him the new owner’s plans – Cameron Contracting – for one five-story and one four-storey apartment buildings. That set off alarm bells.

The plans showed buildings so out of character with the neighbourhood that Lawson knew the developer’s plans would ruin the enjoyment of his home. The corner of one building was mere feet from the hedge separating the Cameron and Lawson properties.

And he also sensed the project would pose a danger to Brooklyn Creek.

That same evening, Lawson had gathered 10 people around his dining room table. They agreed to get informed and try to save their neighbourhood.

It was a mixed group of people from various backgrounds that initially came together. One neighbour had worked as a scientist for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, another held a PhD in the sciences. Both were members of the Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society.

The people at the meeting were unanimous in their objections to the type of buildings Cameron planned, the re-zoning that would be required and the proposed outflow of rainwater from the parking lots directly into Brooklyn Creek. They also worried about the amount of increased traffic onto Cedar, a side street to Prichard.

As a result of these concerns and a need for more information, more homeowners in the Pritchard Road area started to organize themselves. They ultimately formed an informal association called the Pritchard Road Neighbourhood Association (PRNA).

Members walked the creek trail, handing out leaflets to hikers and distributed 400 other pamphlets to homeowners on both sides of the creek in order to raise awareness in the community.

The Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society soon got involved and wrote a report about the dangers to the creek and the damage the outflow carrying 6PPDQ, a
toxic chemical given off from rubber tires, would do to the Creek and Coho Salmon, and sent copies to the Town of Comox and the Province

As awareness grew, so did membership in the PRNA. When PRNA called a general meeting on March 16th at the United Church in Comox, 80 people attended for information and prepared to fight the development proposal.

It created a surge of energy among the homeowners.

At a later meeting Lawson had with town planners to talk about the project, he asked them what they thought of it.

“They said they loved it,” he told Decafnation. “They were cheerleading for it because it’s high density close to downtown, and the town is driven to build”.

It turned out that the town’s planners had been working with Cameron on the Cedar Avenue project during the OCP process. But it was not made public until after the council approved the updated OCP.

It was the same situation with the 10-storey building proposed for West Comox, in the Manor Park area. Both developments were hidden from public scrutiny during the OCP process

The Pritchard neighbourhood eventually convinced the Town Council not to advance the Cedar Avenue proposed project to a public hearing. But that’s not the end of the story.

“We got lucky,” Lawson says. “I smelled a rat and we got on it quickly, raising its profile in an election year.”

He says the council saw how mobilized the PRNA was and that supporting the developer might imperil their hopes for re-election. But Cameron is free to try again with the new council after the election.

“If it’s the same council next month, the vote may go in Cameron’s favor,” he said.

While PRNA is not involved in the election, many of its members are personally active in the campaigns of the challengers, door knocking and doing what they can to change the council composition.

Lawson personally rented the Comox United Church hall and invited the four first-time council candidates plus incumbents Jonathan Kerr and Jenn Meilleur. Around 100 people attended the conversational style event.

“This election is our one chance to change the dynamic at the town offices,” he said.

Meanwhile, the threat of a development certain to change the character of their neighbourhood, has created a new sense of community for Pritchard Road neighbors. New relationships have resulted. A renewed sense of gratefulness for their natural surroundings has evolved.

The association held a block party this summer with permission to close Pritchard Road for a few hours. They hired a band and everyone brought food. The Comox Fire Department showed up unexpectedly and gave children tours of the big rig.

New social groups for men and women have also formed that didn’t exist before neighbors banded together over a common cause.

Lawson says he hopes to foster the growth of neighbourhood associations in Comox, similar to the neighbourhood network in Courtenay.

“We can get the community we the people actually want.”

Yvette Crane in Pioneer Park, a gather place for residents in the West Comox neighbourhood in and around Manor Drive

WEST COMOX/PIONEER PARK

When the Victoria-based Arpeg Group of Companies proposed to build a new 10-storey apartment building in the Pioneer Park/Manor Drive area of West Comox, nearby residents were shocked. And Yvette Crane knew something had to be done.

Crane and others attended a community-wide meeting on the issue at the Little Red Church. Homeowners from both sides of Comox Avenue came together with residents of Emerald Shores, Eagle Ridge and Manor Park condos and the Mariner apartment building.

“The concern was for the character of the area, the park and habitat and also for the fate of Mariner apartment residents and how to protect them,” she told Decafnation.

After the meeting, neighboruhood residents formed a loose association to write letters to the Town Council, gather information and stay connected. Many, perhaps most of the residents had not written letters to a government before.

“After the Red Church meeting, people felt excited to be part of a larger group of like-minded people,” she says. “It’s satisfying to be looking after our own area.

“We came together over a specific issue, but it’s become more than that.”

The group plans to muster support for passage of a Tenant Protection Bylaw by the new council, which would provide some security for Mariner residents. And they have other plans, too, including an effort to work on neighbourhood emergency preparedness – who’s vulnerable, needs medications, or isn’t mobile.

People who live in the area’s apartments, condos and single family homes all seem to gather and interact at Pioneer Park, where a lot of chatter about community and the town’s character is taking place.

They’re concerned about the park’s future, too. It’s the site of Saint John the Baptist Catholic cemetery, and you’ll find well-known names on the plaques, such as Filberg, Piercy and Macdonald.

Naturally, the area’s residents are also having individual conversations about the election and the candidates. The Red Church meeting revealed that people were frustrated by the council’s process to update the town’s Official Community Plan.

“About 90 percent of us felt the same way and gave the same feedback to the town. But the town ignored us,” Crane said. “It’s supposed to be my community plan, our community plan.”

Crane says she and others followed the rules about how to engage with the Town Council.

“We did what we were supposed to do, but we weren’t taken seriously,” she said.

Buena Vista Avenue resident Martha Gerow in her backyard

BUENA VISTA AVENUE

Buena Vista Avenue is a tree-lined street with no sidewalks that stretches from Anderton Road to Church street, from a strip mall to the Comox Golf Club. It’s a popular walking street due to its hundreds of tall fir trees and old world charm.

So when Buena Vista residents learned at a June 2025 Open House for the OCP that the Town Council majority had planned to allow six-storey apartment or condo buildings on both sides of the street, they were shocked. 

Long-time Buena Vista resident Martha Gerow said learning what was actually in the OCP motivated a number of neighbours to distribute leaflets and make phone calls to pack the plan’s first Public Hearing in November, four months later. (The building heights were later dropped to three storeys.)

“It frightened us. People were scared,” Gerow told Decafnation. “People woke up. They lost trust in the Town Council.”

After the June Open House, neighbours rented a hall and sent out a flyer inviting people to discuss the OCP’s proposed changes and how the group could protect their neighbourhood from losing its charm. Thirty people showed up.

While signage on the street indicates a high interest in next Saturday’s (Oct. 17) election, the group is not a political organization.

“There are diverse opinions. Organizing is a way to stay in touch and get the word out,” she said.

Gerow believes that forming a neighbourhood group creates a more unified and powerful voice to speak to the Town Council.

And she also sees the Buena Vista group eventually turning to issues that are apolitical, like building a communication network and stronger interpersonal relationships to draw on in the future. Another positive outcome of the growing neighbourhood movement might be a town-wide network, where the associations communicate and support each other. “There’s some power in that,” she says.

Gerow believes Comox residents including Buena Vista neighbors don’t want Comox to become like Langford or White Rock. At one time, she used to drive the ‘Langford Crawl’ every day.

“We do not have the road infrastructure for density in the downtown core,” she said.

A proposal to build a mid-rise, 221-unit apartment building on the old “cabins” property that stretches from Comox Avenue to Buena Vista has the potential to create a traffic choke point at the Anderton intersection. Gerow said it’s already difficult to make a left turn onto Anderton.

Bonnie Brett, another Buena Vista homeowner who returned to Comox after a career in Toronto, said she was disconcerted at the deforestation and development. She grew up in Merville, her husband in Black Creek.

She hopes the Buena Vista group will bring neighbors together and let the town know that “Hey, we’re here. And we’re paying attention.”

Brett supports thoughtful development not “slap-dash, in and out” design and construction.

“It’s not just size that matters,” she told Decafnation. “It’s the composition, the shape and stepbacks, the scale of the buildings, too.”

Brett also cautioned that steep increases in densification can have collateral effects on the crime rates, traffic and noise levels.

“In Toronto I saw areas of the city where developers really got it right and then others where the way they built had disastrous consequences,” she said. “We would do well to learn from the mistakes of larger urban centres because here we have a wonderful opportunity to build something that works well for the long term.”

She wants more livable planning. “Imagine if developers created places where people aspire to live, not ones they just settle for.”

Both Gerow and Brett believe the neighbourhood group will be stewards of the inclusiveness of the surrounding natural environment for future generations.

“We can be stewards not just for the people living on Buena Vista, but also for the community that enjoys walking here, knowing that such an attractive area exists,” Gerow said.

They both want their neighbourhood association to be a force for positive change.

“Just imagine, “ Brett said. “That the town required developers to propose things that the community actually wants and that excites everyone, rather than the dreary developments they know people will oppose.”

Next: Hector Road and Radford Beach