Qualicum Beach Residents Plan Protest over Eaglecrest Revisioning

Not withstanding the towns decision to complete the purchase the Eaglecrest golf course lands, many residents throughout the town remain unconvinced that proceeding with the towns "Revisioning of Eaglecrest" is the best path forward.

As always, the devil is in the details.

Details with respect to increased costs, increased density and building heights and traffic flows are now becoming clearer. Some residents contemplating the effect these changes will have on their immediate neighbourhood are now expressing their concerns and asking the town to pause and reconsider the "revisioning."

Signs are appearing in local shop windows and bulletin boards from a group of residents who are organizing a peaceful protest to be held outside city hall on March 25th from 9 to 10 am. They are signaling to council that the public debate should not be considered as complete.

Unrelated to the planned protest, is the The Eaglecrest Residents Association who wrote to council on Feb 6 2026. I found their letter to be very well written including this paragraph which highlights their position;

"Having engaged its 325 member households and greater Eaglecrest community, the Association has determined a community consensus on "Eaglecrest Revisioning" to be:

"Eaglecrest must continue with the vision that has guided its development over 5 decades- a low density residential neighbourhood integrated with a golf course, with protected recreational green space."

The town has already undertaken several public engagement initiatives directly aimed at residents within Eaglecrest. These included a Eaglecrest resident online survey from Feb13 to March 8, an Eaglecrest Resident Workshop on Feb 26 and two Eaglecrest Resident large group meetings on March 10.

Further public engagement is planned for Qualicum Beach residents in general.

These include an online survey which is open until March 23, and a public meeting on April 2nd, at 3 pm at the Civic Center. (747 Jones street)

While I expect the bulk of residents planning to protest live in Eaglecrest, all residents of Qualicum Beach will be affected by the financial impacts of this purchase and the already up-zoning adjacent lands to be sold to ultimately pay for the golf course. The general pubic engagement meeting is not scheduled until April 2 and yet the town seems to be pulling out all the stops to get the golf course reconfigured, rebuilt and open for play as soon as possible.

$2.5 million has been allocated for the golf course reconstruction. A contractor has been hired and the usual control processes to minimize project cost overruns have been tossed aside under the guise of efficiency.

It is pretty difficult to not feel some sympathy for residents of Eaglecrest who are not being asked but forced to pay the ultimate price which is the loss of privacy for some and for all Eaglecrest residents the sense of loss for their single family home, neighbourhood community. Introducing four and five story buildings to this neighbourhood directly next to single family homes will change the feel of this neighbourhood significantly. While not required legally, our council could have undertaken a referendum supported with well researched objective and unbiased documents to ensure public "buy in" on their plans prior to completing the purchase. Financial risk and changes of magnitude warrant the expense of a referendum and ensure the public has had equal opportunity to influence councils decisions.

Instead we are still awaiting a full accounting of the purchase costs and details as to how much was taken from which reserve funds to complete the property purchase. No release has been made with respect to the business plan for the golf course once fully operational. We have no further details on the estimated appraisal values of the properties the town is planning to sell as currently rezoned. We have no detailed time line of how long it is expected to take to market these properties and actually eventually return funds to our various reserves.

I support these residents who are asking the town to take a pause and review the plan in detail including exploring other alternatives. Since we now own the golf course lands options for refinancing the purchase with long term debt or some combination of sale of land with lower density and debt are still potential solutions to maintain the integrity of the Eaglecrest community. Hopefully town council will take notice.

Marie Noel

March 11 2026

We welcome your comments and feedback.

You can email us at QualicumBeachinsights@gmail.com

More Info:

Link to the Eaglecrest general survey

Link to Eaglecrest Residents Association Feb 6 2026 Letter to Council

Link to Eaglecrest project page on the towns website