Lexi Development UPDATE – 899 Esquimalt Road
As we know, Lexi Development Group is confined by a number of conditions and requirements under the covenant that was placed on the 899 Esquimalt Road property title, including:
Lexi is to construct a 4000 square foot purpose built medical centre, dedicated to a health care clinic, which is defined as a clinic staffed by a minimum of 4 family physicians who are registered with and licenced by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC.
Tenants for the medical clinic must be secured, at a specific subsidized rental rate, for 10 years or Lexi will be required to pay a $160,000 security to the
Township in order to proceed with subdividing/transferring of titles.
As the FAR (floor area in relation to size of lot) will be above 1.5 a cash contribution of $54,000 to the Township will be required.
Kayak Docks Fund – a cash contribution to the Township of $150,000 is required.
Built Green Canada Silver Certification is required.
The condition requiring Lexi to provide a $54,000 cash contribution to the Township, to be used at the Township’s discretion “in relation to health and community well-being matters generally” is the focus of this update.
On Monday December 6th, 2021 Lexi, together with their consulting firm Need2Talk Society, was on the Esquimalt Council Meeting Agenda with a proposal seeking permission to use the $54,000 covenant funds to pay “Need2Talk Society” to develop Lexi’s Pacific House Primary Care Clinic Operating Model for their new development.
Their submission noted that Need2Talk would also use the results of this work to determine if it was feasible for their enterprise to manage the day-to-day operations of a clinic, once it is operating.
Further study shows that the Need2TalkSociety was registered in 2020, after Council approved Lexi and has no other activities listed. One of the 3 listed Directors is Eileen Pepler who was originally hired by the Fraternal Order of Eagles on Esquimalt Road, to undertake a cachment area health review report. She was deeply engaged in advising Mayor and Council on the health care needs of the Township and with Lexi on their inclusion of the promise of a health care clinic in their proposal to Council.
Many people in the community including Council members anticipated that the Lexi development would include an Urgent and Primary Care Centre (UPCC) in the building, which did not happen. Happily, the Province did decide that Esquimalt should have an UPCC and built one across the street from Lexi at the plaza.
The Lexi/Need2Talk proposal was submitted to Council in May 2021 and was placed on the Council agenda in December 2021. Council postponed the agenda item to review the legalities of the issue with their legal department.
We do not know the outcome of the legal review but it has come to our attention that the proposal has recently been withdrawn by the proponents.
While the proposal is apparently off the table at this time, it is surprising that Lexi/Need2Talk Society would have made the proposal in the first place thinking that it would be permissible to use the public funds meant for the community in exchange for their density bonusing, to pay their consultants for their own business model report and feasibility study.
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