It seems the proposed South Skirt Mountain development is on hold (for a week or more, maybe) as contractors map and survey the steep bluffs on the western edge of the hill for the wreckage of a 1967 plane crash.

WTF Langford? got the tip from alert observers who spotted the consultants skulking through the bush near the gravel pit north of Amy Road. Today, Ross Crockford confirmed that the area is listed as a provincial heritage site.

Last year, Crockford, a contributor to Victoria Boulevard magazine and other fine local journals, visited the crash site and interviewed the families of the two men who were lost. The report and photos are posted on his blog, Unknown Victoria.

 

 

The plane was a water bomber piloted by Alex Davidson and Paddy Moore, the Flying Fireman. They were answering an emergency call about a fire near Goldstream Park on a hot day in July when the plane went down.

"The plane crash site is technically considered a protected area for heritage protection," Crockford said. He explained that every plane crash and shipwreck site gets a provincial designation that sets a two-kilometer-wide buffer zone around the site as a protected area.

What next? If the developers don't get a waiver that allows them to develop within two kilometers of the site, it has been suggested that they should create a memorial park and leave the crash site undisturbed.

And the 8,000-year-old grave sites on the mountain should get the same respect. Amen.

Background: The proposed South Skirt Mountain development, like its neighbour Bear Mountain Resort before it, would destroy native sites (some 8000 years old) and rare garry oak and arbutus ecosystems. Langford Council is promoting the development, and has taken the highly questionable step of applying for a federal infrastructure grant to build roads to service the resort and the planned condo development adjacent to Goldstream Provincial Park.

The development bylaw passed third reading earlier this year after two contentious public hearings. Langford City Council could adopt the bylaw at its regular council meeting on Monday, May 4 or Monday, May 18. Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network, a local non-profit environmental group, has put council on notice that it will petition BC Supreme Court to quash the bylaw on the grounds of due process violations.

 

 

More info: http://forestaction.ca