Summerside council approves zoning for long-awaited resort
CBC
Summerside residents who have heard about a resort coming to the city for decades will have to wait a few more years.
Summerside city council approved two rezoning applications for work to continue on Ocean View Resort at a special meeting of council on Tuesday night.
Council passed both resolutions 6-1. Coun. Norma McColeman voted against the project. Coun. Rick Morrison wasn't part of the vote because his spouse, Nicolle Morrison, is the real estate agent representing the property owner.
"It's really exciting to get this going for tourism and economic development for Summerside," Nicolle Morrison told CBC News.
The project includes a 27-hole golf course, a 96-room resort and a 53-unit condo building.
"It's just a fantastic project. When it opens, everybody will be very, very excited," Morrison said.
"It's going to be a world championship course."
During the council meeting, members of council spoke about concerns they've heard from Summerside residents who worry the project will never become a reality. Ocean View Resort has sat unopened on around 50 acres of land off MacKenzie Drive since Sean Liu bought the property in 2005.
The opening of the property has actually been stalled since 1991, when work began on what was then known as the Dynasty Spa project, but construction stopped only a year later.
The Supreme Court of P.E.I. ordered the property to be auctioned off in 1994 to pay creditors. A group of investors bought the property, but then defaulted on the mortgage, and it was auctioned off again. In 1996, a developer from New York took over the project, then Liu bought the property with plans to open a hotel.
Coun. Justin Doiron is the chair of the planning committee for the city. Although he supports the project, he doesn't blame Summerside residents for speculating it might not open.
"I think they have a right to be skeptical. I think we're all skeptical with the history and the number of times people thought things were moving along," Doiron said.
"I think just based on the presentation and just on the work that is ongoing now, it is evident it is moving ahead this time."
Coun. Norma McColeman pushed back against the project during the council meeting.
London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is getting rid of unlimited mental health benefits for staff, blaming ballooning costs and former administrators for implementing it without proper due diligence or oversight.
Netflix has agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery's TV and film studios and streaming division for $72 billion US, a deal that would hand control of one of Hollywood's most prized and oldest assets to the streaming pioneer that has upended the media industry.
CBC Calgary kicks off its annual Make the Season Kind campaign this morning at Fratello Coffee Roasters.
CBC Newfoundland and Labrador is kicking off its annual holiday campaign, helping to raise money to support local food banks.
If all goes according to plan, at 6 a.m. AT on Saturday people working at the IWK Health Centre will become the test case for a generational change to Nova Scotia’s health-care system.
One month after Prime Minister Mark Carney announced what he called "generational" military spending, New Brunswick’s defence ecosystem is on high alert.
Miranda Mirlycourtois, 34, looks directly at the camera and makes a confession.
Saskatoon city hall says police spending is projected to be $2.6 million over budget this year. That pushes the city into a $1.2-million deficit position, according to a report that will be considered by city council next week.
Students at the University of Regina are days away from deciding whether a newly formed student association should become their official representative body.
All public schools on P.E.I. are closed Friday and thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power as strong winds create hazardous travel conditions across the province.
Prince Rupert, B.C., residents are celebrating the holidays this year with coastal flair.
In the four years Chelsey Simmonds has worked at the Eva Rothwell Centre, she has seen the need increase every year at the centre’s community food pantry.
CBC is once again looking to make the holiday season kind in Windsor-Essex.