DEVELOPER FLOATING IDEA OF POT-FREE, GATED COMMUNITY

The public can get a firsthand look Saturday at a new subdivision
that's being sold on its design to keep out grow-ops.

Plans for the 13-lot subdivision on Promontory include a number of
measures such as security gates, a 24-hour surveillance camera to
forward photographs to police, central hydro meters that the strata
council can monitor, and a ban on basement suites or foil covering
over windows. As well, owners will be required to forfeit their homes
if they are found to be using them for operations such as marijuana
growing or crystal meth labs.

For developer Bill Coughlin, the matter is one of security for the
buyer, particularly at a time when home-based drug businesses are
springing up all over.

"You've got your neck stuck out on the line," he said. "You want some
security."

For example, for a neighbourhood in the Fraser Valley, the mere
presence of a grow-op can immediately lower the value of adjacent
homes by $50,000.

Coughlin said the plan to have subdivision free from grow-ops came to
mind about a year ago when he was talking to one of his clients who
had bought a home in the most upscale neighbourhood of Mission. Then
it was discovered there was a grow-op nearby, then another at a house
right next door that always seemed to be abandoned.

"He had never seen a live body," Coughlin said.

Another homeowner he knows then told Coughlin about the four busts in
her neighbourhood, and those were just the ones she knew about.

As Chilliwack has been one of the fastest growing areas for grow-ops,
Coughlin figures the time was right to put in a subdivision where
homeowners can have a little security about who their neighbours are.

"We have established a new community that is absolutely criminal
activity free."

To Coughlin, arrangements such as strata ownership and entrance gates
are a good start to cut down on the chance of criminal activity in a
neighbourhood.

"Typically any criminal activity is going to be resistant to go
through a set of gates," Coughlin said.

The new subdivision, known as Promontory Park, is located on
Valleyview Heights. The open house will run on Saturday from noon
until 4 p.m.

The City of Chilliwack has been battling grow-ops on another front by
bringing in fines of $10,000 for landlords whose properties are used
to produce narcotics and who have not take steps to monitor their
properties.