Economic Development

To the Nanoose First Nation peoples economic development is the process of raising the level of prosperity and material living in a society through increasing the productivity and efficiency of its economy.

The Nanoose First Nation Administration along with Chief & Council have created amongst themselves with outside assistance i.e. lawyers, developers, contractors etc. an Economic Development Committee to strengthen its community financially and raise its standards of living.

Many contractors and developers have come to the doorstep of the Nanoose people striving to develop its lands and provide a means of growing economically, but the Nanoose people believe in the land they occupy and would like to provide meaningful input into what developments occur on their lands.

The Nanoose First Nation has contacted Colliers Hudema Consulting to undertake an analysis of their developable lands to determine the highest and best use, as well as future revenue and land values based on the developable potential of the lands.

The Highest and Best Use (HBU) analysis will be comleted for all three waterfront commercial properties: the existing waterfront, waterfront fill area and additional waterfront commercial.

The ultimate land uses that this study determines as "highest and best" will conform to certain established criteria, making it physically possibile, legally permissable, reasonably probable, financiall feasible and maximally productive. A use is determined to be physically possible if th sites size, shape, terrain, accessiblity and risk of natural disasters are conductive to development of that use on the site.

The HBU analysis of the waterfront commercial will consider a range of uses such as:

• Hotel
• Marina
• Marina related retail
• Retail
• Other uses will be considered after inspecting the site

The HBU of the Highway Commercial sites will be based on a commercial overview of the area. As with the waterfront sites, the HBU analysis will focus on the uses that are physically possible, legally permissable, financially feasible and maximally productive.

To determine the highest and best use of the highway commercial sites a high-level retail/commercial overview of the area will be created. The retail overview will include the following:

• Potential types of retail and service commercial suitable for site - based on the location and layout of the site, certain types of retail wil be more suitable than others - big box retail, gas station, fast food, etc.
• Trade Area Delineation - Based on the types of commercial determined to be suitable for the site, trade areas will be created. The trade areas will be the geographic areas from where the subject site will expect to attract expenditures.
• Traffic Flows - A review of the amount of traffic that passes the site will be provided.
• Demand Potential - Based on the demographics of the trade area, and the traffic flows an estimate of potential demand at the site will be created.
• Competitive supply - A review of existing commercial competition for both trade area residents and traffic flows on the highway will be created.