Arbutus Ridge Retirement Community
| Arbutus Ridge, Cowichan Valley | |
|---|---|
| Designated place | |
View of Arbutus Ridge from Cherry Point Beach Park
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| Motto: "Canada's Most Livable and Vibrant Adult Community" | |
 Arbutus Ridge, Cowichan Valley
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| Coordinates: 48°41′35″N 123°32′24″W / 48.69306°N 123.54000°W | |
| Country |
 Canada
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| Province |
 British Columbia
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| Regional District | Cowichan Valley |
| Incorporated | 1987 |
| Government | |
| • Governing body | Arbutus Ridge Strata Corporation Council |
| • MP (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) | Alistair MacGregor |
| • MLA (Cowichan Valley) | Bill Routley |
| Area | |
| • Total | 0.60 km2 (0.23 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 100 m (300 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 987 |
| Time zone | PST (UTC−8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC−7) |
| Postal code span | V0R 1L1 |
| Area code(s) | South Cowichan exchanges: 250 (733, 743, 929) and 778 (356, 423, 748) |
| Highways | British Columbia Highway 1 ie Trans-Canada Highway |
| Waterways | Strait of Georgia |
| Website | Arbutus Ridge Seaside Community for Active Adults |
Arbutus Ridge Seaside Community for Active Adults is an age-qualified, gated community located on the southeastern coast of Vancouver Island in the Cobble Hill Electoral Area of British Columbia's Cowichan Valley Regional District. “Arbutus Ridge was the first comprehensive retirement community built in Canada and it subsequently became the template and proving ground for what has become recognized as an accepted and commonplace age-specific form of housing.”
The community is constructed on a 60-hectare (150-acre) site on a ridge, rising 100 m (328 ft)+ above sea level, overlooking Satellite Channel of the Strait of Georgia in the Salish Sea. The bordering seawater is part of Parks Canada's proposed Southern Strait of Georgia National Marine Conservation Area announced in 2011 to ensure ecological sustainability of the marine environment.
The community is 50 km (31 miles) north of Victoria and 70 km (43 miles) south of Nanaimo. A BC Forests Ministry scientific brochure compares the climate in this area to other locations in Canada: “This small corner of the province enjoys perhaps the finest climate in Canada. Sheltered by the rain shadow of the Vancouver Island and Olympic Mountains, and warmed by the air from the Pacific, the area basks in a Mediterranean-like environment of warm, sunny summers and mild wet winters. Unlike more exposed coastal areas, this zone experiences long, dry summers, a major factor in its ecology.”. Month-by-month historical averages are reported in the "Climate" section below.
The Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia had been examining the development of retirement communities over two decades and in 2009 they commissioned a survey of patterns and trends to better prepare municipal governments for integration with such communities. Their survey of coastal retirement communities in the province categorized Arbutus Ridge as a “master planned lifestyle gated community”. Their report compared relevant attributes of Arbutus Ridge and eight more recently established retirement communities on Vancouver Island.
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Wikipedia