He has a vision of creating a new and modern community within his hometown.
Selected by the Optimist as its Newsmaker of the Year, developer Sean Hodgins has also become a central figure in the ongoing and often contentious debate over the Southlands.
Hodgins, a life-long resident whose Century Group developments are a part of everyday life in Tsawwassen, and whose family is well known for its philanthropy, is well aware his current proposal has both supporters as well as its fair share of critics.
Noting change is often tough to sell in established communities where little has occurred in decades, Hodgins says Tsawwassen can't be labeled any more NIMBY (not in my back yard) than other towns, although there are some differences.
"I don't really view Tsawwassen in some ways as being all that different. What's different is the politics of personality, which is much more acute here.
"I think it feels more personal. In the context of a Surrey or Vancouver or another jurisdiction, more so in Delta I feel like I know the opposition. Not only that, I know them all by first name. I hold them no ill will, and I think some of what they say is wrong, and it feels personal when they say things."
The Century Group has owned the 536-acre Southlands, which has a long history of controversy, since TDL's development bid in the late 1980s was rejected and the company defaulted on its mortgage.
Several years ago Hodgins began consultations, which eventually led to the formation of the Southlands Community Planning Team, and later a design charrette. He brought in internationally renowned planner Andres Duany, a founder of the Congress of the New Urbanism, to help come up with a development scheme.
What resulted was a 1,900-home proposal, one that was vastly different from anything previously put forward in Delta or the region. It followed concepts of new urbanism and agricultural urbanism, ideas that in many instances were completely
foreign for Deltans. It wasn't long before concerns were raised about such issues as traffic and congestion, but it also became a focal point in the debate about the need for growth and the preservation of farmland.
Hodgins' vision is decidedly different from developments done decades earlier by his late father, George, who founded Century Holdings and is credited for building much of present-day Tsawwassen.
It's now a community that some, including Duany, characterize as classic sprawl with an aging population and limited housing choices.
In an interview three years ago, Hodgins said he became a disciple of new urban planning after a golf course community he was involved with in Calgary.
While it is a nice enough development, he said, he realized after it was built it could have been much more than another automo-bile-ori-ented community.
"I saw new ways of doing better development and learned about the new urbanism concepts that are really just a duplication of how we used to build communities pre-World War II," he said.
"That's really what new urbanism is. It documents the things that work and also documents what we don't want, and that's been a big part of this process."
His initial Southlands proposal, which included donating land to Delta for small-scale farming, never got off the ground, but a revised version, which has cut the number of housing units to 950 and increased the amount of land deeded to Delta to 80 per cent of the site, is winding its way through municipal hall.
The new proposal continues to face stiff opposition, particularly from Southlands the Facts, which insists the entire property should remain as designated.
Although he has been a central figure in local discussions, Hodgins has gone through some highs and lows elsewhere as well.
In September, the province opted to halt development on a contested property in the Marpole area of Vancouver, where Century Group proposed a housing project, after negotiations between the company and the Musqueam First Nation failed to produce a compromise.
Hodgins enjoyed a more positive experience with the announcement of his 3 Civic Plaza, a huge mixed-used development project in Surrey.
The project, a partnership with Surrey City Development Corporation, includes two towers that will contain a hotel, office space and a residential building.
Locally, Hodgins had his Northgate project, a mixed-use development at the former Southpointe Academy site, approved, but it's his Southlands plan that continues to galvanize Tsawwassen.
Asked why he decided to follow his father's footsteps and get into the development business, Hodgins says he never thought he would make it his career.
Despite the challenges, it has become an interesting and intriguing job, he says.
"There are many jobs you can get gratification from. Maybe not instant gratification, but if you see someone actually living in something you created, it's a very interesting sense of satisfaction."
