Nation-led Housing Planning for Community Wellbeing
AND Cultural Continuity
PROJECT MANAGEMENT ESSENTIALS TRAINING, 2024
WHO THEY ARE
K’ómoks First Nation sits in the heart of the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island’s east coast, where community life is rooted in place, language, and tradition. Guided by a modern treaty and constitution, the Nation is strengthening its governance and shaping its future.
Community planning frameworks—including the Comprehensive Community Plan and a Land Use Plan shaped by K’ómoks engagement—guide how development supports intergenerational wellness: homes, culture, recreation, and welcoming gathering spaces.
The Nation continues to build planning and asset-management capacity and collaborates with regional partners to align services, resiliency, and long-term community priorities—reflecting K’ómoks’ Nation-led approach
to infrastructure as a path for continuity and prosperity.
WHAT THEY NEEDED
As K’ómoks prepared to advance a new family-housing multiplex on Nation lands, leadership needed a shared pathway that could carry the project from intention to lived-in homes—keeping community priorities in front while translating them into clear steps the team could own. Moving from aspiration to implementation, they sought a process that would bring Council, Housing, Public Works, Finance, and community members into coordinated action, reflect the Nation’s planning frameworks, and protect timing and feasibility in a region where housing scarcity remains acute.
They were looking for a grounded way to make the right choices —how the homes would be built, maintained, and how operations would be sustained, how community voices would shape what gets built—learning practical planning frameworks they would gain the confidence to carry forward beyond this single build. The goal was simple: deliver safe, welcoming homes that respect culture and intergenerational wellbeing and do so with a planning approach that strengthens K’ómoks’ capacity for the long term.
WHAT WE DID
Led a focused Project Management Essentials workshop dedicated to planning the family-housing multiplex, setting a clear mandate, roles, structure, and developing the Project Proposal with a project plan that mapped the path from early planning through construction into day-to-day operations.
Shaped an organizational framework for the build: sequenced the work from location and design decisions through budgeting, partner engagement, procurement, and hand-over to residents.
Defined decision checkpoints so choices were made at the right level and time, and set a planning timeline for information flow and updates across leadership, delivery teams, and community.
Designed long-term stewardship into the plan from the outset, clarifying operations and maintenance requirements, defining how property management would function, and establishing how residents would be supported so sustained, well-managed operations were embedded from day one.
RESULTS WE GOT
K’ómoks left with one clear way forward: a Nation-owned plan that made the multiplex build governable, what would be delivered, when, and by whom, so the path from early planning into construction and on to everyday operations was understood and actionable.
Decision-making became paced and accountable. Roles and update timelines were made explicit, giving leadership a clean understanding of how the work would be sequenced to optimize resources, timing, procurement milestones, and readiness for transfer to operations.
Coordination tightened across the project, with the planning framework created during training becoming the anchor for how the work would be undertaken.
Long-term choices were identified,where to build, how homes would be maintained over time, and what supports Public Works, Housing, and residents would require, so decisions moved with greater clarity.
The outcome:
With a structured decision path aligned to a defined budget and funding plan, K’omoks was prepared to brief leadership and partners and advance approvals with confidence.
IN NUMBERS
1 Housing Multiplex Planning Framework Developed
a governable framework from mandate to operations, credible for leadership briefs and partner engagement.
10 Core Deliverables Sequenced Into One Delivery Pathway
moving from approvals to building and commissioning in a single, governed sequence.
3 Core Stakeholder Groups Aligned:
Leadership, project team, and community — with roles and update timelines set to expedite decision making.
