A developer who turned heads with a cotton candy-coloured protest in Fort Langley, B.C. has given up his fight and painted the house grey.
The small house was painted a township-approved shade, and developer Eric Woodward apologized for voicing his frustrations in this way.
Woodward posted a photo of a person waving a white flag on Facebook last week, writing that he would no longer be pushing for further expansion on the site.
The post came just weeks after he took the unusual step of painting an aging, boarded-up home a bright shade of pink. The home on Mary Avenue and Glover Road used to be white, but received the makeover following a dispute between Woodward and the township.
Woodward bought the property where the home sits 12 years ago, with the goal of replacing existing buildings with a three-storey mixed-use modern building. His plan for the project called Glover Road West included a small hotel as well as retail and residential space.
He applied for the proper permits, but said the local government was charging him thousands of dollars for permits and tree protection, as well as refusing to let him demolish the aging home. So he installed a flock of plastic flamingos and painted the home a matching colour to highlight the bureaucracy he called "out of control."
But on Thursday Woodward accepted defeat.
"I believe that the best thing to do now, for myself and for Fort Langley, is to cease attempting to develop the Boutique Hotel and Glover Road West," he wrote in the post.
He wrote that he's faced personal attacks, threats and misinformation campaigns, and that he felt further efforts would be useless.
Woodward said he believed council would never approve the project, despite a comment from Mayor Jack Froese to CTV News earlier this month that he believed it would be approved.
"Some people will blame me, which of course a few do for anything and everything, but please know that I have now done all that I can to make good on what I believe the community and residents I respect asked me to do over two years ago now," Woodward wrote.
Some who shared the post wrote that they felt the township had made a mistake, but others claimed the project was a cash grab for the developer.
One resident who wrote to CTV News accused Woodward of "bullying locals" and the township, and said that he owns a large portion of the downtown core.
A post on a Facebook page called Fort Langley Strong claimed Woodward made false accusations against the township, and that he did not respond to the government's requests to revise his plans.
With files from CTV Vancouver's Breanna Karstens-Smith
