North Saanich is expecting a busy council chamber, reams of correspondence and plenty of online participation when the district restarts the Official Community Plan review process with a special meeting of council Monday night.
No more than 40 people will be allowed to attend in person under pandemic safety rules — they have to register by noon on Nov. 22 — while written submissions were accepted until Nov. 17 and an online registry will allow virtual participation.
The meeting has been set to allow council to consider a revised plan for community engagement on the official plan over the coming months, as well as reviewing the process so far and the budget associated with it.
A staff report prepared for the meeting has suggested council has four options, ranging from endorsing the OCP review summary and moving ahead with the proposed modified engagement plan to stopping or postponing the review process.
While district staff are recommending council move ahead with the revised engagement plan, a vocal faction of residents wants to see the process stopped until the pandemic is over.
Others are likely to push for it to be scrapped altogether — or at least until the municipal election next fall.
Save North Saanich, a group of residents that has described the process as flawed, has opposed the review process from the early days.
The group has argued that the process did not allow for comprehensive consultation with the community due to the pandemic, and that it’s focused on adding development and density in a largely rural community.
It says those opposed to the process have seen little response from council or the team carrying out the review that addresses their concerns.
The staff report, to be discussed Monday night, acknowledges some of the concerns around engagement during a pandemic, and the fact many of the concepts being considered for the community plan were introduced with little context and explanation during earlier engagement phases.
The report notes the new engagement process will offer more in-person sessions and the advisory working group that is steering the process will check in more frequently with council.
At least one North Saanich resident will be pleased if the review process is allowed to continue.
Barb Tolmie, who has lived in the district for 35 years, said she has been through two other community plan review processes in the district and this is the first one where she felt there was real consultation with residents.
But she said it’s been difficult because she feels as if she is considered “the enemy” for supporting gentle densification.
She hopes to subdivide her own half-acre lot to allow her son to build a home beside hers, which would mean she could stay in her home.
“I’m being told that now I’m in my 80s and want to stay in my community, that if we don’t have what I need here [to age in place], I should get out and move to Sidney,” she said. “That’s not acceptable. I don’t want this [area] to be like Langford, but I don’t think I am destroying North Saanich because I want to subdivide.”
Another long-time resident, Robin Richardson, said the sniping between those who want the process to be stopped and those who want North Saanich to allow more housing and development options has been nasty at times.
“From the outset, there’s been a faction that has vehemently opposed anything that has development or housing linked to it,” he said. “And anyone with a slightly contrary view — that wants to see some infill, seniors housing or attainable housing — is considered to be an arch-enemy.”
Richardson and Tolmie suggest the majority of residents would like to see more infill and densification, but only in areas that are suitable.
