Owners of a property being expropriated by the District of Central Saanich are planning legal action to fight for what they consider more fair compensation.
The district announced in April it had started the process to expropriate the Hovey Road land so it can build a new municipal operations centre to replace the almost-60-year-old existing building.
Expropriation is a legal process that allows municipalities and regional districts to acquire privately owned land at market value without the consent of the owner.
Local governments can expropriate property for any purpose related to exercising their “powers, duties and functions,” the province says.
In April, the district said the appraised value of the land was $3.1 million.
But Park Place Seniors Living, which purchased the 0.9-hectare lot at the corner of Hovey Road and Wallace Drive in 2006 with the intention of developing a long-term care facility, has had the property assessed at $7.2 million, said Lina Saba, director of communications for the company.
The organization and the district began negotiations over a price but the process ended without an agreement, Saba said. The district opted to pay $4.64 million for the property.
“It’s just disappointing,” Saba said. “It’s back to the drawing board for what we can do.”
Park Place bought the land along with an adjacent parcel, totalling two hectares, and has been holding them for the development of a long-term-care facility for nearly two decades, she said.
It has been waiting for Island Health to issue a request for proposals for a provider to build and operate a long-term care facility, Saba said.
The company rejected two offers by the district to purchase the two lots and a third offer to purchase the single lot now being expropriated. The district has said expropriation was a last resort.
The district is “quite confident” it has done its due diligence and the appraisal is fair, said Mayor Ryan Windsor.
“There’s a lot of solid information behind that. We’re confident if Park Place were to pursue that action that we would present and it would stand up,” he said.
The district intends to move municipal operations from its property at 1903 Mount Newton Cross Rd. in Saanichton to the Hovey Road site.
The district set its sights on the Hovey Road lot because it was the only bare land in the urban containment boundary that is not in the Agricultural Land Reserve, Windsor said.
The current building housing the district’s municipal hall, police station and fire station was built in 1965 to serve a population of 5,000 that has since grown to 18,000, the district said in a statement.
The municipal hall has serious accessibility and seismic issues, Windsor said.
“If somebody who has accessibility needs comes in the front of the building and then needs to go to planning, they’ve actually got to go out of the building, go around the parking lot and downstairs. So that’s a pretty significant challenge for different parts of the year where the weather might not be conducive,” he said.
A new building will be accessible, customer-service oriented, energy-efficient and up to seismic standards, the district said. Recreation facilities could also be included.
No decisions have been made on what will be built on the Mount Newton Cross Road site once municipal operations have moved, but options include housing, commercial space and green space, Windsor said.
The district is inviting input from residents on plans for the two sites, with open houses scheduled for this summer and fall. The next open house is July 30 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Central Saanich Centre for Active Living 50+.
Daniel Fontaine, a councillor in New Westminster who is lobbying for the reinstatement of a municipal auditor general, said that since the office closed in 2021, individuals and organizations have no recourse if they feel local governments are not spending tax dollars appropriately.
The auditor general for local government conducted performance audits of the operations of local governments and responded to complaints, providing some oversight of municipal operations, he said.
“There’s so many incidents like this that happen across the province and people and organizations — their hands are tied. They just don’t have any way to go other than through the courts, which is costly,” he said.
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