A commentary by Don Enright, Alice Finall, Paige Gibson, Bernadette Greene, Springfield Harrison and John Kafka.
In March 2020, the District of North Saanich launched a review of its Official Community Plan.
At that meeting, North Saanich council emphasized that, through an overarching reliance on public engagement, the review would provide the opportunity to update the existing 2007 plan with concepts such as climate-change action, green infrastructure and food security.
For nearly a year, council’s staff and a Vancouver-based consulting firm have developed Big Concepts — while mostly ignoring community input, not briefing council on their ideas and inviting contributions from groups such as the Urban Development Institute.
The “big reveal” occurred online in May. For the first time, council and the community learned that proposed changes could essentially expand Sidney into North Saanich, allowing density development well beyond anything ever contemplated.
Concept maps showed townhouses on ALR land; four-storey commercial/apartment buildings alongside Deep Cove Market; duplexes and triplexes throughout Dean Park and the Terraces; and wholesale urban development centred on McTavish at East Saanich Road.
People were aghast, and council seemed as surprised as the residents. Later we learned that the project team’s Land Use Option 1 could add as many as 11,678 new housing units to the district’s current 5,408.
In hundreds of letters to council, more than 90 per cent of writers expressed concern, opposing the consultants’ proposals and/or the lack of public input.
They asked why the OCP needed such dramatic overhaul, why residential development was so overwhelmingly prominent, and why ideas on climate change and the enhancement of agriculture were not being promoted.
On July 12, council resolved to pause the process until public health orders allowed large public gatherings. On Oct. 18, council reversed that commitment despite continuing COVID restrictions.
What can residents do when they see the Official Community Plan heading in a direction that will utterly change the community they love?
SaveNorthSaanich is working to stand up to those pushing urban density, who cannot see the greater good in maintaining healthy natural spaces and developing local food security.
SaveNorthSaanich subscribes to the importance of the CRD’s regional planning, respects the 2018 Regional Growth Strategy, and understands the regional need to keep urban development contained, and, thus, for the Urban Containment Boundary.
North Saanich’s role in the Regional Growth Strategy is to steward its rural/rural-residential areas, agricultural lands, natural ecosystems and marine environments, which provide climate-mitigating natural areas and food-producing lands to benefit North Saanich and the entire region.
And so we advocate keeping the containment boundary outside North Saanich so North Saanich can fulfil its commitment to the region.
We ask: If these natural amenities were deemed worth preserving as recently as three years ago, what has changed to justify moving the Urban Containment Boundary now? Why have a boundary in the first place, just to move it when pressure mounts? Isn’t now more than ever the time to step up to protect these important natural amenities?
Those who embrace these views face being targeted by some whose private, often pecuniary, interests conflict with these public land-use policies.
We believe we fill a critical role in advocating for the best interests of present and future generations. Designations meant to preserve natural assets intact must be retained.
We believe we speak for most NS residents, evidenced by the hundreds of letters to council supporting this position, an 800-person rally opposed to village centres in 2006, another 250-300 person rally in July, and election results over the past two decades.
The charter members of SaveNorthSaanich all supported zoning changes to allow secondary suites and guest cottages when approved by previous councils. These changes provide thousands of realizable units of affordable rental housing in North Saanich. And all of us supported and now applaud the Habitat for Humanity project.
The Housing Needs Assessment Report confirms that our current Official Community Plan designations allow for more than North Saanich’s projected housing needs to 2038. SaveNorthSaanich recognizes the symbiotic relationship between North Saanich and Sidney, which together address a multitude of resident needs.
Our positions are based on facts. Our website, savenorthsaanich.ca, gives a clear sense of what we stand for. We encourage residents to share their feedback civilly. We do not condone disrespect.
The conversation regarding best future land use in North Saanich must take place among North Saanich residents and businesses and the members of neighbouring First Nations without the biased pressures of the project team and outside developers.
These continue to pursue an unshakeable focus on urban growth and increased density development, despite strong current and historical opposition from the community.
The course of the continuing review must be based on the aspirations expressed by council in March 2020, focusing the update of the existing Official Community Plan on such concepts as climate change action, green infrastructure, food production and food security.
