Now getting ready for tonight's OCP Public Hearing, 7 PM at the Municipal Hall (which I'll attend virtually due to my health and bark-like cough.)  The agenda is posted here. It includes the bylaw with revisions current through its second reading. You'll find it in PDF form here. (Save a copy like i do, and you can search its depth to your heart's content.) All of the public engagement and supplemental documents are available here. 

A steady trickle (not floodplain's worth) of form emails are arriving in council's mailbox today that read: "I'm opposed to the new OCP with inclusion of any Development Permits. There are additional edits that must be made." That's it and that's all. There is no further explanation about the why and what of their opposition nor citations about required edits. (All along with some fuller correspondence will be included in a supplemental agenda published later this afternoon). 

I voted on Sept. 8 in favour of moving us to this public hearing because I am a fan of the plan, first and foremost. I agree with the OCP Advisory Committee (Mrs. Lewers notably excepted in a 6-1 vote) that it is ready for primetime. And I want us to get to this legislated next step (which is still short of third reading and adoption).

As one who strives for consensus decisions, I'm upset that council was divided 4-3 on whether to go to the hearing. I respect my colleagues, especially Mayor Tait, whose leadership, views and opinion I so value. (My father, the Colonel's, voice from beyond urges: Follow your leader!). Calling a halt tonight and allowing the next council to finish the job makes good sense as she explains it. A truce would lead to all quiet on the western front and give time for another round of input, and that is both logical and appealing.

Yet I can't shake the idea that an entirely unpredictable new council crew from the 23 contenders could hijack the process and throw this excellent plan under the bus. [No Development Permit Guidelines? No opportunity for staff to regulate the form and character of new development when it comes to sub-divisions of four or more homes and mixed-use larger projects? Where praytell is the sense in that?]

I have tried my very best to address concerns raised by a small, vocal, influential group by asking questions at our OCP meetings and by writing blog entries like the one that precedes this one. 

They will be out in numbers tonight, too, I'm sure, as is the case at all public hearings. (Check out this recent SFU report - https://www.democracydialogue.ca/publichearings. Downsides are captured in this quote: "While a noisy minority tends to dominate public hearings, the silent majority of reasonable people are by definition never heard. Elected officials therefore are forced to pander to the skewed view of the vocal minority of voters present, rather than doing what they have been already elected to do, which is make the best decision for the future of the community overall.")

I'll share the PS from my above-linked blog post in full here with apologies to those of you who prefer the two-line email mode of communcation. Yes, I do tend to complicate things when perhaps I should stick with text-message headlines and bold, context-free statements (this OCP "will clear-cut Sooke," for instance) as others like to do.

Okay, here's the cut-and-paste ...

"Even with all the public feedback to date, I naturally wonder what comments will emerge during the public hearing whenever it's scheduled.

As Councillor Beddows, the OCP Advisory Committee liaison, has noted, council dealt promptly this spring with the major concerns that emerged from the first-wave responses to the draft OCP:

1. The proposed 30m waterfront setback requirement for new subdivisions of four-or-more homes (now reinstated at 15m as per Sooke tradition).

2. Potential density increases in the Whiffin Spit neighbourhood (now returned to its Rural Residential designation).

3. The re-inclusion of phase three of West Ridge Trails in the Community Residential, not rural, designation (while knowing that the development still must secure rezoning and sewer inclusion before it can proceed.)

What else might arise at the public-hearing? I've taken pains to raise concerns from the public engagement packages in my questions to staff during the chapter reviews -- including points raised by Farrell Estates and the Concerned Citizens of Sooke (Randy Clarkston, Dave Saunders, Dave McClimon, Matt Mortenson and Brian Butler). Both Councillor McMath and I drew questions from the latter's correspondence at the July 19 chapter review re: DPA overreach, the "hidden density issue," transportation and costing.

Certainly there's been confusion over the so-called "hidden density issue" during OCP deliberations. The proposed bylaw's Growth Management and Land Use section (starting on pg. 57) cites a maximum density of 70 units per hectare in the Community Residential designation (i.e., the Sewer Specified Area west of the Sooke River).

Does this mean that Community Residential landowners would be free to dramatically densify their single-family lots and we'd see cluster housing on what are now single-family streets, turning Sooke into wall-to-wall suburbia? What a nightmare!

I personally have asked staff in public meetings about this at least four times now in response to public concerns. They and the OCP consultants have replied with what the document itself (pg. 60) states: "Maximum densities within each designation will be informed by the policy direction of the OCP and the site-specific zoning provided in the Zoning Bylaw."

The OCP policy direction is for density in the Town Centre Core, Town Centre Transitional and Town Centre Waterfront designations. Period. (And up to a point: The 2009 Town Centre Plan, which is due to be revised as a first priority action following OCP adoption, envisions net growth in the TC of 1400 residents by 2050.) It in no way recommends density (i.e., sprawl) beyond this town centre.

A new Zoning Bylaw is required following the adoption of every new OCP in BC. Our pending OCP allows six-storey buildings in (zoning-specified spots only) north of Sooke Rd. in the Town Centre and only along the two sides of Brownsey Blvd. south of it. (Interestingly, the current zoning bylaw's High-Density Multi-Family RM-4 category allows a maximum of 90 units per hectare. Ayre Manor and West Wind Harbour are the only spots so designated. The CD7 zoning for Mariner's Village allows 50 units per hectare maximum.)

Regarding costing, no OCP I've ever seen includes a price tag for proposed actions. Instead, they are subject to cost analysis when prioritized by council and staff for consideration in each successive year's Five-Year Financial Plan. If the money's not there or the tax hit too heavy, then a specific action remains on paper and aspirational, as so many have done in the 2010 OCP. Still entirely worth honouring community OCP input, however, by capturing our wishes and best aspirations on paper, of course.

[Predicted capital expenses in 2020 dollars are, however, included for actions recommended by theTransportation (pg. 67-69) andParks & Trails (pp. 71-75) master plans. There are also very loose estimates of costs for Appendix H items in theClimate Action Plan, whose one $$$ item relates to implementation costs for those same master plans. See my lengthy explanation in the PPS below.]

The plan concludes with a set of Development Permit Area (DPA) guidelines that are critical in particular for the town centre as growth picks up momentum. They include Sooke's first set of DPAs for "energy and water conservation, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions,"permitted by the Local Government Act not long after BC introduced (and Sooke promptly signed) the B.C. Climate Action Charter in 2008.

I believe this is where the OCP is criticized as being "overly perscriptive," yet I'm not sure how these flexible rules, applicable on a case-by-case basis, can be anything but exact and on point. As the province states, they "govern locations that need special treatment for certain purposes, including the protection of development from hazards, establishing objectives for form and character in specified circumstances or revitalization of a commercial use area."

Some municipalities include these guidelines in their zoning bylaws, others in their OCPs. I honestly can't fathom suggestions from some that the the DPA section be axed entirely, especially after seeing how the guidelines are so central in ongoing staff/developer negotiations re: the mixed-use proposal for Brownsey Blvd.'s west side. How else can we ensure the community gets what it wants and expects from incoming developers as determined by documents like the Town Centre Plan?

(DPA exemptions apply, incidentally, to anyone building a single-family home, duplex or accessory building, those needing to remove hazardous trees or undertake yard and garden landscaping, among other exceptions. See pg. 178/79.)
​
Unsurprisingly, the OCP conversation this year has been led by a minority with specific concerns. These concerns are absolutely valid, as are those of all 15,086 (2021 census) residents of Sooke. It's great that other engagement methods -- online surveys, community sounding boards, virtual stakeholder consultations with numerous community groups and organizations, school sessions and more -- captured wide input, too, but arguably less than had COVID not struck and eliminated in-person town halls and the like."

Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 800 returns for another special council meeting tomorrow evening (Sept. 8) at 5 PM. We'll be looking at the latest (third) version that includes changes we suggested during our chapter reviews.

At this second-reading stage (where no public input is legislatively permitted, but you're entirely welcome to attend), we will contemplate three options as stated in the opening pages of the massive agenda package that includes the April (second) draft, a track-change iteration and a file of public commentary received since the first draft was released 11 months ago. 

These options are: 

1. Approve the amendments, give the OCP its second reading and book a public hearing (tentatively set for Tues., Sept. 27).

2. Suggest further text amendments as alterations or additions. 

​3. Reject the amendments and offer alternative actions, among which (as council has already discussed) is the option of shelving it during this election period so that the new council can decide next steps when it takes office two short months from now.

For our part, this here-and-now council has demonstrated, and will likely do so again tomorrow, that we're of multiple minds about this. Some want to move forward and complete the work. Others would like to pause and further consider the one community planning document that rules them all. 

As ever with my middle-way mindset, I can see the logic in both approaches. Whatever the case, I believe we've met objective 3.1.2 in the 2019-22 Strategic Plan to "develop a new Official Community Plan." After two years, this one has definitely been developed to a ripe if perhaps not quite ready for primetime stage. 

Personally, as I've said at previous meetings, I believe this OCP is a solid, timely, best-practice community plan that meets legislative requirements, captures a compelling vision of Sooke's future and offers a comprehensive range of policies backed by an implementation plan to get us there given all the imponderables and budget considerations that can hinder progress. (Such as basic operational costs subject to 7.6% inflation, for instance.)  

As the OCP Advisory Committee states in its preamble (aka executive summary, see pg. 4-7), its members heard six recurring themes from the public during the 2020/21 engagement period: 

1. The strong desire to maintain and enhance the unique character of Sooke
2. The importance of protecting our natural environment
3. The need for focused growth and support for infrastructure enhancements in the Town Centre
4. The importance of building upon and enhancing Sooke's historic and productive relationship with the T'Sou-ke
5. The need for improved transportation infrastructure and strategies to address vehicular congestion
6. Our community's united support for collective efforts to address climate change. 

These matters are all addressed fully in the draft OCP, writes the OCP-AC (which voted six to one early this year in favour of approving the draft; Chair Helen Ritts, Norm Amirault, Terry Cristall, Steve Grundy, Linda MacMillan and Siomonn Pulla in favour; Ellen Lewers against.)

Chiefly for me, the pending OCP is absolutely consistent with earlier District OCPs (2010, 2001) and CRD plans dating back to the 1976 Sooke Area Settlement Plan. in all these documents, the public and their elected representatives have recognized that population growth is to be focused on the town centre as the heart of the "complete and compact community" that the CRD Regional Growth Strategy requires of Sooke.  Also reaffirmed is that relatively modest growth is to take place in the sewer-specified area and that elsewhere the District is to retain its rural and forested nature. 

Mission accomplished with a modernized Sooke Smart Growth plan. In the new OCP, the TC is given better definition with core, waterfront and transitional designations.  The document critically aligns itself with all the other orders of government, Canadian and international, that recognize we must rethink business as usual on the increasingly electric highway to 2050.  

This it does through a positive (not alarmist) community development perspective captured so sweetly and simply in the 29-word OCP vision statement (honed from first-wave public input in 2020): "Sooke is a small town with a big heart. It is a vibrant net-zero emissions community, cradled in the stunning beauty and vitality of the ocean and forest." Text-message short, but a nice summary of public opinion about the hometown in which we all want to reside

As for enacting its ambitions, half the OCP is dedicated to policies and actions regarding paramount community priorities -- transportation, natural environment, parks and trails, green building, infrastructure, food security, community economic development, arts and culture, housing, recreation and fair, equitable, compassionate values made real. (And it makes clear how these topics are explored in suitable depth in mostly recently updated District plans and reports that must legally align with the OCP.) 

The time-stressed are advised to read the preamble, the Growth Management and Land Use section (starting on pg. 57) and also the Delivering Picture Sooke implementation section (pp. 157-174) with its 120 ongoing, short and medium-term actions in grid format. These pages should give you a sound basis for an informed opinion about the document as a whole. Reading the thing cover-to-cover is recommended, of course. 

The plan concludes with a set of Development Permit Area (DPA) guidelines that are critical in particular for the town centre as growth picks up momentum. They include Sooke's first set of DPAs for "energy and water conservation, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions," permitted by the Local Government Act not long after BC introduced (and Sooke promptly signed) the B.C. Climate Action Charter in 2008. 

I believe this is where the OCP is criticized as being "overly perscriptive," yet I'm not sure how these flexible rules, applicable on a case-by-case basis, can be anything but exact and on point. As the province states, they "govern locations that need special treatment for certain purposes, including the protection of development from hazards, establishing objectives for form and character in specified circumstances or revitalization of a commercial use area."  

Some municipalities include these guidelines in their zoning bylaws, others in their OCPs. I honestly can't fathom suggestions from some that the the DPA section be axed entirely, especially after seeing how the guidelines are so central in ongoing staff/developer negotiations re: the mixed-use proposal for Brownsey Blvd.'s west side. How else can we ensure the community gets what it wants and expects from incoming developers as determined by documents like the Town Centre Plan?

(DPA exemptions apply, incidentally, to anyone building a single-family home, duplex or accessory building, those needing to remove hazardous trees or undertake yard and garden landscaping, among other exceptions. See pg. 178/79.) 

Unsurprisingly, the OCP conversation this year has been led by a minority with specific concerns. These concerns are absolutely valid, as are those of all 15,086 (2021 census) residents of Sooke. It's great that other engagement methods
-- online surveys, community sounding boards, virtual stakeholder consultations with numerous community groups and organizations, school sessions and more -- captured wide input, too, but arguably less than had COVID not struck and eliminated in-person town halls and the like.   

(The current system by which local governments receive public input is like Churchill's comment about democacy: seriously flawed but better than the alternatives. Simon Fraser University's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue published a series of reports on BC public hearings earlier this year as part of its Strengthening Canadian Democracy program. Their downsides are captured in this statement: "While a noisy minority tends to dominate public hearings, the silent majority of reasonable people are by definition never heard. Elected officials therefore are forced to pander to the skewed view of the vocal minority of voters present, rather than doing what they have been already elected to do, which is make the best decision for the future of the community overall.")

Tomorrow Night's Meeting

I stated during the last chapter review that the OCP was likely "95% complete" - a guesstimate, of course, but that feels about right to me (always and ever, in my opinion). Revisions contributed by council, recommendations from referring agencies and any potential rewrites based on issues raised during the public hearing would get it to the finish line. 

At meeting's end on July 19, I  took the opportunity to read aloud a note council had received that day from OCP Advisory Committee Chair Helen Ritts: 

"Dear Mayor and Council: I am writing to voice my support for Council to give the draft OCP 2nd reading and work to finalize this OCP before the October municipal election. The April 2022 draft OCP is an accurate reflection of a specified and open OCP process, created through 18 months of public engagement. 

The role of Sooke residents in the OCP was to share their future vision of our community. The OCP Advisory Committee understood its role was to ensure that the OCP was brought to Council for 1st reading was an accurate summary of the majority of public respondents. As the chair of the OCP Committee, I am confident that our committee understood and delivering on this responsibility. The role of Council is to pass bylaws in support of the OCP and community vision. Barring any concerns about procedure, this OCP should be accepted as it is and put forward for public hearing. 

Sooke is growing rapidly. We need this plan ASAP to manage our growth successfully. 

Sincerely, Helen Ritts, Sooke, BC 
 
 I resonate with all Ms. Ritts writes, yet I still find myself on the fence and interested in hearing from my colleagues tomorrow.  
 
I do like the thought of moving to second reading and setting the stage for a public hearing late this month. Election season is soon to be in full swing, and it would be an opportunity for the community to gather for a robust discussion focused on our community's most significant document. I can't imagine a more substantial election issue than that.
 
Then again, as i think further, a public hearing at this pivotal point in the election cycle would likely give an unfair advantage to incumbent councillors, we who've gained intimate knowledge by pouring through its 240 pages repeatedly. Whereas other candidates for office would get their turn at the mic like everyone else, we would remain front-and-centre to a degree throughout the night. That's arguably unfair to others on the ballot, and I suspect that's how I'd feel if I was on the outside looking in. 
 
I also understand the logic that the District might be wise to develop this OCP a little further still through another round of public engagement -- this time minus the distant and distanced COVID restrictions, conducted in-person and using the text as it now stands as the starting point for discussion and review of the proposed policies and actions. 

With at least five of us running for re-election in October, I want to discuss what precisely we suggest be done next with this OCP should we indeed pause the process, retain our seats and find ourselves dealing with it in the New Year.  An important question, and one I will ponder further over the next 24 hours. 
 
​More from this blog ... 

* Draft OCP: My Appreciative Inquiry (Oct. 20, 2021)
* OCP Update - Fall 2021 (Sept. 4, 2021)
* Team OCP: Introducing the Advisory Committee (Aug. 8, 2020) 
* Masterplanning Sooke's Smart Growth: OCP Preview (Dec. 20, 2019) 
 
PS Even with all the public feedback to date, I naturally wonder what comments will emerge during the public hearing whenever it's scheduled.  
 
As Councillor Beddows, the OCP Advisory Committee liaison, has noted, council dealt promptly this spring with the major concerns that emerged from the first-wave responses to the draft OCP:

1. The proposed 30m waterfront setback requirement for new subdivisions of four-or-more homes (now reinstated at 15m as per Sooke tradition).

2. Potential density increases in the Whiffin Spit neighbourhood (now returned to its Rural Residential designation).

3. The re-inclusion of phase three of West Ridge Trails in the Community Residential, not rural, designation (while knowing that the development still must secure rezoning and sewer inclusion before it can proceed.) 


What else might arise at the public-hearing? I've taken pains to raise concerns from the public engagement packages in my questions to staff during the chapter reviews -- including points raised by Farrell Estates and the Concerned Citizens of Sooke (Randy Clarkston, Dave Saunders, Dave McClimon, Matt Mortenson and Brian Butler). Both Councillor McMath and I drew questions from the latter's correspondence at the July 19 chapter review re: DPA overreach, the "hidden density issue," transportation and costing.  

Certainly there's been confusion over the so-called "hidden density issue" during OCP deliberations. The proposed bylaw's Growth Management and Land Use section (starting on pg. 57) cites a maximum density of 70 units per hectare in the Community Residential designation (i.e., the Sewer Specified Area west of the Sooke River).  

Does this mean that Community Residential landowners would be free to dramatically densify their single-family lots and we'd see cluster housing on what are now single-family streets, turning Sooke into wall-to-wall suburbia? What a nightmare!  

I personally have asked staff in public meetings about this at least four times now in response to public concerns. They and the OCP consultants have replied with what the document itself (pg. 60) states: "Maximum densities within each designation will be informed by the policy direction of the OCP and the site-specific zoning provided in the Zoning Bylaw." 

The OCP policy direction is for density in the Town Centre Core, Town Centre Transitional and Town Centre Waterfront designations. Period.  (And up to a point: The 2009 Town Centre Plan, which is due to be revised as a first priority action following OCP adoption, envisions net growth in the TC of 1400 residents by 2050.)  It in no way recommends density (i.e., sprawl) beyond this town centre. 

A new Zoning Bylaw is required following the adoption of every new OCP in BC.  Our pending OCP allows six-storey buildings in (zoning-specified spots only) north of Sooke Rd. in the Town Centre and only along the two sides of Brownsey Blvd. south of it.  (Interestingly, the current zoning bylaw's High-Density Multi-Family RM-4 category allows a maximum of 90 units per hectare. Ayre Manor and West Wind Harbour are the only spots so designated. The CD7 zoning for Mariner's Village allows 50 units per hectare maximum.) 

Regarding costing, no OCP I've ever seen includes a price tag for proposed actions. Instead, they are subject to cost analysis when prioritized by council and staff for consideration in each successive year's Five-Year Financial Plan. If the money's not there or the tax hit too heavy, then a specific action remains on paper and aspirational, as so many have done in the 2010 OCP. Still entirely worth honouring community OCP input, however, by capturing our wishes and best aspirations on paper, of course. 

[Predicted capital expenses in 2020 dollars are, however, included for actions recommended by theTransportation (pg. 67-69) andParks & Trails (pp. 71-75) master plans. There are also very loose estimates of costs for Appendix H items in theClimate Action Plan, whose one $$$ item relates to implementation costs for those same master plans. See my lengthy explanation in the PPS below.]

The plan concludes with a set of Development Permit Area (DPA) guidelines that are critical in particular for the town centre as growth picks up momentum. They include Sooke's first set of DPAs for "energy and water conservation, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions,"permitted by the Local Government Act not long after BC introduced (and Sooke promptly signed) the B.C. Climate Action Charter in 2008. 

I believe this is where the OCP is criticized as being "overly perscriptive," yet I'm not sure how these flexible rules, applicable on a case-by-case basis, can be anything but exact and on point. As the province states, they "govern locations that need special treatment for certain purposes, including the protection of development from hazards, establishing objectives for form and character in specified circumstances or revitalization of a commercial use area."  

Some municipalities include these guidelines in their zoning bylaws, others in their OCPs. I honestly can't fathom suggestions from some that the the DPA section be axed entirely, especially after seeing how the guidelines are so central in ongoing staff/developer negotiations re: the mixed-use proposal for Brownsey Blvd.'s west side. How else can we ensure the community gets what it wants and expects from incoming developers as determined by documents like the Town Centre Plan?

(DPA exemptions apply, incidentally, to anyone building a single-family home, duplex or accessory building, those needing to remove hazardous trees or undertake yard and garden landscaping, among other exceptions. See pg. 178/79.) 

Unsurprisingly, the OCP conversation this year has been led by a minority with specific concerns. These concerns are absolutely valid, as are those of all 15,086 (2021 census) residents of Sooke. It's great that other engagement methods -- online surveys, community sounding boards, virtual stakeholder consultations with numerous community groups and organizations, school sessions and more -- captured wide input, too, but arguably less than had COVID not struck and eliminated in-person town halls and the like.   

PPS Cutting-and-pasting comments I've prepared for use about the Climate Action Plan as required. I'm told at least one climate-change skeptic is running for office and has already cited this cost misinformation.  Yes, I know all this is complicated and boring and bureaucratic, but hey, that's how this kind of local government rocket science works and my only option in cases like this is to bring out the facts. Thank you for your patience in trying to follow along. 

I want to address a misunderstanding about the high-level cost and staff resource estimates in the Climate Action Plan (CAP) – namely the suggestion that the plan will cost $4.5 million and require 22 FTE, as Councillor McMath stated at both our July 15 and 19 meetings. I understand the source of this confusion, I think, so here's an attempt to set it straight ...

The CAP’s high-level estimates are related to the Master List of Recommended Actions (Appendix H, pp. 56-78).  They are “meant to be an estimate to provide context for work planning and budgeting purposes, not a firm requirement.” 
 
Appendix H is comprised of all climate-related actions found in existing DOS plans, notably the Transportation Master Plan, the Parks & Trails Master Plan and the draft Official Community Plan. These cover the period 2022-2050. 
 
Duplicating cost estimations in the master plans, the only big-ticket item ($$$$ “over $1 million”) in Appendix H is related to “funding and implementing major PTMP and TMP capital projects” -- the costliest of which is the complete streets build-out that will provide active transportation corridors along new connector roads led by the Throup/Grant Rd. West bypass. (Active transportation = climate action). 
 
In the Climate Action Plan’s Appendix H, there are 21 categories for departmental action spread across the five focus areas.  19 of these categories qualify as $ Low - $0 - $50,000.  
 
Appendix I (pp. 74-88) features the 25 high-impact actions that District staff believe can be executed over the next five years. These actions will be costed out and presented to the next council during budget deliberations, as Ms. Gray told us. 
 
Last Monday night, Raechel and Maia answered questions about the staff icons in Appendix H. They do indeed add up to 22 FTE, however there is a great deal of overlap and much of the work is already built into workplans now and in future for existing employees. 
 
There is zero suggestion that 22 more employees would have to be hired. In fact, a long-awaited replacement for Sue Welke as Community Development Officer – aided and abetted by a Climate Action Coordinator, as the Climate Action Committee suggests in its July 25 motion – is what’s required. 

In calculating her figures, Cllr. McMath has cited the high end of all cost estimations, missed the point about duplication with costs of the roads projects that this council endorsed in approving the master plans,and has understandably misread the nature of the staff icons. Or so I interpret it at any rate. 

Reverse order by date. I've found that organizing my thoughts with related links for further reference as I do in all these posts is essential for ongoing council work as agenda topics routinely recycle. A useful strategy for an aging, distracted, rather overloaded mind (yes, I did my Wordle this morning, got it in five.). It's also something of a community service, I believe. My views and perspective keep evolving with experience (as with us all I was so encouraged to discover years ago when first learning about neuroplasticity.) It's true that my thoughts can be rather naive pre-election and sometimes post-election too, but I stand by all I've written here.  Please dive in and explore if and as you wish. 

(Council candidates are invited to join me for a Local Government 101 education and refresh here and here.) 

* Sparking #Sooke Community Development (Aug. 31, 2022)
* Our Up-Sooke-Sized Building Boom (Aug. 26, 2022)
* Highway 14 Revisited: Summer 2022 Edition (Jul. 22, 2022) 
* Bathroom Reading: Sooke Sewers & Expansion Plans (May 30, 2022) 
* BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) Sooke (May 12, 2022)
* Opening Day + Saga of the Sooke Library (Feb. 25, 2022)
* District 101: Facts & Figures from the Citizen Budget Survey (Nov. 30, 2021)
* Budget 2022 (Nov. 25, 2021)
* Draft OCP: My Appreciative Inquiry (Oct. 20, 2021)
* Addressing Homelessness (Visible, Invisible, Pending) in the Sooke Region (Oct. 15, 2021)
* Help Wanted: Interim Climate Action Coordinator (Oct. 12, 2021)
* OCP Update - Fall 2021 (Sept. 4, 2021)
* Paws In Ponds Corridor (July 26, 2021)
* Proposal: Sooke Lions Community Centre in the Park (July 9, 2021)
* Sooke Elder's Complex (aka Gathering Place) Update (June 21, 2021)
* Back to Basics: Food & Shelter Essentials (June 15, 2021)
* State of Sooke's Youth Nation (March 15, 2021) 
* Climate Action: Link Frenzy! - Sooke, Regional, Provincial, National, Global (Feb. 24, 2021)
* Context for Sooke Climate Action (Feb. 19, 2021)
* Help Wanted: Sooke Committees Update (Jan. 24, 2021) 
* What's Next for Sooke's Evolving Road, Sidewalk and Roundabout Network (Jan. 20, 2021)
* Sooke Fiscal 2021 and the BC Restart Fund (Nov. 22, 2020)
* Team OCP: Introducing the Advisory Committee (Aug. 8, 2020) 
* Parks & Transportation Masterplans (July 13, 2020) 
* Burning Issue: Fire Protection Services Bylaw (May 19, 2020)
* Masterplanning Sooke's Smart Growth: OCP Preview (Dec. 20, 2019) 
* The CRD Share of Your #Sooke Tax Bill (Nov. 13, 2019)
* $$$ (Start of a New Five-Year Financial Plan Cycle) (July 29, 2019)
* Climate Cha-Changes (May 17, 2019)
* Notes from Local Government Leadership Academy Seminars (April 10, 2019)
* Climate Change, Pot Shops and Four Lanes (April 7, 2019)
* Highway 14 Revisited: Spring 2019 Edition (March 29, 2019)
* Timbites Sooke (March 26, 2019) 
* Calling All Monopines: Cell Phone Towers (Jan. 27, 2019)
* Seeking Solutions in Saseenos: Lewers/Driver 2 (Jan. 16, 2019)
* X homes + Y people + Z cars = ? (Dec. 18, 2018)
* Council Report: 5 Hours, 47 Minutes Later (Dec. 6, 2018)
* Fresh Paint, Familiar Refrain for Sooke Road (Nov. 17, 2018)
* Learning Curve: Council Dynamics & Respectful Workplaces: Orientation Session (Nov. 6, 2018)
* Proposal: A Forest and the Trees Bylaw (Oct. 16, 2018)
* Verbateman Answers to the Voice News (Oct. 15, 2018)
* Fire Department Overview (Oct. 15, 2018)
* Me & Ms. Reay (Oct. 14, 2018)
* Quoting Myself: All Candidates Debate (Oct. 12, 2018)
* Lemons = Non-Conforming Lemonade: Lewers/Driver 1 (Oct. 11, 2018)
* Thoughts on the Arts (Oct. 10, 2018)
* Zero Waste Version of My 2018 Brochure (Oct. 8, 2018)
* Campaign 2018: Back to the Blog (Oct. 8, 2018)
* No More Tankers: A National Energy Board Submission (Oct. 4, 2018)
* Tonight @ Council (April 13, 2015)
* My CGI Dreams for Sooke (April 13, 2015)
* It Takes A Community (Nov. 11, 2014)
* Looking Glass: Sooke News Mirror Q&A (Nov. 6, 2014)
* Cycling Forward (Nov. 3, 2014)
* Sooke Voice News Questionnaire (Oct. 29, 2014)
* CFAX Candidates Survey: My Responses (Oct. 20, 2014)
* More on the Subjective Sooke News (Oct. 13, 2014)
* The Good (Oct. 9, 2014)
​* First Thoughts (Oct. 6, 2014) 

[I offer for your listening pleasure this Tom Tom Club (Talking Heads offshoot) tune from a bygone era when I was writing about music and the music industry in Toronto, never dreaming back then that I'd one day relocate to the far west coast, get interested in local governance and trade my IBM selectric for the iMacs on which I've typed so many wordy words. Oh, and my debut item still rings entirely true for me. Blessed beyond measure. Period. Full stop. End of post.]
​

As I did last fall when Sooke was seeking its first interim Climate Action Coordinator,  I emailed a range of contacts the other day with news of the final week of the District's search for a Community Economic Development Officer.  I did so in case they knew of any likely candidates, and I'll repeat the call here in vastly expanded (what else?) fashion in case you might know a certain someone in your own circles.  

All details are on the District's careers page. Application deadline is this Monday, Sept. 5. The job description states: "Reporting to the Chief Administrative Officer, the Community Economic Development Officer (CEDO) is responsible for creating an economic environment focused on attracting and retaining commercial businesses while advancing economic, environmental, and social goals. The CEDO is also responsible for the design and implementation of the community economic development strategy for the District of Sooke which will, among other initiatives, stimulate business activity and investment in the District." 

That's a tall order and requires an individual as uniquely suitable it's to be hoped as Sue Welke, the Albertan with ED and climate action expertise who was hired as Sooke's first-ever CED Officer in early 2021. She did much essential work with the Community Economic Development and Climate Action committees, and then decided, to everyone's understanding and considerable regret, to return home to Edmonton to care for ailing family. 

Ms. Welke authored the District's first Community Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan in collaboration with the CED Committee. She also secured the grant funding that hired interim Climate Action Coordinator Maia Carolsfeld. The latter, in turn, delivered Sooke's first-ever Climate Action Plan this summer and helped develop the Sooke 2030 citizen engagement campaign.  (With her contract ending earlier this month, Ms. Carolsfeld has taken a micro-mobility position within the CRD's Climate Action Team and we're counting on her to keep Sooke in the loop with regional programs and initiatives.)  

Strategic community development, by definition, is what's required to realize the policies and vision of the new Official Community Plan. Climate action is intimately related, and both these District staff positions -- CEDO and Climate Action Coordinator -- need to be filled full-time, I and many believe.

For now, however, it's great that we're getting back on track with CED following Welke's departure. (A complementary Climate Action Coordinator position to coordinate the Climate Action Plan, meanwhile, is entirely feasible through the Province of BC's Local Government Climate Action Program, which will deliver a guaranteed $135k in climate-explicit funding annually for three years. Unlike most such grants, it's flexible enough to cover salaries as well as various CAP priorities.) 

Chief Administrative Officer Norm McInnis has championed and facilitated CED in Sooke. With enthusiastic council approval, he sourced expertise and best practices from the Province of BC's Regional Economic Operations Branch, consulted with local stakeholders, crafted the Terms of Reference for the first CED Committee, created the CEDO position and hired Welke. 

Here's the overview paragraph she prepared for the Sooke CED Strategy:  "The District of Sooke has chosen to create a Community Economic Development (CED) Strategy, a holistic, integrated and people- and environment-oriented view of the economy as opposed to a more traditional profits-/money-first approach to the economy. Sooke’s economic development is oriented to promoting environmental health as well as human well-being and safety in a climate-changing world. It is clear from community feedback that a focus should be on supporting locally-owned businesses in Sooke, reducing economic leakage, and creating jobs in Sooke. The CED Strategy and Action Plan provides guidance to the District of Sooke about industrial and commercial development, and does not address residential development.

This is Sooke’s first CED Strategy, and it is a work in progress, to be further developed and modified in partnership with the whole community. The District and the community will review progress on the Strategy as time goes by and will continue to provide direction to the Strategy. It is believed that momentum will increase as we work towards the vision."

The strategy contains a bonanza of bright ideas and initiatives, some of which our local government has discussed in the past (see brief history in notes below) but not enacted comprehensively to date. I'll list them partially here from the 30+ action points you can read in full on pp. 8-16 of the Strategy: 

i) strategy for Sooke's 52 hectares of "under-utilized" (Sooke Economic Analysis, 2019) industrial & commercial land
ii) support existing business and organizations to grow, thrive, create jobs; 
iii) inventory of existing office/commercial space;
iv) liaison with developers of new commercial/office projects;  
v) marketing strategy, trade-show presence and community development branding;
vi) mentoring program for business start-ups;
vii) review of potential District incentive programs;
viii) job training/retraining programs with an LCR/green-business trades focus;  
ix) develop a green business hub/incubator in collaboration with WorkLink;  
x) secure six-figure annual destination marketing funding through the Municipal and Regional Destination Tax program; 
xi) attract more tourists through edu-tourism, eco-tourism, agri-tourism, and arts, sports and marine tourism; 
xii) explore Sooke harbour pilot project with Canada Border Services Agency;  
xiii) attract a major arts, culture, and/or recreation-oriented land use to Sooke; 
xiv) pursue a world-class event to be held annually in spirit of the former Sooke triathalon;
xv) strategies for consistent special event production in Sooke.

That's a significant, exciting set of responsibilities for the CED Officer working in collaboration with District staff, the Chamber of Commerce, the South Island Prosperity Project, the T'Sou-ke Nation, WorkLink and other provincial government agencies, future District committees, independent business owners, our major incoming mixed-use developers and a potential third-party Sooke CED organization (perhaps modelled after the Nanaimo Prosperity Corporation following a City of Nanaimo presentation to Sooke's CED Committee early this year.)    

As for the environmental/climate-action component in all the above, it's stated at the outset in the CED Strategy's Goal 1.1 (pg. 5) and aligns with the District's 2021 commitment to Low Carbon Resilience in operations and community planning:  "To attract new businesses and organizations that are Low Carbon Resilient. Definition of LCR businesses are those that, to the greatest extent possible: contribute to a circular economy; protect natural resources and carbon sinks; provide protection from climate risks; lower GHG emissions; and identify social, environmental and economic co-benefits (pg. 7) as part of the business vision." 

The CEDO, then, is a part-time, quasi-Climate Action Coordinator in him/her/their-selves ... as are all District staff for that matter given a whole-of-organization commitment to Low Carbon Resilience. Back to that job description: "The CEDO is also responsible for the implementation of the Community Economic Development Strategy and supporting the Climate Action Plan for the District of Sooke which will, among other initiatives, stimulate business activity and investment in the District while promoting climate action mitigation and adaptation strategies." 

District staff were instrumental in creating the 25 short-term priorities in the Climate Action Plan. Various departments will take on their respective tasks identified in the plan should the next council approve related budget (money and staff time) expenditures during the 2023-2028 Five-Year Financial Plan deliberations following the election.

Even so, while enthusiastically endorsing the climate plan, the Climate Action Committee also formally called for the hiring of a full-time successor to Ms. Carolsfeld in a last-act motion sent to council on July 25 (see pg. 83/84). As with motions arising from the District's other committees this summer, council opted to forward the request to the new council for consideration in creating their own four-year Strategic Plan. District hires have been funded in recent years through the revenue from new tax portfolios. And with the bonus of the provincial climate action contribution, both positions are entirely feasible and required. (IMHO, of course and always.) 

Fingers tightly crossed, then, that an exceptional CED Officer is in Sooke's near future. It's an utterly timely need to ensure that Sooke's new town centre commercial space is made first-look available (and affordable) to local businesses, home-based enterprises ready for expansion and independent gap-businesses from elsewhere who might want to open a Sooke outlet ... all before the national chains are entertained. (Does Sooke need a London Drugs or Starbucks given their ubiquity elsewhere? The west-shore is surely globalized enough as it is, so let's keep our streetfronts as local and independent as possible.) 

The new CEDO could also work with new-build property managers on other ideas:  an art gallery, distance education hub, commercial kitchen and/or a co-working enterprise -- both private Club Kwench-style and also a Province of BC telework centre like the extremely well-used space in Langford to serve the approx. 250 provincial employees residing in the Sooke region. [Council this summer approved an advocacy pitch based on one of Carolsfeld's reports (see pp. 7-10). The letter I wrote for the Mayor's signature to the Ministry of Citizen Services has generated a response high-fiving us for our GHG-reduction ambitions and non-committally stating that Sooke will be considered as the province accommodates new patterns of split-week and telework employment.]

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Related excerpts from my January, 2021 overview of the District's three then newly-formed committees ... 

The CED Committee is the latest iteration of a long-standing focus in Sooke and every community seeking to create local jobs and a healthy business sector. The new-born municipality's first "Economic Development Strategy Session" was held in September, 2002; it's fascinating to look back to the minutes (pp. 11-15) and see how many wish-list items have been ticked and how much of what is at issue today was recognized back then (apart from today's top challenge ~ managing the kind of population growth likely unimagined by folks back then.)  

The Economic Development Commission was launched by Mayor Evans in 2006 in collaboration with what was then known as the Sooke Harbour Chamber of Commerce. Its positive thinking in the '00s is captured in the District's 2008 annual report (pg. 18 and 36), the EDC's "Age-Friendly Dialogue" report, the "Advantage Sooke" website, the Sooke Sustainable Development Strategy (pp. 27-30, "Strategy #7 -- Promote jobs and businesses that contribute to a locally-oriented, green economy") and the 2010 Official Community Plan (section 4.4, pp. 32-37; developing Sooke's "Wild By Nature" tourism economy is cited as a primary OCP goal on an extensive action list topped by ongoing support for the EDC, the hiring of an economic development officer and the creation of a "District of Sooke Economic Development Corporation" in the mould of successful models elsewhere.)  

The EDC's six-year run ended when Mayor Milne replaced it with the Advisory Panel on Economic Development for 2013-14. The Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce continued to do its vital work and is again working hard and strategically to navigate the business sector through this unfortunate year and beyond.  Now council, through our latest Strategic Plan review, has asked that a new committee be launched to address "community economic development" -- distinct from textbook "economic development" and defined by the Canadian CED Network as strategic actions that "strengthen communities by creating economic opportunities to enhance social and environmental conditions." 

Simon Fraser University's Five Principles of Community Economic Development sum it up neatly. The holistic goal is to "create inclusive local economies, develop nourishing livelihood opportunities, build on local resources and capacities, increase community control and ownership, enhance the health of the environment, and encourage community resilience."  Pretty much consistent with Sooke's earlier thinking documented above and all very much in the spirit of the sustainable triple bottom line. (YouTube summary + this explanation by economist John Elkington on his thinking in coining that term).  

The possibilities and best-practice actions going forward were documented in the Sooke Economic Analysis (see pp. 13-69). 
 
Much credit for this new phase of ED activity goes to the revitalized Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce under new president Karen Mason and executive director Britt Santowski. The Chamber came to council last year reapplying for community service agreement funds that it surrendered in 2016 when it became clear it was being asked by the District to effectively take on the work of a Economic Develoment Officer for a slim $28k per year. This May we okayed $16k as a one-year starter with the promise to consider stable funding in the 2021 budget. 

A council and senior staff workshop in January with Cheryl McLay of the Province of BC's Regional Economic Operations Branch was an intro to a wealth of economic development tools and support available to small communities like our own via the province, the BC Economic Development Association and other avenues. Not long after this Sooke joined the South Island Prosperity Project in support of its efforts to keep the South Island competitive in attracting  businesses and investment dollars to the region.  

CAO McInnis followed up the council workshop by creating an informal working group that has met twice-monthly since the spring. It features McLay, Mayor Tait and representatives from six key local organizations: the Chamber's Mason, Sooke Region Museum and Visitors Centre's Lee Boyko, Sooke Region Communities Health Network's Don Brown, Sooke Region Tourism Association's Ryan Chamberland, WorkLink Employment Society's Peter Doukakis,  and the Economic Development Group's Doug Wittich. 
 
The Terms of Reference ensure all of the above organizations will have seats at the table along with a councillor and two public members. Their first critical ask is that the District find the dollars in the 2021 budget, live up to earlier intentions dating back at least 15 years and hire a Community Development Officer next year. (For its part, the Climate Action Committee understandably would like to see dollars dedicated to an environment/climate specialist to help process a hefty workload passed down to it by council. Needs/wants/wishes, what is a community to do without blowing residential taxes -- currently 85% of the total annual haul -- through the roof? Cultivate more business tax portfolios, that's what.) 
 
Here are links to community economic development overviews for Revelstoke, Vancouver, Bowen Island, Clearwater, the Thompson Okanagan region and Williams Lake, to cite a handful of provincial examples. Still more to learn on the subject from Cowichan Valley Regional District, Community Futures Cowichan, the City of Langford and a place to which we're often compared given our shared proximity to a major city, Squamish.  

The province's Investment Readiness Assessment Checklist for communities is also likely to be given a workout by the new committee. Requirement one: "A designated point person for economic development," hence the call for a full-time CED Officer. An individual who could liaise with local businesses, woo new investors, execute committee and council recommendations, write grant proposals and cheerlead for #Sooke as we build out our town centre would surely be public money well spent. (Always with the proviso that we must stay fiscally conservative during an unpredictable pandemic.) 

Time to revisit my Dec. 2018 "X Homes + Y People + Z cars =?"  Sooke construction overview and catch up on the rush of activity since then. I called for a "pause" in my 2018 election campaign until new master plans were in place to guide community growth, and the good news is that the District sports a refreshed set of them (almost, pending eventual approval of the new OCP). All affirm and renew Sooke's long-time focus on smart-growth density, job creation, community development and appropriately denser housing in the town centre while protecting our rural lands and character. I have voted these last four unexpected, roller-COVIDcoaster years against sprawl and up-zoning while learning and necessarily accepting that development legally can proceed when zoning is in place. 

The 2008/09 recession that slowed anticipated local growth is long past. Sooke has lost its best-kept secret status to the regret of many of us who value small-town charm and pace, and who continually need to remind ourselves that we're still living remarkably wild by nature in this still unspoilt region. Have a look out the front doors of the new Sooke library (or from the sports court box, for that matter) and convince me I'm wrong. As much as it may feel like it on days we don't stray far from #14, we are not becoming an extension of Langford even with the growth in traffic between here and there.

(And that's right, I'm not a commuter but I know the feeling as recently as last week during a late-afternoon crawl home starting at Daniel's Market. Alleviating traffic congestion is a primary goal in three key #Sooke documents -- the provisional OCP, the newly minted Climate Action Plan and the 2021 Community Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan. Implementation of BC Transit's Sooke Local Area Transit Plan and the south island RapidBus system will also help in growing our region-leading 12% per capita ridership.) 

For the most part, the incoming, mostly mixed-use commercial and residential projects listed below have the required zoning and will -- pending council approval of their various commitments to meet Sooke's Development Permit, Town Centre Design Handbook and Downtown Design guidelines -- be breaking ground in the heart of the "complete and compact community" that the CRD's Regional Growth Strategy and our own Official Community Plan (both current and pending) demands. Our Transportation Master Plan also confirms "high growth potential" for the Town Centre with "moderate growth" for the Sewer Specified Area (which could expand with Kaltasin and Whiffin Spit neighbourhood assent should sewer expansion grant funding be available as we'll discover this time next year.) 

All this developer interest and activity is a product, I'll hazard to say, of a number of factors here where we've just reached city-status with our 15,000+ population:

* The clear vision and practical action plans for the short and mid-term future contained in our updated master plans, including the aforementioned multi-modal Transportation plan with its focus on the Throup-Grant Rd. connector route/bypass. 

* The continued evolution of an attractive, functional town centre with smartly updated arterial corridors (Otter Point Rd., Church Rd., Charters to follow), bike lanes, new sidewalks (as far as Ed Macgregor Park on the West Coast Rd. with continuation on to Whiffin Spit Rd. next) and a street-front business community marked more by unique independents than identikit national chains.  

* The evolution of the town centre Lot A (with its landmark new library and the promise/potential of a public plaza, the age-friendly Gathering Place intergenerational centre, and expanded health care facilities as the five-acre property's design and flow is integrated with Evergreen Mall.)  

* New all-ages community amenities like the splendid fitness room at SEAPARC, the Ponds Corridor dog park and the multi-sport court box in Sunriver with more (such as the grant-dependent DeMamiel Creek/Little River pedestrian route and updated skate park) to follow; 

* A full range of K-12 schools (ready for updating, it's true, with the promised Sunriver Elementary slated to break ground in 2027 according to a facilities plan ever subject to change and major decisions to be made by School District #62 about the future of Sooke Elementary, the oldest in BC, occupying a large development-perfect ocean view property and one of four Sooke schools contributing to traffic slow-downs along our provincial highway); 

* The provincially/federally funded 50% expansion of our wastewater treatment plant to increase capacity and accommodate incoming growth; 

* Above all, the utterly spectacular harbour town setting in which folks from all parts of the country aspire to live, here where the still-standing rain forest meets the mostly pollution-free sea (which still isn't clean enough for renewed shellfish harvesting, it must be said, and is one central reason why sewers east to Kaltasin are needed.) 

​Today's update is inspired a) by my need to get my thoughts in order for the upcoming election; and b) by a recent Citified summary headlined "Sooke's village core earmarked for growth with 995 units of rentals and ownership opportunities underway."  That number is aligned with the District's own calculation last year that 1200 new residential addresses are in the works for the rest of the 2020s. (Sooke grew by 16% to 15k residents in the five years since the last census, and we're told by the CRD statisticians and the authors of the draft OCP that we can anticipate annual 2.9% growth through 2050 and a population by then of 25k. To meet that growth, the OCP tells us we need 1,813 more units by 2030, another 1,567 by 2040 and a further 1,658 by 2050.

[To repeat, broken-record fashion, my own opinion: We need to question and challenge these projections given the reality of our increasingly congested two-lane highway, Sooke's overall carrying capacity as a population centre and our OCP-certified desire to remain "a small town with a big heart." Growth was intended to flow along Van isle's eastern seaboard, not out our way, and we can simply only accommodate so much.]

This influx of new residents along with the rest of us will also be served by many thousands of square feet (note to self: add it up) of proposed new retail and office space, a critical need for Sooke's community economic development aspirations. (PS Applications now welcome for the District's Community Ec Dev Officer position, deadline Sept.5. This renewed position is utterly timely and critical so as to work along with the Chamber of Commerce with property managers to ensure they make space available first to local businesses, home-based enterprises ready for expansion, independents from elsewhere who might want to open a Sooke outlet, arts collectives, hub co-working enterprises (Province of BC and private operators like Club Kwench), etc. All before the national chains get a look-in (do we really need a London Drugs, Canadian Tire, Starbucks, etc. when they're so readily at hand in Langford? My wish: NO, enough with globalization, thank you.) 

Our town's Housing Needs Report (2019) calls for additional and varied housing right across the spectrum.  The major  issues it identified: 1. An extremely tight rental market; 2. Significant growth anticipated in senior households (and the need for downsizing options for locals); 3. The need for social housing, especially for affordable housing; and 4. A shift towards smaller-sized households and building footprints due to the sky high cost of available housing (still up 3% compared to this time last year.)  

Stone Ridge, Viewpointe Estates, SookePoint and the next phase of Erinan Estates will certainly address the million-plus single-family end of that Sooke spectrum. At the other extreme, the Hope Centre will have 33 transitional housing units when renovations are complete this fall and the new BC Housing complexes at Charters and Drennan will offer 49 shelter-rate apartments. The latter will also feature nearly 200 below-market rental units. (The Sooke Homelessness Coalition plans to advocate for emergency solutions such as a carefully regulated pilot project that would match RV dwellers, whose numbers are rising, with homeowners who can offer a stable parking pad in return for a modest monthly fee.) 

In between we have Sooke median-priced single-family homes (I live in one such rancher) and other varied stock, but not so much until recently of the "missing-middle" options -- apartments, condominiums, three-and-fourplexes, town homes and genuinely affordable, smaller-footprint (500-1500 sq ft) single-family homes of the kind championed by Small Housing BC. The new wave of construction is certainly delivering a relative wealth of purpose-built rentals to the town centre. "Gentle densification" encouraging various housing types to flourish outside the TC is encouraged in the draft OCP. And secondary suites remain possible throughout the District,  both as mortgage-helpers and essential housing (hopefully mostly for full-time residents, not tourists, but that's okay too if the balance is right.) 

As for density, there's been a fair bit of confusion during OCP deliberations over the draft's call for a maximum density of 70 units per hectare in the Community Residential (CR) designation (i.e., the Sewer Specified Area west of the Sooke River). Some have wrongly claimed that this means every CR landowner would be free to dramatically densify their single-family lots and we'd see cluster housing on what are now single-family streets. 

Not so, however.  As District staff and the OCP consultants have stated repeatedly, "maximum densities within each designation will be informed by the policy direction of the OCP and the site-specific zoning provided in the Zoning Bylaw." (to quote the document itself, pg. 56). This same site-specific rule also applies to the proposed Town Centre Core, Town Centre Transitional and Town Centre Waterfront designations where density is welcome. (Up to a point; the 2009 Town Centre Plan envisions net growth in the TC of 1400 by 2050.) 

A new Zoning Bylaw is required following the adoption of any new OCP, and our first-read community plan currently allows six-storey buildings north of Sooke Rd. in the TC and only along Brownsey south of it.  These too will be site specific in the new zoning bylaw. (Interestingly, the current zoning bylaw's High-Density Multi-Family RM-4 category allows a maximum of 90 units per hectare. Ayre Manor and West Wind Harbour are the only spots so designated. the CD7 zoning for Mariner's Village allows 50 units per hectare maximum.) 

Turning to the major projects identified in the Citified round-up and some others of significant note: 

* BC Housing affordable rental projects at Charters (75 units total) and Drennan (170) are moving along nicely as is plainly evident from a drive-by. (Full details and site plans in the Dec. 14, 2019 council agenda.) The modular complex at Charters across from Art Morris Park will reportedly open later this year following an extended delay necessitated by the discovery of a northwest coastal shell midden missed when the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development's Archeological Branch signed off on the project. Meanwhile, the north and south BC Housing apartment blocks at Drennan are expected to be complete a year from now. In total, these Regional Housing First Program projects will offer 195 units of varying sizes for renters with low and moderate incomes along with 49 apartments available at the Income Assistance Rate Table Shelter Maximum (aka shelter rate.) 

* John Phillips Memorial Park retail/residential mixed-use buildings on the east side of Otter Point Rd. via the Victoria contractor GT Mann (see pg. 7 - 121 in the April 12, 2021 council agenda). This 0.87 hectare (2.15 acre) Neighbourhood Commercial (C1)-zoned site will feature 13k sq. ft of ground floor office/commercial space plus two upper floors comprising 77 market-rate rentals with park views. As you'll read in Corvidae's environmental assessment, all due care is being taken to integrate the project into the park, save existing trees not on the site footprint, plant new ones, manage stormwater and protect Nott Pond. (PS This property was never parkland, as some have assumed, and it is not the proposed Sooke Lions-initiated community space, which is slated -- if at all pending further community engagement -- for the slope rising to Wadams Way; the town hall information session on the subject is set for Sept. 25.) 

* Harbourview, aka Mariner's Village Phase Two (SeaCliff Group Properties, Vancouver.) We on the current council have yet to see any documentation and, as frustratingly ever with most such projects, won't until the Development Permit application reaches us 96 or so hours before it's addressed at a formal meeting (if at all pre-election).  SeaCliff's plans are based, however, on the CD7 site-specific zoning secured by former MV owner Mike Barrie and included with the Sooke Zoning Bylaw (2013; see pp. 152-159). As the Times Colonist reported, first-stage construction will involve i) Two structures along Sooke Road -- a one-storey commercial building and a three-storey mixed-use building (commercial space plus townhomes); and ii) a six-storey apartment building further down the slope flanked by townhouses. 
       Site development here will see extensions of Goodmere and Lanark Roads (as per the map on pg. 157 of the zoning bylaw, see the micro-screenshot below). The developer will also create an east-bound left turn lane off Sooke Road into Sooke Elementary.  Less appealing, of course, is the loss of what I imagine will be large portions of the view for which the project's now named. Construction will also eliminate the whole-of-site park potential on this remarkable piece of land. The massive Garry Oak will remain as the gateway to a future waterfront trail if the CD7 zoning is followed to the letter. Protected oceanfront parkland will include the cormorant-nesting trees. And provision is also made for a future boardwalk extension to one day link with the Rotary Pier.  I'm most interested to see how creatively the design can retain the harbour views (glimpses?) from Sooke Rd. and whether the Sooke Elementary students who perch and play on their playground circle of rocks will still be able to see the ocean. (SeaCliff is also building Westview and the Tesla Centre in Langford, and Royal Beach in Colwood.)  

* Westside of Brownsey Blvd. (WestUrban Developments, Campbell River with a south island HQ in Langford.)  With ambitions to be one of Western Canada's leading developers and numerous projects on the go, WestUrban has submitted a Development Permit application (see June 13, 2022 council agenda, pp. 5-71) for two six-storey buildings with 904 sq. meters of ground-floor commercial and 161 rental units. It was received by council on June 13 this year and sent back for further tinkering by staff and the applicant given that of the 52 Development Permit guidelines it triggers, 12 were entirely unmet and another 21 were only partially fulfilled. The appilcant, as they note, is investing $80m in developing this vital, long-dormant stretch of the town centre and yet we've only one chance to get this right. (Quick calculation: 161 apartments at an average of $1500/month = $2.9m per year in rental revenue not counting commercial space.)  Personally, I'd like draft OCP short-term action #2 -- revise the Town Centre Plan -- to be completed before the next council has to make this call, but that's not necessarily how a restless free-market works when zoning is in place. 
        The challenge is to better align the design of these two six-storey (with underground parking) mixed-use buildings with the vision embedded in Sooke's current Town Centre Plan. It calls for a pedestrian-friendly, shop-and-cafe laced corridor with wide landscaped sidewalks leading down to the water.  ("Provisionally named Waterview Street, this shop-lined ‘high street’ connects to the waterfront. Here, marine-commercial uses and a public pier complete this new ‘spine’ for the Town Centre. Lower density development on the streets that cross Waterview Street will be primarily townhouses with vehicle access from lanes at the rear of the lots." - pg. 6).  Whether the terrain and relatively narrow building footprints on Brownsey realistically allows this vision remains to be seen. 
       As I wrote on FB early this summer: "This is a huge, character-shaping moment in the evolution of our town centre. The variances the applicant is seeking appear to be workable, but District staff also have issues with street-front form and character of the two proposed buildings. 'The main issue,' stated the staff report, 'is that the development does not establish a pedestrian-oriented streetscape [aka "Village High Street"] because of the following: Significant retaining walls, blank walls, lack of a consistent line of building fronts that clearly define the space of a street, surface parking on a highly visible, prominent corner, and limited at-grade access to each of the buiding sites ... Improvement is needed to create a more engaging and vibrant pedestrian streetscape as supported by Development Permit objectives.' (These DP objectives are listed in full in the report and measured against the proposal. Many are met, some are not. And this is why getting it right with the new DP guidelines in our draft OCP is so critically important for moments exactly like this.)" 

* Eastside of Brownsey Blvd. (6643 Sooke Road.) The Edmonton-based Postmark Group pulled out of its exciting plans for a mass-timber commercial/office/residential proposal. Postmark's website is down and its Facebook page reveals no clues. The property was sold again late last year for $1.88m. 

* Wadams Farm (Aragon Development, Vancouver.)  All details and maps can be found in the July 12, 2021 council agenda (pg. 9-134). To quote myself again (Nov. 4, 2020): "The zoning went through in 2016 at the request of the owner and it is now in the respected, reputable hand of the new-urbanist Aragon Development. Its approved plan for a neighbourhood of 132 homes (78 strata townhouse units and 54 fee simple single-family lots) aligns precisely with the OCP's Sooke Smart Growth ambitions at the northern edge of the town centre." 

* The Gathering Place (Sooke Region Communities Health Network). A team led by Christine Bossi and Marlene Barry are creatively campaigning to raise $2 million for the intergenerational community centre (click here to donate) adjacent to the library. The 70 proposed seniors' affordable rental units on three floors above it are contingent on a successful BC Housing grant application when the next funding window opens in fall 2023. (More on the project's long genesis here.)

* Nott Brook (Aragon Development). No word on when a Development Permit proposal will be brought forward for the decade-delayed 127-residence Nott Brook subdivision blanketing the western side of the former golf course, likely not until Wadams Farm is well on the way to completion. 

Major projects yet to be rezoned or brought forward for Development Permits and which future councils have the ability to confirm, negotiate with and/or deny: 

* West Ridge Trails Phase 3. The third and final phase of this development by Richmond-based (but Sooke-rooted) Farrell Estates (McPhail Group of Companies) will stretch on now forested land from Blanchard as far as Sellars Dr. behind the project's first two phases on the east slope of Broom Hill. Those initial phases (70 single family homes) are now sold-out.  The proposed Phase 3 involves a 20-year (market conditional) plan to build 425 homes on 100 second-growth acres (i.e., 340 small, medium and large single family residential lots and 85 multi-family units.) A commercial area (4k m2) is to feature offices, cafe/restaurant and corner store.  See maps, trail networks, environmental report and rationales in the OCP Advisory Committee agenda of Nov. 17, 2021. (The draft OCP initially labelled this land rural rather than the current Community Residential since it was judged, by planning staff and consultants, to be far enough from the town centre to qualify as sprawl. Cue pushback from the owners on the grounds that District staff had, in late 2017, effectively greenlit phase 3 and okayed construction of a connector road. Council returned the CR designation during first reading of the OCP bylaw this spring. I voted against this on the grounds that I'd have liked further discussion atop what was a relatively, by my windy standards, brief conversation on the subject. I did so while knowing that phase three will only go ahead should a future council rezone the land and approval sewer inclusion. It's a sensitively and smartly designed project but i wonder if the appilcant can up their game and create a bona fide climate-smart, Net Zero neighbourhood of Sooke's aspirational dreams. And/or demonstrate the creative possibilities for affordable 21st century housing as per the Small Housing BC toolkit. What an opportunity for Sooke builders to expand their already solid skill sets into a more diverse array of housing types.)  

* Country Grocer project (Large family/Mid America Venture Capital Corp, Victoria.) Rezoning required on a proposal that will cover 156k sq. ft. on nine greenfield acres behind and west of the Hope Centre. A key matter here is traffic flow, the main entrance (which could be a roundabout rather than signal light) and whether the Gatewood right-of-way will become an arterial route connecting Grant Rd. West to the West Coast Road (i.e., who will pay for it.) Times Colonist article (June 20, 2021) + my Facebook post of May 9, 2021:

"Further details I can share re: the news that the owners of the nine-acre field immediately west and north of the Hope Centre off the West Coast Road will be seeking approvals to transform it into a mixed-use complex (aka shopping mall with office space and possibly residential). The upsides of additional commercial space in the heart of town are stated well by the Chamber's Britt Santowski in today's Times Colonist. 

Definite regrets about the potential loss of this green space -- the source of many buckets of blackberries over the years for dedicated pickers, a wild space for deer and such a lovely green vista for those of us who practiced at Sooke Yoga. Yet it's prime for density and development given it location on the western-most edge of the Town Centre within the walkability zone defined by OCP planners past and present.

The property is owned by the Large family, operators of the Country Grocer chain on Vancouver Island. They've decided the time is right to develop a parcel they've held since the early 1980s and will be seeking the necessary Town Centre Mixed Use zoning to proceed.

The 20 or so of us attending the Zoom public open house learned from coordinator Trevor Dickie that the design will be built out over 10 to 15 years in response to market demand. The anchor tenant and initial build will be a 35k sq. foot grocery store. A second building of equal size will rise alongside it. Additional blocks of smaller spaces are for stores and offices.  No residential units are currently in the plans, though he says all is possible prior to submission of a Development Permit application next year. (This DP will reflect and be responsive to directions established in the new OCP, he added, thus likely making a condo component essential over the project's time frame given the calls for town-centre density in mixed-used residential/commercial developments. Certainly a logical addition given the postcard views from any future third-or-fourth floor residences.)

Main vehicle access will be via the property immediately west of the Hope Centre, with traffic controlled by a signal light or roundabout, he said. A secondary access will be along the north half of Gatewood off Eustace Road. The half of Gatewood accessible from the West Coast Road will remain a walking trail. "First step will be the grocery, a bank and other uses," said Dickie. The second big box might be split into three retail spaces or used by a single operator. "A Walmart prototype would not fit on this site," he said definitively to the relief of a number of us on the call. "A whole lot of work is to be done before we have the details in place."

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Here's the update  on my late 2018 summary of works in varying states of progress. The websites for Stone Ridge Estates and Heron View, to cite two, have been taken down likely because they are complete (or nearly so in the former's case). The list is incomplete and I'll revise it with help from the District's Development Tracker.  

Town Centre
*  133 Aragon Properties homes and townhouses at the northwest corner of Wadams Way & Church
*   70 SRCHN/BC Housing units of affordable seniors’ rentals above the Gathering Place on Lot A (grant conditional)
*  123 Aragon single family homes and duplexes at Nott Brook (east-side Otter Point Rd. across from John Phillips) 
*   77 GT Mann apartments in the two mixed-use buildings at the former Mulligans 
*   26 Agius Builders townhouses in Meadowlands at north end of Kennedy Rd. North (opposed on grounds that we needed more info on how road network in this area will be improved through the then-incomplete Transportation Master Plan)
 *   7 multi-family two-bedroom cluster units at 2063 Townsend Rd. (see May 9, 2022 agenda, pp. 5-40) 
*  16 single-family lots 6829 Grant Road/Stone Hearth Lane (R3 zone)
*  x  final homes to to build-out at Woodlands Creek

Completed:  
*  42 Knox Vision Society affordable rental units at southwest corner of Wadams Way & Church 
*  31 condominium units at West Wind Harbour Cohousing on the waterfront west of Mariner’s Village
*  20 town homes at West Village, Eustace Road west of Gatewood 
*  10 townhouses on Ayre Road 
*  22 Agius Builders townhouses at Grasslands (2119 Charters Rd.) 
*  40+ more single-family homes at Woodlands Creek 

Otter Point Rd. North
*  29 single-family homes to be built in phase 2 of West Ridge Trails (lots have sold) 
*  425 single-family homes in phase 3 of West Ridge Trails (zoning dependent) 
*  16 single-family homes at 2445 Otter Point Rd. (opposed upzoning that would have increased the number to 27)   
*  5 single-family lots at 2614 Otter Point Rd. 
*  7 single-family Rowils Estates lots at 2489 Otter Point Rd. (April 23, 2019 council meeting; opposed) 

Completed: 
*  41 single-family homes in phase 1 of West Ridge Trails (Burr/Blanchard) 

Sooke ~ East of Charters Rd.  
* 75 BC Housing -- 15 units at shelter rate, 24 affordable units and 36 near-market units at Charters/Throup
* 169 BC Housing -- 34 units at shelter rate, 52 affordable units and 83 near-market units at northwest corner of Drennan/Sooke Rd. 
* ? DP filed at 6519 Throup Rd. 
* 28 townhomes at 2104 Charters Rd. 
* 140 more single-family homes to build-out of Sunriver (its website references “a community of 715 homes”; zoning amendment currently on hold.)
* New commercial building at 2330 Sunriver Way 

Completed: 
* 50+ more patio-style homes to build-out at RiversEdge Village/Sunriver

Sooke ~ West of Gatewood 
* 109 single-family homes planned for the remaining phases of Viewpointe Estates
* 24 (?) town homes in the construction zone between Brailsford and Melrick Place
* ? single-family homes to build-out in future phases of Erinan Estates
* 11.5 cluster homes at 1923 Maple Ave. S. (potential; 2 homes approved on Nov. 26, 2018) 
*  4 fee-simple lots at 1939 Maple Ave. S. (approved May 13, 2019) 
 
Completed: 
* 34 single-family homes in phase three of Stone Ridge Estates
* 22 single-family homes in phase four of Stone Ridge Estate
* 27 condos at The Residences on Sooke Harbour, 1820 Maple Ave. South 
* 10 single-family homes in phase seven of Heron View
* 14-lot potential at 7057 West Coast Road 
* 6 single-family homes on southside of 6000-block West Coast Road across from Sooke Harbour Resort


Sasseenos
* 5 lot subdivision at 5627 Woodlands Rd. 
* 3 home subdivision at 5686 Woodlands Rd. 

Completed:
* 5 strata homes at 5651 Woodlands Rd. (upzoned on Nov. 26, 2018 from previously permitted one home; opposed) 

SookePoint
* 127 building sites at SookePoint in the former East Sooke. The Whiffin Spit-facing "ocean cottages" at Possession Point (click for June, 2022 site plan) are now fully sold. 

Three days after its opening, I had my first encounter this afternoon with half of the future four-lane stretch at 17 Mile after reading about its pros and cons on social media. A flagger stopped us in the eastbound lane for two minutes to allow heavy machinery to do its thing. And a car turning left onto the Gillespie connection held us up for approx. 15 seconds until a westbound driver paused and waved it through. Then on to my chores in Langford before joining the rush home. 

The project is on track for completion later this year. Here's a Ministry of Transportation visualization of the road network near 17 Mile House. It's from the presentation materials released at the 2019 Open House at EMCS. Flip towards the back of this PDF to see visualizations of other impacted intersections. ​

​Full details on the Ministry's Highway 14 page.  MOTI just yesterday announced that it has wrapped its West Coast Road improvement work west of Gordon's Beach. It's the latest box tick for an ongoing series of regional road improvements neatly captured in this MOTI Flickr photo file.  

PS If you're curious about the Wilson family's future plans for its commercially zoned property surrounding the 17 Mile House, check the public hearing materials in the council agenda of Feb. 8, 2021. The 17 Mile Liquor Store, the Adrena Line Zipline office and a grocery store (possibly Sooke's first Red Barn) are to be located in what's described as a "small, rural-style commercial complex" south of the pond in the fuzzy patch of the above illustration. (One of the best points I've seen raised in the last few days is that a guardrail is needed to prevent cars from sliding off the road into said pond on icy winter days or during speeding/distracted-driver mishaps.) A BC Transit Park-and-Ride is also part of the mix here. 

Looking back to related content from this non-commuter's Facebook page:

June 26, 2021: "To repeat a theme stated time and again in these parts, most recently during this year's OCP public engagement: The single biggest reality check for Sooke's evolution is the fact that we've serviced by just the one, increasingly congested, two-lane highway.

How busy is our main road? Personal and anecdotal evidence is that we now face local rush hours quite unlike what Carolyn and I experienced on arrival here in 2003. And regional commuters must now deal with the "Sooke Slink" (to use Shannon Moneo's rather brilliant and catchy phrase) from Sassenos Elementary (on good days, as she says) and Cooper's Cove (on bad days).

So this bright morning i did some exploration ...

i) Sooke's Transportation Master Plan (2020) states that "Highway 14 experiences traffic volumes up to 20,000 vehicles per day. Otter Point Road is the busiest Collector Road with volumes up to 9,500 per day." The projected Average Daily Traffic entering Sooke in 2038 will be 25,000 vehicles. See the map on page 41. This estimate seems low to me given the projected 22k residents by that year. 

ii) Present-day TMP data is derived from CRD traffic counts dating back to 2007. 

iii) MOTI also maintains sporadic but telling data, i.e., Sooke River Road numbers comparing 2012 and 2018.

The TMP is accommodating growth with an expanded "complete streets" network highlighted by the long-planned Throup/Grant Road bypass that will channel local traffic off Sooke Rd. It also calls for intersection improvements at #14 and Church (underway this summer), Otter Point and Phillips Roads. (full details in the Transportation Master Plan, pp. 38-51)

The current #14 expansion to four lanes in North Sooke will help the flow TBD (i.e., somewhat) while dramatically improving safety.  Obvious conclusion: Volume is growing in lockstep with Sooke's population increases and our 'carrying capacity' (or ideal population size) as a community that values free-flowing traffic and rates gridlock as one of our worst nightmares must be a prime consideration as we figure out Sooke's future." 

May 20, 2020: "The latest Hwy #14 (Neil Creek to Glinz Lake Rd.) project developments were posted online this morning along with details of the key revisions emerging from the latest round of public feedback: The addition of a secondary road linking Manzer to Gillespie that will allow area residents to conveniently access the highway in both directions; a  pedestrian underpass east of Glinz Lake Road to connect bus stops on either side of the road; and oversized culverts under the road that double as wildlife corridors.

The two-year (minimum) construction period is slated to begin later this year. Yes, inevitably, there will be inconvenience even though much of the new route does not follow the current one. MOTI promises that there will be no stoppages during peak travel times, and we will all be kept aware via ads, social media and electronic road signs of planned, non-peak delays caused by rock blasting and tree removal. (Cautions/hopes: Stuff happens ... patience is a virtue ... and telecommuting may well be a lasting upside from the COVID era and a partial solution to growing traffic congestion.) 

In other news, MOTI will be installing new sidewalks on both sides of the West Coast Road from the Otter Point Rd. stop light west to Ed Macgregor Park in the months ahead. A crosswalk linking Gatewood Trail to the park is included (as was the wish of the kids and teachers at SOCLA (Sooke Options for Community Living Association) who routinely have troubles getting across the road to Ed Mac. 

May 16, 2020: "As a playful prelude to its major Highway #14 update announcement next week, MOTI has added this vintage 16mm clip to its "Road Trip Time Machine" archive.  Filming took place on May 11, 1966, a Wednesday. The town centre arrives at 2:48, ten seconds after the bridge crossing. Bonus: Slow moo-ving traffic on the approach to Jordan River (where the road ended back then) at the 6:00 mark. (That's right, the image chosen to preview the clip is the 17 Mile House Pub, the heart of the 2km/4-lane highway expansion over the next two years).

April 23, 2019: "Just back from the Premier's press conference outside the 17 Mile House Pub. He formally announced the four-laning of Hwy #14 from Connie to Glinz Lake Road. It's expected to be complete by the end of 2022, and "will make life better and safer for the people of Sooke," said Mr. Horgan.

The project will cost $65 million in federal and provincial funding ~ 80 percent of the cost of the McKenzie overpass and proof once more that a bona fide alternate route to Sooke is a short-and-mid-term fantasy given the $500 million (minimum) costs that would be involved. 

Five of the six property owners who will lose their homes have agreed to fair-market settlements with the Ministry of Transportation; negotiations continue with the other 22 affected property owners. Sooke Fire Chief Ken Mount is pleased with the new configuration and figures it improves emergency response services in the area even with a median along this stretch and the requirement for his team to navigate new u-turns in responding to local calls.

The Premier noted that almost all of the Hwy #14 Corridor Improvements promised in early 2018 are now complete -- Roche Cove bridge, Sombrio pullover and Sooke River Road stoplight included.

A stoplight is one of the options under consideration, this one just east of the 17 Mile to allow local and East Sooke traffic to merge into the stream. (Still another is promised for Charters Rd. to deal with the traffic generated by the new BC Housing affordable complex at Drennan.)  

A kinder surprise bonus slipped into today's announcement was that the shoulders along the West Coast Road will be widened and paved from Gordon's Beach as far west as Woodhaven Rd. on our side of French Beach Provincial Park -- a $20-million boon for intrepid cyclists travelling on what has long been rated a dangerous stretch of winding, super-picturesque roadway.

Best moment for me: A passing motorist shouted 'end the carbon tax' loudly enough for all of us milling around the future park'n'ride at 17 Mile to hear him. The Premier promptly fired back: "Yeah, the carbon tax. Buddy, that .1 cent per litre must be killing you." Very cool customer, our Mr. Premier."  


Also from from this blog ... 

- Spring 2019 at the time the Sooke River Road intersection was near completion 

​- November 2018, a long post with many links capturing earlier upgrades and plans. This was written back when I was finding the road much less safe (and rather less busy) than it is today. 

The District has just posted its "What We Heard" report summarizing feedback from residents in the Kaltasin (92 respondents from 290 properties) and Whiffin Spit (261 from 447 properties) neighbourhoods to the proposed sewer system master plan expansion. You'll find it and a new Q&A Info package among the sidebar files on the Let's Talk Sooke: Wastewater Planning page.  Read these first, please. 

The response, in brief as I interpret it, is wholly contingent on whether or not Sooke can secure the full $27.1 million grant we're seeking from the federal government's Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program's Environmental Quality (EQ) Program. If yes, at least two-thirds of folks are in favour of a strategy that would see expansion east to Kaltasin to start, followed by servicing in Whiffin Spit. Support declines if we get partial funding and bottoms out if we're snubbed entirely. The decision is expected this time next year.  

Any which way, moving ahead is also entirely contingent on approval via a local area petition process exclusively involving residents who'd be getting the new service and dealing with the resultant sticker shock  (My fingers-crossed optimistic guess: We'll be okayed for the $8.7m that would enable the Kaltasin expansion and asked to be patient about funding for the remainder of a master plan that likely won't be built out for several decades. Which is entirely what District planning documents, which identify phases but not timelines, recommend.) 

The surveys affirm the OCP-certified (and shared by us all, surely) importance of protecting and upgrading the environmental health of the Sooke harbour. Yet per-household cost is a serious concern for many in these unpredictable and inflationary times. (Without a grant, the cost would be a one-time $33k per home plus $2k per year ongoing in Whiffin Spit; $28k + $1.5k per year for Kaltasin. Halve those costs with a partial grant, and cut them by 70% with a full grant.) 

The Kaltasin cohort largely agrees with the District's 2010 Liquid Waste Management Plan - Sanitary that the top priority is eastward expansion their way to serve T'Sou-ke IR1, SD #62 schools and the mix of residential, industrial and commercially zoned land.  (CRD water quality monitoring reports confirm that the main pollution hotspots are clustered at the mouth of the Sooke River and nearby in the harbour.)  

The Whiffin Spit gang are generally less enthusiastic, citing concerns about too much potential resultant development along with satisfaction with functional, well-maintained septic systems. The CRD marine reports also largely confirm this. They're issued every four years. The 2017 edition is too large to attach here, so email me at jbateman@shaw.ca if you'd like a copy. The latest is due later this year. (Read appendix G of the What We Heard report for a particularly substantial reply from the Austins Place Strata group, which concludes: "The District should not rush to proceed with a half-planned project because a grant is available. We fully support Council’s plan to address water contamination sourced from the long-identified “hot spots,” but not to Whiffin Spit. We also encourage Council to take the other actions outlined in the LWMP to prevent boat effluent and farm animal wastes from being discharged into the Sooke Harbour." )

The District's Q&A report (pg. 5) details the next steps: 

"If the District of Sooke is successful with its grant application, the District will proceed with establishing a Local Area Service including a Loan Authorization Bylaw through a Petition Against process. This process provides an opportunity for those not in support of the expanded sewer service to express their opposition. If at least 50 percent of owners representing at least 50 percent of the assessed value of land identified in the area (Whiffin Spit and Kaltasin are independent service areas) sign the petition against, then the new service for the area will not be created and the project will not proceed.

At this time, if the District is not successful with its grant application, it is unlikely we will continue to explore sewer service expansion in these areas; however, this is a conversation we are interested in continuing with property owners at the Project Open Houses" (which are to be scheduled in-person and online this summer)

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Quick reads:  District's current Sewer System website page + Royal Flush: Behind the Scenes at Sooke's Wastewater Treatment Plant (Kevin Laird, Sooke News Mirror)

And now from the More Than You Ever Wanted to Know Dept.  

The District's first OCP (adopted Aug. 12, 2002) notes that "Sooke has very little in the way of hard services such as storm and sanitary sewers. In 2000, the District commissioned the Village Sewerage Study to provide a preliminary design and cost estimate of a system of sewage collection, treatment and disposal for the commercial core ... A sewer system helps to prevent pollution problems associated with inadequate or poorly maintained on-site systems. It also allows for greater density. In the long run, sewers will help to achieve the form of development suggested in this Plan, rather than the more sprawling form of development that occurs where services are limited. A better quality of building and economic benefits should result as more efficient use is made of a limited land supply. Revitalization of the Town Centre should become more achievable." (pg. 50; not available online.) 

An awesomely detailed Water Quality Assessment and Proposed Objectives for Sooke Watersheds, Inlet, Harbour and Basin Technical Report, released by the BC Ministry of the Environment in 2019, identifies multiple then-and-now sources of water pollution in local waters. "The primary concern with regards to potential impacts on water quality in Sooke Inlet/Harbour/Basin are associated with anthropogenic activities, specifically failing septic fields and rainwater runoff carrying contaminants from the freshwater streams and stormdrains into the marine waters (Cameron and Green, 2007; CRD, 2008; Environment Canada, 2005; Cross, 1996; CRD, 2010; CRD, 2011; CRD, 2012; CRD, 2013)."

Also of concern is residual "legacy impact" marine pollution from resource industries -- "marine aquaculture operations (two salmon net pen operations), fish processing and forestry operations (log storage and booming and wood treatment by Lamford Forest Products Ltd. on Goodridge Peninsula)" -- now embedded in marine soil.  

From a literal s***show in the early '00s (fecal coliform-show, to be accurate), the District cleaned up its act and the harbour with it by contracting with Edmonton-based EPCOR to build a modern sewer and secondary-treatment system serving what's known as the Sewer Specified Area (effectively the town centre and environs.) Construction began in 2004 and was completed in November of the following year. Domestic and commercial connections began shortly thereafter and have continued ever since as new homes are added in the SSA.  

As legislatively required, the District then produced a series of stormwater, rainwater and sanitary Liquid Waste Management Plans (LWMP) during the period 2007-10 for use as short and longer-range planning documents. 

Council led by Mayor Evans wanted to extend what it clearly rated as a successful relationship with EPCOR into the 2030s. This sparked an election-year group called Fair Sewer Services for Sooke led by future Mayor Wendall Milne, former/future councillor Rick Kasper and then-and-soon-reelected councillor Herb Haldane. They opposed the 21-year pact on the grounds that no opportunity for competitive bids had been issued to other operators and that small towns like Sooke had successfully proven they could cost-effectively manage treatment plants and associated systems independently. 

In response, council opted for an Alternative Approval Process inviting registered voters to weigh in.  In the same July 6, 2011 News Mirror issue that contains a front-page story about the District's then-new anti-bullying and harassment policy (triggered by one unnamed councillor's behaviour), it was reported that 2,036 voters (more than one in five of us back then) were against the long-term deal.  (if you click on that News Mirror link, by all means visit the letters page and watch the sparks fly as they routinely did in what was then a wide-open letters section.) 

A series of one-year contracts with EPCOR ensued until the District brought operations in-house in March, 2016.  Staff (I discover in close perusal of minutes of that period; I was in the audience that night, scribbling notes yet frankly rather clueless about all this, which I remain to some significantly smaller yet still life-long learning degree) presented a Sewer Services Area Report on Oct. 10, 2017 in response to a council "feasibility study request for the future expansion of wastewater services to areas outside the current SSA."

​Council discussion that night revolved around: i) Cost of the study; ii) current vs. future capacity of the plant and system; iii) required upgrades to the existing system; iv)  the need for examination of future expansion and efficiencies; and v) review of the current SSA system's connections + pre-bought capacity (a matter to be raised later in the year by Bedrock Developments landowner Les Monnington viz. the gravity-fed future sewer tie-ins he'd pre-purchased in 2003 for his 2119 Charters Rd. property. Back then, the land was pegged for a mobile-home park until the District unveiled its connector-route ambitions ~ which, as you know, failed at the first hurdle with the Jan. 2005 referendum defeat and have now been revitalized in the all-systems-go 2020 Transportation Master Plan. Mr. Monnington was understandably miffed that the servicing hadn't been provided 15 years later. District staff explained that the unexpectedly high installation costs can only be met once the connector route is greenlighted and Development Cost Charges flow in.) 

System upgrades have been identified and undertaken since. A new centrifuge was installed to improve the system by which waste products are wrung dry and sent as biosolids to the Hartland Landfill. Major work has been done on "inflow and infiltration" issues by which groundwater enters sanity (day after edit: Freudian typo likely due to the rather maddening length of this entry ~ I mean 'sanitary', sorry folks) sewers through broken pipes and manholes (the cause of over-capacity during heavy rains.)  More on pg. 34/35 of Sooke's latest Annual Report. 

Under the user-pay model, the District is anticipating $3m in sewer revenues this year (85% of it from sewer parcel taxes paid by homeowners utilizing the system). Those of us outside the SSA contribute nothing to its upkeep, but we do have to invest in maintaining our respective septic fields. (I think the District should/could make a commitment to reminding/educating homeowners about best practices as per these CRD and Province of BC guidelines.)  

Total annual sewer operating costs are currently $2.8 million with an additional $450k going towards the long-term sewer debt ($3 million still outstanding on a Municipal Finance Authority loan that matures in 2026). A Sewer Reserve Fund with $1.7 million as of the start of the year is available for repairs and maintenance of the existing system (not future expansion).  

Into the Present
With the current plant stretched to the max on heavy storm days and operating at 70% capacity most of the year, the current council revisited the Liquid Waste Management Plan and authorized staff to seek grant funding that would add a planned third (of a maximum four) treatment tanks to the plant just east of Woodside Farm.  This would increase capacity a further 50% and prepare for community growth over the next decade and more.  

Premier Horgan delivered the good news on July 19, 2021; the construction schedule aims to complete the expansion in late 2023. Concurrent with this, the sewer will be hooked into T'Sou-ke IR2 adjacent to the plant (as approved by council in 2017.) 

Knowing extra capacity was now guaranteed, District staff developed an ambitious four-phase master plan based on the OCP's environment-first values and LWMP recommendations.  (i.e., like the connector route blueprints, this is another shovel-ready document that the District has ready for current and future grant opportunities. Best-practice strategizing, in other words,  in an era when Ottawa and the province are investing unprecedented sums in infrastructure expansion.)

Sooke Liquid Waste Management Plan - Stage Three: Sanitary (2010) features the future-looking implementation plan. Expansion to Kaltasin (the #1 recommendation) and Whiffin Spit North (#2, with an option for all of the Spit) are detailed in these sections: 

• Discussion Paper 1 - section 3.1 - "Considerations For Adding New Sewered Areas To the District of Sooke Sewer Specified Area"
• Discussion Paper 7 - section 3.10 - "Priority Assessment For Sewering Catchment Areas In the District of Sooke"
• Recommendations - section 7.1 

A key paragraph under recommendations (pg. 7.2) that effectively authorizes future expansion (pending, as can't be said enough, affected resident approval) states: "The District commits to the preferred order of catchment areas to be included in the SSA in the future. The preferred order of catchment areas could vary based on on-going environmental monitoring activities and the priorities of the District. At this point, of the two highest ranked candidate areas, Whiffin Spit North and Kaltasin, the Kaltasin area is the preferred candidate for the next expansion of the Sewer Specified Area (SSA)." 


The Current Four-Phase Master Plan

Phase 1: Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion 
Phase 2A: Kaltasin Expansion Area ($8.7 million expansion priority #1)
Phase 2B: Whiffin Spit Expansion Area ($16 million expansion priority #2)
Phase 3: WWTP expansion fourth basin (final possible expansion at the current site) 
Phase 4: Future expansion east of Kaltasin (highly unlikely given the CRD's sprawl-averse Regional Growth Strategy focus on compact and complete communities.) 

This phased approach is detailed in the Dec. 13, 2021 council agenda (see. pp. 173-242, and the infographics below).  The agenda also includes project assessments from Urban Systems and Stantec along with details about a public engagement process that reached its latest stage with yesterday's release of the resident feedback report.  

Council voted unanimously that pre-Christmas night to approve a conditional borrowing bylaw that would fund the District's share (up to $6.9 million) of the project costs exceeding the (up to) $27.1 million the District hopes to secure from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program's Environmental Quality (EQ) Program. This federal/provincial funding program supports capital infrastructure projects related to drinking water, stormwater, solid waste management, soil remediation and, pertinent to our case, "treatment and management improvements for waste water."

Repeating myself again by saying decisions on who gets what from the $270m (BC's share) total funds are anticipated next spring.  We can expect one of the following funding outcomes: i) Full; ii) Partial; iii) Sorry, better luck next time. Given that Sooke's ask represents fully 10% of total available program funds, and knowing that we're surely not alone in seeking a piece of this pie, then a best optimstic bet is option ii ~ partial funding that would trigger a voter assent process to approve or deny the Kaltasin phase. 

Still Further Background
- Related paragraph in Sooke's CRD Regional Growth Strategy statement (2020): "Access to clean, safe drinking water to all residents within the District of Sooke is a long-term intention of the OCP to address environmental issues, fire suppression, agricultural sustainability, and public health. The extension of sewers throughout the Community Growth Area to protect the environment is encouraged." 

~ From the 2010 Official Community Plan (pg. 143/44)  
"Sewer: The Sooke wastewater collection and treatment system is owned by the District of Sooke and operated by EPCOR Water Services Inc. The District of Sooke and EPCOR entered into a 5-year fixed price agreement to provide operation and maintenance of the sewer collection system and wastewater treatment plant. The contract with EPCOR expired in June 2009 and options to renew are being explored. Construction of the collection system and wastewater treatment plant began in 2004 and the system was commissioned in November 2006. Initial individual and domestic hook ups began in January 2006 through until August 2007 and are ongoing in the sewer specified areas (SSA).

The project consists of a 27 kilometre (km) collection system, 3 lift stations and a secondary wastewater treatment facility. A 4th lift station was added to accommodate the Sunriver development. Secondary sewage treatment removes 90% [now up to 95% thanks to plant improvements] of the total suspended solids and high levels of other contaminants, which provides significant environmental benefits.

System statistics include the following:

-  27 km long collection system (not including Sunriver addition);
-  1.7 km long, 30 metre deep outfall;
-  Sequential Batch Reactor Secondary Treatment Process with UV disinfection;
-  Capacity peak design of 3,000 m3/day, expandable by an additional 3,000m3/day through the addition of two SBR basins and a third digester component; and 
-  Servicing core area of 5,500 residents."

~ Lower Sooke River Watershed Management Plan (1999 Environment Canada/Royal Roads University study on how local pollution from DeMamiel Creek was leading to T'Sou-ke shellfish harvesting closures in the basin.) One of its conclusion: "Sooke does not have a municipal sewer system. The town relies mainly on septic systems to dispose of human waste. Many areas within Sooke support high-density septic system regions. Community based education, aimed at improving septic system care and maintenance, may promote cleaner waterways and ocean shorelines in and around the community of Sooke." 

~ Borrowing Bylaw (2003) that enabled construction of the sewer 
~ EPCOR contracted to build Sooke sewer system; sampling of its annual reports: 2012 + 2014
~ Sewage Pipeline Provides Home for Rare Sea Life (Globe & Mail, 2008) 
~ Sooke Ends Contract with EPCOR (March, 2016; Victoria Times Colonist + Sooke News MIrror) 


From my Facebook page, July 20, 2021 
"Sooke's managed growth and environmental health received the necessary fiscal love yesterday with Premier Horgan's announcement that we'd won another grant lottery -- in this case $4.6 million from the Investing in Canada Green Infrastructure program to pay three-quarters of the cost for a 50% expansion of our Waste Water Treatment Plant. (The District will cover the rest via a $1.9 million long-term loan from the Municipal Finance Authority.)

The plant was designed for double its current size, and this first-stage expansion will accommodate growth patterns to be identified in the new Official Community Plan and the forthcoming update of the Liquid Waste Management Plan. The latter's top priorities a decade ago were Whiffin Spit North and expansion east across the Sooke River to Kaltasin so as to service T'Sou-ke IR 1, the two schools, industrial lands and, not least, residential areas with their barely above-sea level and sometimes failing septic systems.

The expansion will boost the water quality of the harbour and basin, already vastly improved from its high coliform-count state pre-sewer in the early ‘00s. In fact, it’s expected to be clean enough for renewed shellfish harvesting and the return of the once abundant Olympia oyster to local waters.

It's also a necessary prelude to once aspirational, now increasingly tangible plans by both Sooke and T'Sou-ke to jumpstart economic activity on serviced commercial/industrial land that will host local jobs as we redirect the commuter tide, cut GHG transportation emissions (6.1 tonnes of C02e per year per ICE car making the roundtrip to Victoria) and build more of a complete, connected community.

Timeline: Design phase begins in September; contract tendering next summer; completion by end of 2023. First new link will be to connect T'Sou-ke IR2 along Wright Road as approved in 2017 (i.e., Whiffin Spit North).

So yes, good news for the bottom line that smells surprisingly sweet given the source material."

(see enlargeable versions of these two infographic maps on pp. 190/191 of the Dec. 13, 2021 council agenda) 

Official Community Plan Bylaw No. 800 returns for another special council meeting tomorrow evening (Sept. 8) at 5 PM. We'll be looking at the latest (third) version that includes revisions council suggested during the chapter reviews conducted in the spring and summer.

At this potential second-reading stage (where no public input is legislatively permitted, but you're welcome to attend), we will contemplate three options as stated at the outset of a massive agenda package that includes the April (second) draft, a track-change iteration and a file of public commentary received since the first draft was released 11 months ago.

These options are: 

1. Approve the amendments, give the OCP its second reading and trigger a public hearing (tentatively booked for Wed., Sept. 27 with an if-necessary continuation the next night).

2. Suggest further amendments as alterations or additions. 

​3. Reject the amendments and suggest alternative actions, among which (as council has already discussed) is the option of shelving it during this election period, allow its contents and proposed directions to be a substantial election issue, and then allow the new council (elected, one would perhaps naively assume, on how they're interpreted this most important of all Sooke planning documents) to have their way with it when they take office two short months from now.

Council has demonstrated, and will likely do so again tomorrow, that we're of multiple minds about this. Some want to move forward and complete the work. Some would like to press pause and trust that a final round of community input opportunities would take place in the new year, this time in-person minus the COVID restrictions.

As ever with my middle-way mindset, I can see the logic in both approaches and look forward to participating in tomorrow night's discussion with options open.  Any which way, I reckon that we've achieved the ambition identified in our 2019-2022 Strategic Plan, which was to "develop a new Official Community Plan" (item 3.2.1). After more than two eventful pandemic years of effort, consider this one well and truly developed if not adopted. 

Personally, as I've said at earlier meetings and in previous blog entries, I remain convinced that this OCP is a solid, timely, best-practice piece of legislation that meets its formal requirements, captures a compelling vision of Sooke's future and offers a comprehensive set of policies backed by a 120-point implementation roadmap on how to patiently, strategically get there. 

In its preamble (aka executive summary), the OCP Advisory Committee names the six big issues it heard from the public and notes how each is effectively addressed in the final draft they (six in favour, Ellen Lewers against) approved in January. 

1. The strong desire to maintain and enhance the unique character of Sooke
2. The importance of protecting our natural environment
3. The need for focused growth and support for infrastructure enhancements in the Town Centre
4. The importance of building upon and enhancing Sooke's historic and productive relationship with the T'Sou-ke
5. The need for improved transportation infrastructure and strategies to address vehicular congestion
6. Our community's united support for collective efforts to address climate change.
 
Chiefly for me, the pending OCP is absolutely consistent with earlier District OCPs (2010, 2001) and CRD plans dating back to the 1976 Sooke Area Settlement Plan. in all these documents, the public and their elected representatives have recognized that population growth is to be focused on the town centre as the heart of the "complete and compact community" that the CRD Regional Growth Strategy requires of Sooke.  Also reaffirmed is that relatively modest growth is to take place in the sewer-specified area and that elsewhere the District is to retain its rural and forested nature. 

In the new OCP, the TC is given better definition with core, waterfront and transitional designations.  The document critically aligns itself with all the other orders of government, Canadian and international, that recognize we are living in a climate-changing world and that we need to rethink business as usual en route to 2050.  This it does through a positive (not alarmist) community development perspective captured so sweetly and simply in the 29-word OCP vision statement (honed at great effort from first-wave public input in 2020): "Sooke is a small town with a big heart. It is a vibrant net-zero emissions community, cradled in the stunning beauty and vitality of the ocean and forest." 

That reads, in text-message brief, like home to me, a place where I, the people I know and surely future generations will want to live and rock their own next generations to life if they're seeking a refuge from urban centres. 

As for enacting its ambitions, half the OCP is dedicated to policies and actions regarding paramount community priorities -- transportation, natural environment, parks and trails, green building, infrastructure, food security, community economic development, arts and culture, housing, recreation and fair, equitable, compassionate values made real. (And it makes clear how all these matters are explored in suitable depth in mostly recently updated District plans and reports that must legally align with the one master OCP that rules them all.) 

Please (i'll resist typing that in caps) read the Delivering Picture Sooke section on pp. 158-173 for the at-a-glance policy-based actions proposed in this OCP for staff and future councils to consider enacting given available funding. This section should give you a sound basis for an informed opinion about the document as a whole. Reading the thing cover-to-cover is recommended, of course. 

The proposed OCP also includes a set of Development Permit guidelines critical in particular for town centre form and character as growth continues. Council has received, yet I can't honestly understand, suggestions from some that these DP guidelines should be eliminated entirely.  Certainly not after seeing first-hand how the current DP requirements are proving critical in championing the community's vision for Brownsey Blvd.  I've looked, but I can't find any OCPs that don't include robust DP guidelines -- with all due exemptions for small-scale (less than four homes) development, just as ours does.  

Unsurprisingly, the OCP conversation this year has been led by a minority with specific concerns. These concerns are absolutely valid, as are those of all 15,084 (2021 census) residents of Sooke. It's good that other engagement methods -- online surveys, community sounding boards, virtual stakeholder consultations with numerous community groups and organizations, school sessions and more  - captured wide input, too, but arguably less than had COVID not struck.   

(The current system by which local governments receive public input is like Churchill's comment about democacy: seriously flawed but better than the alternatives. Simon Fraser University this summer published a report analyzing BC public hearings. Their downsides is captured in this statement: "While a noisy minority tends to dominate public hearings, the silent majority of reasonable people are by definition never heard. Elected officials therefore are forced to pander to the skewed view of the vocal minority of voters present, rather than doing what they have been already elected to do, which is make the best decision for the future of the community overall.")


Tomorrow Night

I said at the last chapter review that I felt the OCP was "95% complete" after all that the OCP Advisory Committee, planning staff and the public had contributed (even during COVID, #Sooke engagement was much higher per-capita than most communities even without a pandemic.)  I also noted it would benefit from the tinkering we as council were doing and could readily be modified based on themes voiced during the public hearing.

As Councillor Beddows has noted, we've already dealt with seemingly the biggest of the first-wave concerns: 1. The 30m oceanfront setback (returned to its 15m norm in Sooke); 2. Whiffin Spit density (now back to its Rural Residential designation rather than Community Residential); and 3. Phase three of West Ridge Trails (re-included again in the CR designation as a prelude to the developer's requests for rezoning and sewer inclusion, without which it won't move ahead.)  

Definitely many in the community appreciate the OCP and want to see it moved forward now. The Sooke News Mirror has sent mixed messages, but its latest editorial called for us to go for it. So too has OCP Advisory Committee Chair Helen Ritts, whose July 19 comment I read aloud into the record that night ... 

"Dear Mayor and Council:  I am writing to voice my support for Council to give the draft OCP 2nd reading and work to finalize this OCP before the October municipal election. The April 2022 draft OCP is an accurate reflection of a specified and open OCP process, created through 18 months of public engagement.

The role of Sooke residents in the OCP was to share their future vision of our community. The OCP Advisory Committee understood its role was to ensure that the OCP was brought to Council for 1st reading was an accurate summary of the majority of public respondents. As the chair of the OCP Committee, I am confident that our committee understood and delivering on this responsibility. The role of Council is to pass bylaws in support o the OCP and community vision. Barring any concerns about procedure, this OCP should be accepted as it is and put forward for public hearing. 

Sooke is growing rapidly. We need this plan ASAP to manage our growth successfully. 

Sincerely, 
Helen Ritts, Sooke, BC 

 
So there you have it: All told, I guess, I'm reliably on the fence again pending a decision tomorrow night. 

I like the idea of moving to a public hearing late this month as the opportunity for a full-scale community conversation pre-election. Citizens could have their say about the OCP and they'd also be able to hear from the growing number of candidates for office (nomination deadline is this Friday at 4 PM). The later, in turn, would surely appreciate the opportunity to reach voters. 

Alternately, I can see the logic of pausing until after the election. At a public hearing, the current council would have the advantage of fielding and responding to all the public input while other candidates could only use their allocated time as one among many at the mic. That would strike some (me included) as unfair advantage to the incumbents.  

Furthermore, District staff resources are hard hit at the moment by a variety of factors and our planning department responsible for the OCP is understaffed, so this too must be a consideration.   

If we were to vote for a delay,  I'd certainly like to discuss tomorrow night the next suggested step in this saga. With at least five of us standing for re-election, how would/should we play it in the event we retain our seats. Certainly something for me to ponder in these next 24 hours. 

Also from this blog ... 

* Draft OCP: My Appreciative Inquiry (Oct. 20, 2021) 
* OCP Update: Fall 2021 (Sept. 4, 2021)
* Team OCP (Aug. 5, 2020)
​* Masterplanning Sooke's Smart Growth: OCP Preview (Dec. 20, 2019) 

Pausing in my preparations for Monday's OCP chapter review to remind myself about the long, stop-start road that has led to the introduction of Sooke's new Checkout Bag Regulation Bylaw #734 on May 22. 

Full details, including this handy PDF guide to the bylaw, are available from the District of Sooke. We're the 15th local government (of 163) in BC to adopt such a regulation (with 23 more underway with or contemplating action according to a recent update from the Retail Council of Canada.)

Many locals, of course, have made BYOB (bring your own bag) a habit for years now. Some of us (me, for instance), carry a cache of bags in our car trucks and do a fairly good yet admittedly inconsistent job of remembering to bring them with us to the check-out counter. (My Carolyn carries several collapsable roll-up bags in her purse, so we're covered when she's with me.) 

Effective two Sundays from now,  takeaway plastic bags will be gone from Sooke retailers (exceptions being the small bags used for loose grocery and hardware bulk items, wrap for meat and fish, or plastic used for prepared foods and baked goods that aren't pre-packaged.)  

If you've not BYOB, you'll have to pay .25 per paper bag or a $2 maximum fee for any takeaway canvas bags the retailer may offer. Whether this is too minor a penalty to truly change consumer habits is debatable (some say a $2 hit is required), but Sooke is now in step with other early adopter Canadian and global communities that recognize this is a relatively easy way to make a significant environmental impact.  

"It's the right thing to do," said Village Foods manager Wayne Kneeshaw and Western's Buzz Miriam when Sooke's two grocery stores decided to independently ban single-use plastic bags on Jan. 1, 2020. That policy had to end with COVID's hugely unfortunate advent, yet their leadership and the earlier support for Zero Waste Sooke's BYOB campaign from Western, Village, Home Hardware and Pharamasave speaks volumes about the environmental commitment of our business community. 

Yes, not having them handy for household garbage will necessitate some inconvenience, the purchase of kitchen-catcher refills or, best, the adoption of zero-waste home strategies. (True, there are some arguments that bag bans are problematic.)  

All this has been a long time coming for Sooke, as the timeline below reveals. Municipal governments across Canada have had, by necessity, to be leaders in banning single-use bags since the town of Leaf Rapids, Manitoba was the first In North America (just ahead of San Francisco) to do so in 2007. Before the complications described below ensued in 2019, Sooke was among the latest wave of BC communities pushing for plastic restrictions along with (on the south island) Victoria and Esquimalt.

In recent years, the federal and provincial governments have been developing ways to restrict and eliminate single-use plastics, in particular checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware, ring carriers, stir sticks and straws. Ottawa is working on a set of Zero Plastic Waste strategies with a particular focus on Canada's commitments to the Ocean Plastics Charter. 

Provincially, the CleanBC Plastics Action Plan has been evolving since 2017; a new public engagement phase (deadline: June 21) was launched last month as attention turns to a broad range of single-use items (see the CleanBC background paper; interestingly the bag-bylaw recommendations align closely to Sooke's bylaw, which in turn is based on a model CRD bag bylaw prepared in 2018). 

Reminders about why it matters: Surfrider Foundation Vancouver Island figures that the average Canadian uses a remarkable 200-300 one-time plastic bags per year. (Ottawa claims Canadians burn through 15 billion plastic bags and 57 million straws annually.) There's no end, sadly, of gruesome images of marine life and birds choking on and entangled in plastic.  Microplastics were discovered for the first time in the human bloodstream earlier this year. 

National Geographic detailed the impacts of plastics generally and microplastics in particular in this article. One of the more striking points: "Every year, about 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans from coastal nations. That’s the equivalent of setting five garbage bags full of trash on every foot of coastline around the world."

Canada, Europe and other wealthy countries are not global plastic-pollution offenders at the level of poorer regions of the world. But if privileged we with our already massive carbon footprints don't model best behaviours, then how can we expect it elsewhere? Plus, as more of us in #Sooke will hopefully soon discover, #BYOB can be a meaningful way to do more of our small but collectively powerful bit to protect our environment. (Top priority in the current OCP and in public feedback for the new one, incidentally.) 
​
Timeline 
Fall 2016:  Zero Waste Sooke, a working group of Transition Sooke, began advocating with the District for a Sooke single-use plastic bag ban via a council delegation in September, 2016. A ban was one of three priorities that had arisen from Zero Waste’s Talk Trash community meeting that April (the others were a community waste recovery centre and public drinking water fountains to reduce plastic bottle use.) 
 
Spring 2017: We (I was part of ZWS in those days) secured the support of the aforementioned Sooke retailers in having Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) signs posted at or near their entrance ways. (Then-Sooke graphic designer Zach Ogilvie’s logo has been licensed for District use in the bylaw launch this month.)
 
2017/2018: Council first discussed restricting single-use plastic bags in November, 2017 following a second Zero Waste Sooke delegation.  It directed staff (July, 2018) to draft a Sooke bylaw.   
 
April 2019: Surfrider Foundation and Zero Waste Sooke council delegation in April, 2019 repeated the request; Esquimalt and the City of Victoria had implemented their own bylaws that January. 
 
May 13, 2019: Sooke council unanimously approved first and second reading of Draft Checkout Bag Regulation Bylaw #734. 
 
July 2019: All plastic bag bylaws in BC, established and proposed, were put on hold following a July 2019 BC Court of Appeal decision related to a legal action by the Canadian Plastic Industry Association to revoke the Victoria bylaw. The Province of BC was asked to sign off on all such bylaws rather than leave this authority to local governments. BC’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy said it would review the Appeal Court decision
 
Jan. 1, 2020: Sooke’s Village Foods and Western Foods eliminate single-use plastic bags from their check-out counters until COVID safety measures require their return in the spring.  

July, 2021: The Ministry of Environment announced that it had approved already-adopted municipal bylaws in Richmond, Victoria, Saanich, Tofino and Ucluelet. It also gave local governments in BC authority to create their own single-use plastic bylaws. 
 
Nov. 22, 2021: Sooke council unanimously adopted Checkout Bag Regulation Bylaw #734. Staff were asked to develop educational and implementation materials over a six month period leading to the bylaw's introduction on May 22. 

PS Example of a 'take a bag, leave a bag' program that retailers might offer as indicated in the poster below. The flow chart is from pg. 3 of CleanBC's recently published Preventing Single-Use Plastic Waste in British Columbia intentions paper. Provincial actions, municipal bylaws and manufacturer responsibility for developing a circular economy of repair/reuse/repurpose is the plan. 

April 11, 2022

Good news: VIRL and the BC Government Employees Union have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract with the help of a mediator. 

As I wrote on Facebook last month: "Do so appreciate and respect this crew, among them BCGEU librarians Peter McGuire and Natalie Jones (seen with supportive CUPE colleagues in this photo I took on the first day rotating job actions reached Sooke two Fridays ago.)

As Sooke's Vancouver Island Regional Library trustee, I'm also aware of the pressures faced by an organization that gets 94% of its funding from property taxes and hasn't seen an increase in provincial support (the remaining 6%) in more than a decade.

The main sticking point, as you'll have read elsewhere, is wages. And the wild card is the fast-rising cost of living (+4.7% this February compared to last) and how to factor an unpredictable fiscal future into a multi-year contract.
The encouraging news is that a mediator is now at the table and, to echo all of us on the VIRL board, we're keen that a fair and respectful deal be finalized -- hopefully sooner rather than later, it almost goes without saying and yet I'll earnestly say it anyway.

Worth noting is that larger-scale union negotiations are underway on multiple fronts -- CRD, Metro Vancouver, the Province of BC -- and this particular arm-wrestle is being closely watched as a benchmark at the dawn of a new inflationary era. (Personally, I'll add that your minimum-wage counsellor has never belonged to a union and would never dream of crossing a picket line.)

If you want to share your own thoughts on this, please write me at jbateman@sooke.ca and I'll forward to VIRL and the board.

In the meantime, do check out our new mecca when an action isn't underway in the unlikely event you've not done so yet. Staff have been issuing 25 new cards a day on average during the opening month and the raves keep rolling in. (Eavesdropping in the stacks last week, I heard a North Saanich couple tell another patron that they'd made a special trip in and were beyond awestruck. In return, they learned Route 14 serves fabulous lunches, that Sooke has a world-class thrift store and that they really should take time for a return visit to the Potholes.)" 

February 25

First and most important in these long-awaited opening hours of Sooke's new temple of learning and loaning (even with  the grim news from Ukraine clouding this gloriously sunny day.)  As of this morning at 10 AM, proud patrons and the curious (aka the soon-to-be card-carrying) are welcome to drop-in, explore and check-out their fill of the 38k item collection (double the previous size). Drop-ins welcome based on the new seven-day-a-week operating hours (masks mandatory for now, of course).


The official opening is set for Sat. March 26 at an event that will feature, among much else, celebratory sounds from our own next-generation musicians in the Harmony Project Sooke and its thunderous Drumline. 

Full details to be found on the Vancouver Island Regional Library's Sooke branch page and within its latest pre-opening press release. Scan my previous posts below for a decade-long saga replete with steady lobbying, patient collaboration, one spectacularly savvy land purchase by District council (Lot A, whose $1.4 million pricetag in 2016 secured five crucial town-centre acres that have likely quadrupled in value these last five years) ... all this then followed by bold architectural design, exactingly detailed negotiations between the District and VIRL and finally a smartly orchestrated construction plan overseen by VIRL's team in Nanaimo with execution by IWCD.

Yowzers! (let's hear that tune again.) 

In addition to all else (an enlarged team of ace librarians very much included), the new library is notable as a climate-smart inspiration in a community aspiring to a net zero future. No question, the necessarily tight $7.5 million budget required cost efficiencies (i.e., no solar panels, though the structure is ready for them when funding is available). 

Yet the HVAC (heating/cooling) system is powered by a bank of heat pumps. The passive solar design is made all the more effective by exterior window shading devices. The ground floor parking area features four EV chargers (one reserved for staff) and generous bike racks (also at the Wadams Way-facing front doors).  Inside are low-flow toilets, LED light fixtures and enviro-friendly building/finishing materials. 

​Also part of the appeal: Reading nooks, modernist seating (comfortable but not so much that they're suitable for naps),  study areas, ten computer terminals, bookable meeting rooms with kitchenette, and a childrens' makerspace featuring KEVA blocks, snap circuits, art easels and a button-maker.  

Of beautiful note is the exterior landscaping with its 33 trees (nine varieties) and diverse array of large (3), medium (748) and small (447) shrubs along with groundcover plants (316) and a mix of perennials, annuals and ferns (852 plants).  

Exactly the right starter for Lot A's green and pleasant future as a civic hub. (Reminder: As determined by the Lot A charette in 2018/19, a public plaza will be situated due south of the library, Sooke's proposed elders' complex is earmarked for the northeast quadrant and expanded health care facilities are set for the southeast portion as Evergreen Mall reorients and integrates.)

Still more details in this verbatim report from HDR Architects (click this link for the firm's own library overview) ... 

"SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS & STRATEGIES ~ Sooke Library 
 
Wood First Initiative
Promoting BC’s forest sector and supporting our forest-dependent communities by advancing the use of wood across the province.

1. Wood is sourced locally. Building with wood supports our economy and local communities.
2. Wood is strong, lightweight and flexible. Wood building systems have been proven to be seismically safe.
3. Wood comes from renewable, certified and sustainably managed forests.
4. As one of the most durable and safe building products, wood creates optimal living and working environments while meeting code and safety requirements.
5. Wood buildings are easy to renovate, expand and adapt to changing uses
6. Wood is a responsible choice that helps reduce our environmental footprint due to the reduced energy required to create wood building products and through carbon storage in the wood itself.

 
Environmental stewardship
In support of Sooke’s environmental stewardship initiative, the design embraces “Green” technologies such as electric vehicle charging stations (type: Level 2) and provisions for future solar energy integration.
 
 Building systems

1. A solar shading device is integrated on the building’s exterior to prevent solar heat gain during the hottest times of the year. The location of the shades was determined using solar analysis that determined the amount of fins and placement so that the building blocks the sun at specific time during the summer solstice. The angles of these blades are positioned so that they allow natural daylight and beneficial heat gain in during the colder months of the year. This passive design strategy is proven to put less stress on the mechanical cooling system and ultimately save energy, while increasing occupant comfort. 
2. Luminaires for site lighting were carefully selected to include glare-shield that prevents light pollution and nuisance to residents or adjacent properties.
3. Exterior spray insulation for parkade soffits – “Monoglass” contains minimum 25% re-cycled content.

 
Energy efficiency

1. Lighting design utilizes energy efficient LED fixtures.
2. The deeper central area of the building is equipped with tubular daylighting system to introduce natural daylighting into the space without the glare of conventional skylights. This eliminates the need for artificial lighting during the day.
3. Interior spaces are equipped with sensors that turn the lights off within 30 mins when space is unoccupied.
4. Exterior lights are controlled by photocell that automatically turn the lights on at sunset and off at sunrise.

 
Water efficiency
The building utilizes low-flow plumbing fixtures to conserve water.
 
Superior indoor environment
Low-VOC interior finishes and radiant floor heating and cooling promotes indoor occupant comfort.
 
Interior Finishes
Sheet Resilient Flooring (by Forbo Marmoleum)

1. Marmoleum is made from an average of 97% natural raw materials, 72% of which are renewable.
2. Made from natural ingredients (linseed oil, wood flour, limestone etc) 
3. Marmoleum is also made with recycled content to reduce the need for virgin raw material. 
4. At the end of its long life, Marmoleum is 100% biodegradable.
5. Marmoleum finish with Topshield2, which, together with its natural bacteriostatic properties means the floor is hygienic and needs less cleaning with less harmful chemicals. Approved by Allergy UK and with TVOC’s 30 times lower than the European norm and CO2 emissions 50% lower than other resilient flooring contributes to a healthier indoor environment.
6. Manufacture program can recycle installation off-cuts into new Marmoleum at its plants in Scotland and the Netherlands

Flocked Resilient Flooring (by Forbo Flotex)

• Flotex tiles and planks contain up to 52% recycled content and Flotex is the only flocked flooring to have been assessed under BREAAM (and rated mostly A/A+).
• Flotex flooring is 100% waterproof, which means it just need water and standard cleaning materials, (and no chemicals) for an effective clean. 
• Flotex is proven to have a positive effect on the lives of allergy sufferers and is the only textile floor covering to receive the prestigious Allergy UK Seal of Approval™* Phthalate free, slip resistant and offering up to 20dB impact noise reduction. 
• “Back to the Floor” scheme, a manufacturer program, can collect clean Flotex installation off-cuts and recycle them at its plant in Ripley, Derbyshire.

Acoustic ceiling tiles (by Armstrong)

• The Optima Square Lay-In, Armstrong ACT contains 71% recycled content.

 
Millwork Finish
Millwork Laminate: Formica

• Formica® brand decorative compact laminates are manufactured in North America and contain 12% post-consumer recycled wood fiber content.  

 
Solid surface countertop: Wilsonart solid surface

• Renewable and repairable surface
• Composition: Acrylic resins, fire-retardant mineral fillers, and proprietary coloring agents. Through-the-body color for full thickness of sheet material.
• Wilsonart Solid Surface is highly resistant to stains and easy to maintain. Wilsonart Solid Surface has attained GREENGUARD Certification from UL Environment for low chemical emissions into indoor air during product usage.

 
Furnishings
Upholstery Fabric: Momentum Beeline

• All Momentum fabrics are made of recycled or natural fibers.  
• All products are PVC-free and Greenguard certified.

 
Storm water management

1. Rainwater roof runoff is captured and utilized for the Rain Garden and eventually gets absorbed by a rock pit instead of releasing it to the Municipal drain system.
2. Site runoff are captured and filtered through a vegetated bioswale that runs along the South property line.  Bioswales are beneficial in recharging groundwater."

 
Okay, time now to step away from this virtual world and into the living, undoubtedly buzzing with energy and day-one delight, finished product.  But first, once more with considerable (yet hushed and in my own head only, it's a library after all) feeling. 



Oct. 19, 2020
Work begins on the library site in the northwest corner of Lot A today with surveys and brush removal. A final hurdle was overcome through negotiations between the District and VIRL leading to unanimous approval by the library's board of trustees on Sept. 21 and the awarding of the contract early the following week.

Among the pre-approved applicants, the job has gone to Nanaimo's long-established Island West Coast Developments Ltd. It specializes in commercial properties (the new Belmont Market on the site of the old Belmont Secondary School in Langford is the latest), affordable housing, community and senior centres, and other public-sector projects (i.e, Tofino's RCMP headquarters).  Here's the VIRL announcement, Sooke's own press release and media coverage here, here and here. (Plus this reminder of the way it was a year ago).

HDR Architects has prepared this artist's rendered-preview of the final product. Anticipated opening day will be some glorious spring Saturday in 2022 all things proceeding as hoped and planned. Watch this page for VIRL updates. 

Rather wonderfully, Sooke Elementary School librarian Liz Stannard and her charges have salvaged plants from the library site  -- sword ferns, ocean spray, Oregon grape -- to create a new native-plants garden at the school. Meanwhile, the current branch carries on with distanced service, smiles and the riches of the outdoor (fair weather) cart of free books. Gratitude for that and those who serve the card-carrying amongst us. 


April 25, 2020 
Typing these words fresh from a Vancouver Island Regional Library board meeting this morning. With reps from municipalities and regional districts throughout Van Isle and region in attendance along with the library's executive team, the Zoom screen was packed with most of the same 42 or so shining faces who typically make it to Nanaimo for bimonthly board meetings (including long-haulers from the Haida Gwaii who are understandably happy with the new virtual arrangement).   

Key point of local interest raised today is that our new-build library project remains on course as per these bullet points included in the VIRL facilities report ... <clip> 

• "The building permit has been approved, and construction will be tendered, evaluated and awarded after the pre-qualification for general contractors closes on April 23. The pre-qualification was initially scheduled to close March 23, but VIRL received multiple requests to extend the timeline. (note: 10 bids were received by Thursday's closing date, hooray and all the better for a competitive process). 
• VIRL anticipates construction starting in the second or third quarter of 2020, with the branch opening 1 to 1 1⁄2 years after construction commences.
• VIRL has extended the lease at the current location, so there will be no disruption of library services for Sooke." 

All more-or-less as planned, pandemic and all. Now over to VIRL's cool and experienced staff to choose the best candidate, negotiate a contract and firm the start date. As i typed into the Zoom chat box when it was our turn on the alphabetical project list after North Saanich, Port Alberni and Tofino (whose planned new libraries are in far earlier stages of development than we): "Cue wild applause and gratitude from #Sooke." 

Today's agenda also included a review of the steps and strategies taken by VIRL since it closed its 39 branches on March 16 just a few hours after the Prime Minister and Dr. Bonnie Henry issued their respective calls for us all to stay home.  While nine in ten of VIRL's 456 employees are currently laid off (with pay through the end of June), staffing will ramp up a little in the weeks ahead as new virtual programming is introduced. 

Notably among these services are expanded email, telephone and video conferencing assistance for those of us tentatively exploring VIRL's various digital platforms. Logically enough, the eLibrary has taken off over the last month with a 50% increase in eBook borrowing (nearly 500 a day now) and 30% more AudioBook loans. (Personally, I've discovered RBdigital and its trove of new-release magazine titles; I've just scored the latest Harper's, Mojo and New Yorker for reading over the next week). VIRL has increased its investments in digital titles and publishers have been easing restrictions on accessibility to bestsellers. 

Also in the works are live online story time readings for kids and, via social media and LinkedIn, online book clubs. VIRL has also received appreciative feedback on its decision to offer 24/7 WiFi outside its branches with the proviso that everyone follow physical distancing protocols. A strategy for re-opening branches is being explored for that hopefully not-too-distant day when Dr. Henry issues the all-clear. 


Nov. 21, 2019 
The Story To Date 
Just as we enter what might be called the third trimester in the extended birth of Sooke's new library ~ the 100-year land lease is finalized, the Development Permit will be presented to council on Monday night ~ the Sooke News Mirror has weighed in with a truncated, largely accurate Coles Notes account of the decade just past, crowned in thorns with a clickbait headline and the image of someone holding up a 'Help' sign for what I can only assume is a touch of cynical humour. (The headline didn't read, of course, "hooray, we're almost there," as that might sound a bit too cheerleader-ish for a hardboiled community weekly, I suppose. That's my job as I'll hopefully proceed to do here.) 
 
I'm attending my fourth Vancouver Island Regional Library board meeting this year on Saturday in Nanaimo, and I'll be pleased as the District's current representative (following in the footsteps of Kerrie Reay and Ron Dumont) to report that we are indeed close to the wire after much spirited to-and-fro between reps from our respective organizations ~ all of us with a shared desire for the best possible public facility that $6 million can purchase in today's construction market. 
 
No champagne corks need be popped, as the Mirror suggests, as those already went off in March, 2017 when Councillor Reay announced that an agreement for the northwest quadrant of Lot A had been completed and a new library on that site was in our future. Let's save the next celebration for opening day. 

Gestation 
As I told the News Mirror last week, it's been a long and winding road to this point. Back to that pregnancy metaphor, the first trimester led us from the gleam-in-the-eye of initial meetings in 2008 to the March, 2017 agreement that Lot A was the right, perhaps even perfect, town-centre home for the library.

The second trimester has seen blueprints developed and the exactingly fine details of the lease and permits completed.

The home stretch will be the actual labour of construction and then the delivery of a sweet, bouncing, bibliophilic, 11,076 square foot  temple of takeaway content and learning ~ "a go-to hub of community," as VIRL likes to term 21st century libraries, complete with increased staffing and extended operating hours, green features like radiant floor heating and cooling systems, lo-flow toilets and passive solar design ... plus such user perks as an expanded array of computer terminals, free WiFi, a makerspace, a boardroom and meeting area (with kitchenette) available to community groups, and a variety of welcoming nooks with comfy chairs in which to read the daily papers and relax in a peaceful oasis. For life-long library aficionados like me: Bliss. 

Patience and process have been the keywords this year, necessarily so when staff from two professional organizations are involved in negotiating fine details of a project funded through BC's triple-A rated Municipal Finance Authority. As you'll see in the Nov. 25 staff report prepared by Manager of Planning Ivy Campbell and her team, much care and attention has been dedicated to all manner of essentials: the access road with sidewalk; pedestrian trail connections; stormwater management; landscaping on the grounds and in the parking lot; low-impact but effective 'dark sky' exterior lighting; streetscape appearance; the application of CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) principles; west-coast design features (as dictated by our Town Centre Design Guidelines); bike parking spaces (24) and EV charging stations (4); and contingencies for solar panels should future budgets allow. 

Should all go well on Monday night (see the detailed design drawings in the agenda package here) and with the District now undertaking due diligence on Lot A with geotechnical, archeological, environmental and civil assessments of the property, VIRL will soon be in position to put out its construction tender and began work next year. Yes, we've heard that before -- construction was due to start in 2018 until VIRL had to pivot and redirect its budget to remediating unexpected asbestos issues at several libraries on the North Island. And there was optimistic talk of ground being broken this year once VIRL filed its Development Permit with the District. Said DP was indeed filed as a first draft in January only for prudent District staff to weigh in with their own recommended revisions and fixes, which required still more negotiations that have continued through late last month. 

Context Statements 
It's important to note that we're one of 39 branches in the VIRL system, all of which merit due attention and care. The Nanaimo HQ team led by Executive Director Rosemary Bonanno has overseen substantial renovations or new builds in a dozen communities since 2011 while also funding upgraded furniture, equipment and IT resources in all its branches. (Check out the sleek new self check-out machine by the front doors in Sooke, for instance.) 
 
VIRL is Canada's 13th largest regional library system and we in Sooke are not alone in wanting the trifecta of bigger/newer/better. Campbell River, Tofino, North Saanich, Queen Charlotte, Port McNeill and Ladysmith all desire new-build libraries as part of planned civic developments that will feature shovel-ready land donated by each municipality to VIRL.

The Parksville and Sidney branches have undergone upgrades over the last 12 months. A new prefabricated library (based on a scalable design for pocket-sized communities in the system) opens in Sayward during Christmas week and in  the Village of Woss north of Campbell River next year. A beautiful new 5,000 sq foot library in Chemainus (also designed, like ours, by HDR Architecture's Juanito Gulmatico) is slated to open in early 2020.  
 
Of course, it has been Sooke's turn for some long years now. We certainly deserve our fair shake since local taxpayers have been routinely sending VIRL approximately 3.5 percent of our annual tax bills -- or $630,366 exactly in total from Sooke taxpayers this year. That's almost the same as what we collectively pay BC Transit. (In comparison, $2.9 million goes to the CRD, $4.7 million to School District #62, and $8.1 million to the District of Sooke for municipal services; another $2.1 million is coughed up by residents in the sewer specified area for sewer parcel fund taxes).  Bottom line: The 2019 VIRL take (on Sooke's $492k average assessment) was about $95.00.    
 
Our assessment maintains existing services for the 5,300 or so VIRL card-carrying Sookies in the region. It pays the building rent, light and heat, and the salaries of our VIP crew of helpful, friendly librarians. This investment gives us access to the 23,000 or so physical holdings (books, magazines, DVDs and CDs) in the current library. And, if you're a so-called "power-user" like me who knows how to work the 'hold' system to your advantage, you can also reserve any of the 3.4 million titles in the overall system. (Items without other holds arrive to my astonishment in a matter of days; inter-library loans from other BC library systems are also possible).

These numbers don't include the 1.6 million online-only e-holdings available through services like Hoopla, Kanopy and Libby, which this old luddite is learning to navigate now that I'm growing comfortable with my iPad.  

56 Years of VIRL Service in Sooke
Sooke's first VIRL branch (as documented by Elida Peers here) opened in 1963 in what is now Barb's Barbershop, relocating several times (once into the current home of Route 14)  before landing in its 2,639 sq. ft home on Anne Marie Road in the mid-1990s.  

We've been top (or hovering near it) of VIRL's new-build priority list since at least 2008 (some claim earlier still). The sticking point was the District had no public land to donate to the project ~ land banking having not been a municipal priority since incorporation in 1999 when significant matters like a sewer system took precident. (Land, as other local governments understand to their profit, is a safe, rewarding investment that can become a civic goldmine through strategic rezoning.)  
 
A request for proposals to local land owners was issued during Mayor Milne's term after he raised a ruckus about the lack of action in 2013. While this netted some useful leads (including Lions Park on Murray Road), none of the raw land on offer was big enough for VIRL's purposes (it wanted a 10,000 sq. foot minimum, one-story building due to its staffing requirements, and hence needed to expand out, not up.) 
 
Councillor Reay made a Notice of Motion (Feb. 23, 2015) that the southwest corner of John Phillips Memorial Park might be a suitable location, and a staff report was to be readied on the subject (with the proviso that the District hold onto land title, as is the case with the lease in the current scenario.)  Then, bravo, the District did move smartly in early 2016 to purchase the five-acre, Waddams Way-fronting "Lot A" for $1.42 million with the intention of dedicating 20 percent of it to the library.  
 
Silly season kicked in when the District and VIRL banged heads over who'd pay to clear the promised land in the northwest corner. SEAPARC was suddenly (and, fortunately in many/most local minds) only briefly in the mix as an alternative location even as council argued that any library worthy of the name "public" was best suited for the heart of town. Happy, happy, joy, joy on March 18, 2017 when the announcement came that the VIRL board had voted to accept Lot A on our terms and would prepare the land at its own cost.  
 
“Hats off to the library board, and Rosemary and her staff," Reay told the Voice News that day. "They don’t give up. It was a collaborative effort – District of Sooke staff, Sooke Council, the staff and executive of VIRL, Juan de Fuca Electoral Area Director Mike Hicks, and the library board itself." All involved thought the project would get underway within a year, but then cue the hold-ups and delays.

One big milestone moment came with the unveiling of the architect's plans for our unique library-in-the-round in May, 2018. It's a striking building, described by HDR Architecture's Gulmatico as an "iconic addition to Sooke's dynamic growth ... the circular form of the building was inspired by the idea of a 'log' section wrapped with vertical cedar paneling that emulates the texture of a 'tree bark.' The circular form also responds to the functional requirement fo the library in which a clear sightline should be maintained from the central service desk to the majority of the space for security." 

Further from Gulmatico: "The library's main entrance offers a welcoming feel and a strong street presence defined by heavy timber columns and beams supporting the canopy strcture ... the building's west coast character is enhanced by stone accent cladding that compliments the rustic look of vertical cedar siding. The use of corrugated metal cladding adds texture and contrast to the exterior palette." 

All Good Things In Time
In my experience this last year, there has been a respectful, healthy exchange of ideas between District staff on one hand and VIRL and its architects on the other. No "help!" signs have been required, thanks the same.

One of my first acts on council upon being appointed as the VIRL rep was to take a roadtrip to Nanaimo with our then-acting CAO Brent Blackhall to meet with Ms. Bonanno and VIRL's Finance Director Joel Adams. VIRL filed the first draft of the Development Permit in January, triggering a set of referrals to outside agencies (Ministry of Transportation, BC Hydro, Telus, CRD Water Services) and District departments.  

Our Engineering, Planning and Parks & Environment teams all had sets of valid questions, which were addressed as the DP evolved to its current state (the latest of five revisions to the Landscape Plan, for instance, was filed on Oct. 31). Only when the Development Permit is accepted by council can the lease (which itself has gone through a series of rewrites) be signed.  
 
Boldface closer: I've argued, and will continue to do so, that getting it right is vastly more important than getting it done fast when the project in question is intended to serve Sooke's growing population for the next generation or two. 

Links of Related Interest

~ Canadian Library Association
~ Canadian Urban Libraries Council 
​~ Canadian Federation of Library Associations 

~ Public Libraries in British Columbia (Province of BC website) ~ "British Columbia has 71 public libraries with 241 service locations in which more than 15.6 million items are available to borrow. In 2017, 52 million items were checked out, and libraries offered 74,000 programs to the public, attended by 1.74 million people. B.C. libraries have 3,600 computers available for public use." 

​~ British Columbia Library Association 

~ "BC Municipalities Want Province To End Library Funding Freeze" (September, 2019; the District of Sooke was among the BC municipalities that submitted a letter in support of the campaign to dethaw (frozen since 2010) and increase BC funding for public libraries.) + BC Library Trustees Association' $20 million in 2020 campaign. 

~ Neil Gaiman and Chris Ridell ~ On Why We Need Libraries 
 
~ Links to Libraries ~ "Learning to read proficiently is a child's best chance for success in school and in life. By increasing their access to books, Link to Libraries strives to inspire young readers and enhance the language and literacy skills of children of all cultural backgrounds. To date, Link to Libraries has distributed over 650,000 new books to school libraries and to the home libraries of children in need, many of whom have never previously owned a book."

~ 100 Most Borrowed Books ~ A foundation for a well-stocked library 

~ "What Libraries Do" ~ "Libraries level the playing field. As great democratic institutions, serving people of every age, income level, location, ethnicity, or physical ability, and providing the full range of information resources needed to live, learn, govern, and work." 

~ Libraries (Pinterest collection of images) + Quotes about libraries 

~ CBC Radio's Michael Enright ~ "In Praise of Librarians" ... "Libraries are about a lot more than books. They are community builders, shelters, outreach centres — in short, vital components of any social grouping sharing common goals and interests. And librarians are the guardians of that shared mission. Long may they flourish."


~ 12 Authors Write About the Libraries They Love ~ New York Times article featuring recollections by Barbara Kingsolver, Amy Tan, Annie Proulx and others.