The District of Saanich may go back to the drawing board and reconsider its $172-million operations-centre redevelopment plan after an alternative approval process failed to provide a mandate to borrow money for the project.
Saanich council on Monday night voted unanimously to accept the results of an alternative approval process on borrowing $150 million, which failed after eligible voters turned in more than the 10 per cent threshold of forms opposing the project.
Council is now waiting for district staff to provide other options for dealing with the aging operations centre at McKenzie Avenue and Borden Street, the base for about 300 staff who look after transportation, parks, water, sewer and solid waste in Saanich.
The district says the buildings on the site are 40 to 70 years old, don’t meet building-code requirements and won’t be able to handle future growth.
It had hoped to redevelop the site to include facilities for municipal services as well as rental housing and commercial spaces, with buildings that could be up to 18 storeys.
Now that the borrowing bylaw has been rejected, however, Saanich could put the entire project on hold, seek borrowing permission via a referendum, or charge ahead and borrow without seeking public approval.
Going ahead without public approval became possible after the province increased the amount of debt-servicing capacity municipalities can take on without going through a referendum or alternative approval process.
But Mayor Dean Murdock said it’s highly unlikely the district would go that route.
“Council was seeking input from residents in our community, specifically looking for whether or not this was something that folks opposed. They told us very clearly that they do, and we accept that outcome,” he said.
In an interview, Murdock floated the idea of following some residents’ suggestion that the district rethink the entire project.
Going to a referendum may just mean “asking the same question again and expecting a different result,” he said.
“So council may instead decide to ask staff to pursue this differently, to break the project into components.”
Just over 10,600 Saanich voters submitted forms opposing the borrowing, well over the 8,735 needed to kill the plan.
Coun. Nathalie Chambers said watching the community rally to oppose the borrowing was inspiring.
She noted that with the province limiting municipal public hearings on land-use decisions in a bid to speed up housing approvals, and Saanich scrapping its open forum at meetings, the public was feeling shut out of municipal decision-making.
“The public has not had [its] voice,” she said. “I’m happy to say that this foundational civic engagement is alive and well in Saanich.”
The mayor noted, however, that any delays in tackling the operations-centre project will now likely drive up the cost to the municipality.
“The unfortunate reality that we’re living with right now is that there continues to be a dramatic escalation in the cost of construction,” he said, pointing to recent projects like Victoria’s Crystal Pool replacement and the Saanich fire hall as examples of project delays drastically altering the final cost.
“It is always a concerning factor in any delay that we would be driving up costs, ultimately paying more to get the same or less,” he said.
Saanich staff are working on a report that will include options for tackling the operations-centre project for council to consider next month. The report is expected to include cost estimates.
