Letters

Few would argue that the character of Sidney has changed significantly over the last several years. As an individual who chose to move to Sidney because of its special character, I am deeply concerned the critical balance between old and new, historical and modern, is quickly becoming unbalanced. The most concerning aspect that I see is the decreasing voice that local residents have in determining the future of our community.

We echo the mayor’s celebration of cycling and pedestrian improvements, and his safety reminders in his Aug. 4 letter “Saanich walks the talk on safety improvements.”

With reference to the Aug. 5 Oak Bay News front-page article, the information provided just supports all of the criticism heaped on this secondary suite survey. The survey designers did not provide an option to allow residents to say that they did not favour changing the zoning to allow multi-tenant suites. The survey only asked “if” the zoning were changed to allow more suites in Oak Bay’s single-family neighbourhoods (the consultant estimates a 1,500 increase) what conditions would you favour?

Thank you so much to Zoe Ducklow and Black Press Media for the perseverance it took to get to camp at Fairy Creek.

Following up on the letters regarding development (North Saanich becoming a Langford, Central Saanich losing its character), I’ve had family roots in the CRD going back over 110 years and spent a quarter-century in Central Saanich.

Right now, our community has an extraordinary opportunity to determine the future of Oak Bay’s publicly owned marina buildings, lands and surrounding waters for only the second time in 60 years.

I am a senior and have lived in Sooke a little more than two years. Over this period of time, I have looked for and found some of the highlights of Sooke. John Phillips Park has most certainly been one of the highlights.

On June 15 the Oak Bay Heritage Commission requested council consider designating the Oak Bay Marina Restaurant building as a municipal heritage site. Six weeks later, rather than coming up for discussion, the topic was simply dismissed with the suggestion that “the Heritage Commission be advised that designation of the restaurant portion of the Oak Bay Marina building will not be pursued at this time.”

Eric Diller’s July 29 letter was long on trash talk but balefully short on facts. His “very small group of disgruntled North Saanich residents” was more than 250-strong when it rallied on July 12 at Municipal Hall, and council has received about 300 letters.

I can no longer sit back and allow a small group to deliberately disseminate misinformation about the current official community plan review in North Saanich and interfere with the rights of other community members.