Story and photos by Mary P. Brooke      |         December 4, 2009

A steady crowd toured through and listened to staff presentations on November 30, 2009 at the District of Sooke's town hall meeting. Held at Sooke Community Hall from 4 to 8 pm, the event was intended to be a more informal way for the public to learn about the District's 5-year financial plan, town centre plans, and other initiatives.

A new venture called Waterview Street is one of the District's efforts to revitalize the town centre area of Sooke.  Running from Sooke Road (Highway 14) down to the waterfront, the street would include commercial storefront, office spaces and compact residential units.

"A new hotel on two acres in the downtown area will get underway," said District of Sooke Chief Administrative Officer Evan Parliament, in his 15-minute presentation. The hotel will have cedar construction in west coast "post and beam" style, and provide an additional 78 rooms to the hotel compliment in Sooke.  The larger Prestige Hotel -- under construction farther up on West Coast Road -- will be providing 122 rooms by 2011.

"Town center is a sewered area. In the Official Community Plan we are leaving the rural area alone and intensifying the downtown," said Parliament. "We need to work with land owners. To everyone we're saying 'Come to Sooke, park your car, spend the day in the new downtown'," he said. Developers give up three to five percent of their land for the District's "key land acquisitions" which will be used for a range of projects such as public buildings, greenspace or community parking areas.

Parliament spoke to a concern about a recent District news release that appeared to be restricting the installation of private docks by waterfront land owners. "We don't want a proliferation of private docks. We need to find a happy medium," he said to a keen crowd that had several questions on this policy statement.

Gerald Christie, Director of Planning, District of Sooke, gave a presentation to which the public responded with questions -- among others -- about affordable housing and secondary suites. Christie says there will be a new policy for secondary suites in 2010. Christie itemized some changes for the town centre area including decreased costs for permit fees and development cost charges. He suggested that water services should be extended throughout the Sooke urban boundary and, "if CRD agrees, then throughout the District".

The District's Director of Finance, Dave Devana, outlined the District's 2009 financial highlights. Tax revenues in 2009 were "better than expected from development but down 33% from 2008 levels," said Devana. Staffing levels are also down compared to 2008. He had good news to report for homeowners: "Growth in the Class I Residential tax base is slowing down. In 2009 that was 4.1% growth generating $221,000 in new municipal taxes. In 2010 there is a preliminary projection of 2.3% growth."

"The key indicator affecting the property tax rate will be expected growth for 2011 through 2014," said Devana in his presentation to the public and staff, citing Mariner's Village, the Prestige Hotel, Nordin and other developments as being the source for additional tax revenues. He noted that there is limited business class tax growth: "Business is slow and the percentage of their tax revenue contribution is decreasing due to Council's revenue, tax and budget."

In 2008 there was $525,000 in building permits revenue ($80,000 of that from the Prestige Hotel project). However, in 2009 there was only $337,000 due in general to the economic slowdown.

Devana, like Parliament, was excited about the new Waterview Street plans for which a preliminary drawing was posted on display at the meeting.  "It is a very significant and transforming project for the Sooke town centre," he said in the noisy community hall toward the end of the evening's presentations. "Sooke is developing the areas north of the highway with its own funds, and we're targeting south of the highway to be developed with funding from developers, with areas along Highway 14 being a mix of both," Devana explained.

The District's website now has some added online mapping features at http://gis.sooke.ca as explained during the Nov.30 presentations. Some of the mapping offerings include green parklands information, contours in 2 metres, road names, town centre bylaw boundaries, the fire service areas, and aerial photos taken in June 2009. A magnification option allows for closer viewing of most details.

Overall, the evening drew an interested cross section of the public and business community. Around the room, tables and displays were presented by SEAPARC Leisure Complex, CRD Parks, the RCMP's Dare Program, the local Emergency Preparedness organization, and other organizations.  MM