When I was trying to decide whether or not I should run for reelection in the fall of 2002, I happened to take a drive through Saanich, specifically the area in which I spent the first 14 years of my life. I hadn’t been back there for years and I was absolutely appalled with what I saw. The beautiful rural neighbourhood that I had grown up in had literally been paved over. Row upon row of large (and in my opinion ugly houses) jammed together on small lots. The 20 acre Garry Oak Meadow that had been behind our property had been reduced to the odd tree surrounded by landscaping or poking up through turf grass in someone’s postage stamp size lawn. Our old property, which wasn’t very big back then, now had 4 residences on it. Every thing that I remembered with such fondness had been sliced, diced and constructed upon.

I was shocked, dismayed and saddened by the loss of what had once been a very beautiful rural neighbourhood. While I am aware that change happens and is sometimes very necessary as I drove home to Deep Cove that evening all that was running through my head was “not in my backyard thank you very much!” That is when I decided to run for council again. As I said I am aware that change happens and is often necessary but change doesn’t have to be a bad thing and in a community change is governed by the municipalities zoning by-law and the zoning by-law is guided by the OCP.

I ran for reelection in the fall of 2002 because I was aware that North Saanich’s OCP would be coming up for review during the next term and I wanted to be part of the process. I wanted to do my best to ensure that any changes to the OCP would be positive, proactive and good for the community at large.

In my view living in North Saanich is about life style. We need to ask ourselves are we an exclusive community or are we an inclusive community and how will we pay for the rising costs of services? Because there is one thing we can all be sure of, rising costs are inevitable.

Of course we all want lower taxes but are we willing to welcome into our community those elements that will create a broader tax base and supply the municipality with more tax revenue thereby enabling the municipality to enhance and improve services?

Or

Are we as a community not willing to “expand” our commercial and residential tax base in an effort to bring in more tax revenue thus requiring more tax dollars per household to maintain and perhaps improve upon current service levels?

These and many other questions need to be addressed in public forums. Personally I am looking forward to seeing how the consultant proposes to either separate or integrate the targeted issues for public participation.

To me this is what the OCP review process is about, public participation. Coming together as a community to decide what we want for our municipality. We as residents need to determine what it is we want for our community and what we are willing to do to get it. The only way to do that is to participate in the process.

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The following comments reflect the balance of views we have received. Comments submitted by our readers are the personal views of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of North Saanich Online.

Robert Thompson, North Saanich

The cost of services has been rising for decades as have property values and taxes. Yet over time, N Saanich has managed to keep taxes low and contentment levels high. In my view, this has little to do with inclusiveness or exclusiveness, and everything to do with community values, informed leadership, sound management, and affordable levels of service. To broaden the residential and commercial tax base as a means of creating more revenue to pay for services may be a non sequitur -- the correlation may be negative, not positive. Perhaps we've focused too much on the rhetoric of "broadening the tax base" and not sufficiently on the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits.

Dorothy, would you please provide us with one or more scenarios that illustrate what you mean?

Stephen Goulet, North Saanich

Growth is a natural and inevitable process. North Saanich has grown every year I have been here and will quite naturally continue to do so. What this review is about is the pace and substance of growth.

Speculators and high end infrastructure promoters are intensifying their efforts to capitalize on a well preserved community. North Saanich will quickly become exclusive because only the exclusive will afford to live here.

Increasing infrastructure, more curbs and gutters, bigger budgets, more powerful bureaucracy, more influence peddling, more ticky tack, these are what unchecked growth has brought to Sidney and is fast bringing to NS.

Along with it come the inevitable changes in our idea of self and community: the commodifying of lives into lifestyles, of homes into houses, of land into capital. Not unlike ten thousand other communities I suppose.