There was a special council meeting on May 5 to review the draft OCP. In the 4-1/2 hour meeting the council issued directives and guidance to town staff. One SCA member attended the meeting and our president Dennis Carlson reviewed the video and the subtitles. The following is his report.
You can access this video here: Council Meeting. There was also an article in the May 12th Peninsula News on this meeting.
Sidney Staff’s Report
Staff provided a report that summarized the public input received regarding the draft Official Community Plan. This included a submission from the OCP Working Group that included representatives from the Sidney Community Association (SCA), Saving our Sidney (SOS), Friends of Shoal Harbour (FOSH) and SPEC (Saanich Peninsula Environmental Coalition).
The staff report five themes that emerged from the community input. These included:
Theme 1: Desire for increased identification and protection of natural assets and areas.
The staff report acknowledged the need to amend the Environmentally Sensitive Map to include Tsehum Harbour and public waterfront.
Theme 2: New “Multi-Unit Residential “ designations around Neighbourhood Commercial
The staff report considered the Multi- Unit Residential and Neighbourhood Commercial designations reasonable and are not recommending any changes to the draft OCP.
Theme 3: Desire for more specificity around built form and density
The staff report somewhat reluctantly, indicated there will be additional wording in the OCP regarding built form and density but no specifics were provided. This is despite the fact that almost every OCP in the Capital Region includes a reference to height and/or density.
Theme 4: The need for more parking
The staff report indicated the revised draft OCP will provide additional guidance regarding the provision of parking.
Theme 5: Document Structure
The staff report indicated that the revised draft OCP will be re-formatted in order to be more readable.
Council Direction
At the meeting held on May 5, Council directed that a number of significant changes be made to the draft OCP including:
Neighbourhood Commercial Policy Area
- Deleting the proposed Neighbourhood Commercial Policy Area designations at the following locations:
- West side Bowerbank – Malaview to Amelia
- Extension of current Neighbourhood Commercial designation north from Resthaven and Malaview
- South side Weiler Avenue from Greenglade to Northbrook Drive
Multi Unit Residential
- Replacing the proposed Multi Unit Residential designations adjacent to the existing Neighbourhood Commercial designations with a townhouse designation, including;
- Resthaven/Harbour Road
- Resthaven/Malaview
- Canora / Frost Avenue
- East side Bowerbank – Malaview to Amelia
It should be noted that a motion to delete the Multi-Unit Residential designation from the West Sidney Plan was defeated.
Cedarwood site
- Replacing the proposed Replacing the proposed Multi Unit Residential designation adjacent to the existing Neighbourhood Commercial designation with a townhouse designation.
- Staff are to include clearer language regarding the potential development of the Cedarwood site.
Gateway Site
- Council directed that the designation of the site at the corner of Beacon Avenue and the Highway referred to as the Gateway site be changed from Downtown Commercial to an Airport Commercial designation in recognition that the form of development will be distinct from downtown.
Mermaid Creek
- The proposal to change the designation adjacent to Mermaid Creek to Multi Unit Residential as a means to achieve the daylighting of Mermaid Creek was deleted.
Rothesay Waterfront
- The proposal to extend the Multi Unit Residential to Rothesay Avenue as a means to achieve the extension of the waterfront pathway was deleted.
Harbour Road
- The Harbour Road Marine Area was excluded from the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) designation in recognition of the current marine industrial activities.
- However, Council directed that the property at 2324 Harbour Road be included in an ESA designation in order to protect the Great Blue Heron.
Next Steps
Council challenged staff to have the revised draft OCP back to a Council meeting on May 30. Council is still intent on wanting to adopt the Official Community Plan before summer. This will still require preparation of an OCP bylaw and holding a public hearing.
The first tranche of 2021 census data has been released. Not surprisingly, it shows that the population of Sidney is aging. This rightfully raises issues about caring for and housing an aging population.
But there is another demographic statistic for Sidney that should not be overlooked. The 25 – 45 age groups increased from the 2016 census. These are the people that bought homes in Sidney as a great place to raise their families. These are the parents that are hoping their kids will be able to stay in Sidney if they can afford to find a place to live and find a job. For some of these folks they are at a stage where they are looking for entertainment and places to eat downtown.
Future in person membership meetings
The SCA Board is interesting in determining the level of interest from the membership in attending ‘in person’ events. We are considering the Shoal Centre as a possible venue. Your response to the following question will help us decide how we should start to organize meetings with the membership. Please click on the link below.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/
In addition to the Official Community Plan the Town is also undertaking an update to the Climate Action Plan and the creation of an Active Transportation Plan.
This year it will be more important than ever that we hear from you. We encourage you to sign up at: Membership(
Meaningful input will not be possible without volunteers prepared to get involved. This includes membership on the Board and volunteering on working groups. We are also looking for representation from the Greenglade and “South Sidney” neighbourhoods.