5673 replies to this topic

[spanky123]

Why didn't anybody know this would have to go to re-zoning? Meaning 'anybody' from the special board put together by the Province, the CRD sitting politicians and CRD staff or any/all 13 municipality politicians (91) and/or staff from each of the 13?  Out of all that brain-power and attention to the tiniest details how could this have been missed?  Makes me super-worried about other things that might have been missed.  Also, I wonder if the politicians at the CRD board would have voted the way they initially did (approve the plant) had they known it would have to go back for re-zoning?  The Mayor of Esquimalt included.   (I cannot imagine how difficult this project has been for all of the above noted, complex and fraught with difficulties - I appreciate their diligence and my questions are sincere and earnest.)

 

I don't believe for a second that 're-zoning' is new. I highly suspect that this is just a front for trying to amend the amenity package.

[JohnN]

Interesting slant on the sewage story as CFAX Ryan Price concludes that

"In 2014, Esquimalt council used such a rezoning process for the same McLoughlin Point site to sink the region's sewage treatment efforts.": http://www.iheartrad...again-1.2277469

[JohnN]

CRD sewage committee webcast video record of Dec 14 now uploaded. Sewage Project Board chair Bird starts her reports at 27:40 minute mark and Screech question at 34:15 minute mark:

http://crd.ca.granic...d=1&clip_id=851

[JohnN]

Excerpts:

Esquimalt Coun. Meagan Brame said Thursday the region should take a deep breath, noting the rezoning is part of a normal process. “We can’t ever look at a project and say this automatically is going to be done,” she said. “We always have to look at the details. Up to this point, we as a council haven’t been given the plan.”

...Esquimalt Coun. Tim Morrison said the McLoughlin rezoning is no different from any other, and that it is not one of his priorities. “I’m just quite disgusted with how the CRD steered this process away from the east-side, west-side public process that we had agreed to,” Morrison said. “Quite frankly, at this point it seems to me that nobody cares about public process anymore.”

http://www.timescolo...reath-1.4698623

Edited by JohnN, 16 December 2016 - 06:32 AM.

[JohnN]

Excerpts:

Dave Clancy, former vice-president of Bird Construction, has taken the job as project director...

...Prior to working for Bird Construction, he was a senior vice-president with AECOM, where he held numerous positions.

...Elizabeth Scott has been appointed project deputy director at a salary of $178,000 with a 15 per cent retention bonus.

http://www.timescolo...-year-1.4698627

[JohnN]

Excerpts:

This is not a case of Esquimalt being obstructive, it’s a matter of the sewage panel being thorough and getting things right. Not to do so would be irresponsible. But why, in a project that has been so thoroughly discussed and dissected, could this “misalignment” have been overlooked?

...There’s no reason to believe Esquimalt council will take this as an opportunity to block the sewage project. In fact, Bird is optimistic, praising Esquimalt staff and calling it “a positive sign” that Esquimalt council has approved working toward a timetable that includes holding a public hearing Feb. 20 and having the rezoning considered by council by Feb. 27.

...We hope this rezoning process is done by the book without being sidetracked by those who believe we don’t need to treat our sewage, or who believe the plant should be built somewhere else. Those issues have been settled.

http://www.timescolo...r-crd-1.4684699

[spanky123]

So why are we hiring new executive staff before Esquimalt has agreed to rezone the property? If they refuse then won't we be back in exactly the same position as we were with Sweetnam?

[Mike K.]

Councillor Morrison doesn't sound too thrilled about the whole thing. I think we've still got plenty of resentment in Esquimalt among folks who were promised an "out" but ended up carrying the entirety of the burden a few years later.

[JohnN]

More from CRD sewage committee Dec 14 meeting video recording: at 59:40 minute mark, Atwell asks how the budget for the treatment plant has gone from $179 million just two years ago to $384 million today - a $205 million jump. Mrs. Bird responds that it was probably a combination of inflation and addition of tertiary treatment.

Webcast video recording: http://crd.ca.granic...d=1&clip_id=851

[Sparky]

^ "probably" ?

[VicHockeyFan]

More from CRD sewage committee Dec 14 meeting video recording: at 59:40 minute mark, Atwell asks how the budget for the treatment plant has gone from $179 million just two years ago to $384 million today - a $205 million jump. Mrs. Bird responds that it was probably a combination of inflation and addition of tertiary treatment.

Webcast video recording: http://crd.ca.granic...d=1&clip_id=851

 

I'm glad we have Atwell chipping away here with questions.

[Sparky]

^ Me too.

 

I am still wondering how the Hartland property all of a sudden was rezoned to process liquid waste.

 

Frank Leonard went on record by saying he would have to rent a BIG hall to hold the public hearing for the zoning change. Then all of a sudden the definition of "waste" changed in the zoning bylaw and POOF the need for public discussion vanished.

 

Back room crap.....so to speak.  

[JohnN]

^ "probably" ?

"Probably" was summary of what Bird appeared to be saying (starting about the 01:00:40 mark), where she said that a reconciliation of costs (old and new estimates of sewage plant) should be done, her following statement when she said "with certainty" about part of the costs, elements "come to mind right off the top" and then her following statement offering again to get a "high-level reconciliation to answer that question". http://crd.ca.granic...d=1&clip_id=851

[Bingo]

How would the severance package be for the new folks?

 

An executive with 30 years experience in management, technical, legal and financial aspects of wastewater infrastructure has been appointed to head the Capital Regional District’s $765-million sewage-treatment project.

Clancy, who holds a certificate in civil engineering from Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology, will be paid $312,000 a year plus a 15 per cent retention bonus.

Elizabeth Scott has been appointed project deputy director at a salary of $178,000 with a 15 per cent retention bonus.

 

The last CRD sewage-treatment program, dubbed Seaterra, was headed by Albert Sweetnam. He was hired in 2013 on a contract paying $290,000 a year plus benefits.

Sweetnam was paid severance of $500,000 when he left in September 2015.

 

- See more at: http://www.timescolo...h.7DSsBRcR.dpuf

 

 

[JohnN]

Rezoning of McLoughlin Point causing uncertainty with sewage treatment plan

Pamela Roth
Victoria News
Dec 16, 2016 at 12:00 PM

 

Excerpts:

With a Sept. 30 deadline looming for the CRD to submit its plan for
wastewater treatment to the federal government or risk losing hundreds
of millions of dollars in funding, the board voted in mid-September to
build a wastewater treatment facility at McLoughlin Point, backing a
plan that calls for a single 108 megalitre/day plant for tertiary
treatment at an estimated cost of $765 million.

Bird noted the project has a much smaller footprint, larger setbacks
from the shoreline and would have solids transported by pipe to the
Hardland landfill in Saanich. Esquimalt would receive $20 million in
amenities, including an annual payment of $55,000.

On Wednesday, Bird said the project board thought the redesigned plant
aligned with the zoning bylaw, but the bylaw was quite specific in
terms of some of the requirements for the increased density needed to
accommodate the plant footprint, such as a ferry service to carry
supplies to McLoughlin Point and other “fairly quirky” components.

“It would be incorrect to say that there's no risk associated with
this (rezoning) process, but I am cautiously optimistic...We are doing
everything we can to mitigate that risk and come up with a package
that both council and members of the community and the broader DND
community think represents a reasonable design, and something that
adds value there.”

http://www.vicnews.c.../407119726.html

[Hotel Mike]

Any feeling about how Esquimalt Council will vote this time? I think Tim Morrison is dead set against it. Barb has made compromise noises about it.

[spanky123]

^ I think that it all depends on what the CRD project board is willing to pay. If I was on Esquimalt council why not ask for the $20M promised this time around plus the free plant (ie no fees for Esquimalt homeowners) that they originally negotiated.

[RFS]

765 million dollars. that is obscene

[johnk]

765 million dollars. that is obscene

It will be even obscener by the time the first turd circles the bowl.

[North Shore]

I can't see it being stopped this time; Esquimalt Council might say no, but I'm sure that the Province would step in at that point, and over-rule them..