I have to say that I was very dissappointed at the CS ratepayers going after Vantreight and watching my tax $'s being spent on this.A couple of points
• there is a great deal of misinformation out there about how much was spent by CS defending the case, some have suggested it was half a million dollars. At $300 an hour for lawyers that would be 1700 hours or 70 days worth of time spent on the case. The original hearing and appeal were 2 days each. Did the lawyers for CS spend 66 days preparing the case?
• despite the judgements the municipality did change the OCP in a way that contradicted the existing BY-LAW, however by amending the OCP BY-LAW they apparently proved that planning documents are subject to the whimsy of a council who dismisses them any motivation under the sun.
You want to know whats really annoying about actions like this from our perspective?
We dont get garbage p/u; • Yep I agree on that one
we have a volunteer fire department;
• Yep right again, we should share fire service with North Saanich and Sidney to reduce the number of redundant staffing for three Municipalities with a combined population of 40,000 people.
that wants a new firehall costing millions•the reason for a new station is that the existing one is apparently seismically unsound (I can't actually find the report showing that-may not be available to the public)
•2007 facilities charette report highlights "Wise Financial Management — actively pursue self-financing and/or cost recovery initiatives; pursue tri-municipal service arrangements or other partnerships"
•original intent was to provide servicing in response to concerns from insurers regarding Response times to Keating - a satellite was suggested - instead they decided to build a main firehall at this end of the district.
we have to paint and repaint the yellow lines around the fire hydrant in front of our building as CS wont do it; do they justify there decision - the hydrant is on municipal property is it not?
we have to spend countless $'s on whims of building inspectors that like to change things when construction is 95% complete; •We have been there too. I asked council why they do not direct staff to prepare checklists for developments. Almost no development is unique so they know that building codes will require certain steps. why not lost them
we were 'encouraged' to install a more expensive type of asphalt to allow water to drain back into the water table, yet we sit on a thick bed of clay and when our consultants informed council we were told to do it anyway;•I would like to see the site.
we had to hire a professional landscape architect to the tune of $10,000 to provide drawings of approx 1,500 ft of grass and shrubs that cost about $2,500•I love the natural world, much to the chagrin of some people. Trying to create silly patches of green space in industrial/commercial development is just foreign to me.
if there were 2 major structural fires at the same time in Keating there isnt enough water pressure in the hydrants to manage both fires;•I listened to Jack once talk about Water Pressure because apparently he sat on the CRD water commission - I wonder if he ever visited the pump station for a demonstration.
we have 3 parking spots for each of our employees and a bike rack that we were forced to install along with shelter that has never been used once in 5 years, yet our employees are mostly world class athletes;• perhaps we can help you create a revenue opportunity with your extra parking spaces (perhaps thats not feasible). I am willing to listen to your ideas about how to use them and again seeing the site context in person would help.
and we get the luxury of paying over $150k in taxes to subsidize farmers.•ALR is a provincial matter the municipalities have no jurisdiction. That may not be the answer you wanted, but I am not going to pretend that a council for a community of 16,000 is going to have any influence.
Yet we have no forum to be heard at CS, they love taking our money yet dont actually care (Jack Mars infamous comments about the closing of West and the amazing indifference from the rest of council when not 1 of them called him out!!!)• a good start would be to make individual councillors more accessible by providing email addresses to contact them. Having a business owners forum at least twice a year to have council meet and hear from the businesses instead of waiting for some specific issue to come up is essential.
To be effective businesses would have to participate even if they have no specific development proposal.So basically I'm a Ratepayer just like you, I havent heard from you or your association....ever and I've had my business there since 1982.....so just who do you represent?I have spoken with several businesses on Keating directly to get their feedback. My goal is too speak with everyone who is willing to meet with me. Computer communication is a good way to make a connection that is then followed up with in person conversations.
email me at greenryan@me.com if you are able to make time to meet with me.Are you part of the same group that fought against the CO-OP move?If the goal is to revitalize the Keating Business Park how do we achieve that by removing a business that brings people from Tanner and Cooper Ridge not to mention the rest of the municipality. So yes I involved myself in supporting the Co-op staying and expanding on Keating.