Regional politicians are considering an image makeover for Greater Victoria’s proposed sewage treatment plant, after being stung by public criticism of a bland concrete mock-up last month.
The Capital Regional District’s sewage committee will vote Wednesday on whether to launch a “Design Ideas Workshop,” and open house, to develop the look of the treatment facility to be built at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt.
“People are saying we want innovation, and [companies] to come forward with new designs,” said committee chairwoman Denise Blackwell.
“I think we want to be as open as we possibly can, but give them some ideas.”
The design process would cost up to $25,000, says a CRD staff report.
The move comes a month after the first artist renderings of the McLoughlin facility were released, showing drab, boxy, concrete structures surrounded by a high concrete retaining wall on an oceanfront property that’s considered the gateway to Victoria’s harbour.
The CRD said the mock-up was only intended to illustrate the potential size of the facility. But it nonetheless prompted scorn from the public and many politicians, who called it an eyesore on one of the region’s most visible properties.
“It really wasn’t a very pretty picture,” Blackwell said. “What’s been proposed is a [design] charrette, and it works quite well.”
The ideas workshop would bring together local designers to brainstorm new visions of the sewage plant, say CRD documents. That would be followed by a public open house.
New design guidelines would be included in the Request for Proposal later this year to solicit bids from companies looking to build the $783-million treatment system, the CRD says.
CRD staff have proposed the workshops run April 11-12, with an open house April 13. Any further delay could push the project off schedule, according to the CRD staff report. The plant construction is set to be complete in 2018.
Esquimalt mayor Barb Desjardins welcomed the design idea, but said her community’s own design panel will have the final say. Esquimalt must approve a CRD redevelopment application to allow the plant at McLoughlin Point.
“This is our process at the end of the day,” she said. “We certainly are interested in receiving any other expertise out there.”
Timing appears to be key, because the CRD intends to pause much of the sewage project in April and May, to avoid getting involved in the May 14 provincial election campaign, Blackwell said.
Also on Wednesday, the CRD sewage committee is to begin selecting its seven-person commission of independent experts, who will take over day-to-day decision-making on the project.
The committee is also expected to discuss a letter from Colwood mayor Carol Hamilton, which says her community is “actively investigating” whether to build its own West Shore sewage plant, due to high costs for her community from the CRD system.
Colwood has wrestled with how to pay its share for the CRD facility this year — $212,000, which equates to a two per cent tax hike — because only 14 per cent of its population is connected to the sewer system.
