More than a year after it started taking shape, the District of Saanich’s updated Official Community Plan is ready for public scrutiny.
The draft of the Sustainable Saanich Official Community Plan, endorsed by council this past week and set to be sent to the community for feedback, updates the 2008 OCP with a focus on the municipality’s new priorities.
Mayor Dean Murdock said the new document includes policies responding to housing affordability and climate change crises.
“The document is 15 years old and a lot of those crises were maybe something that was on the radar, but certainly were not the urgent priority that they are today,” he said. “And it’s important that this updated plan reflects the reality of those very significant pressures that our communities are facing.”
The update integrates new demographic information and statistics and updates land-use policies to include direction on missing middle and infill housing, corridor expansion and a new emphasis on walkable neighbourhoods.
The document aims to maintain the urban containment boundary to retain agricultural land and natural areas, direct development to the primary growth areas and nurture walkable centres and villages linked by corridors.
It also aims to establish Saanich as a district of 15-minute communities, where households are within a 15-minute walk of key amenities such as grocery stores and other services, employment, parks and natural areas.
Murdock said the 15-minute goal is possible, despite Saanich’s size, through corridors, centres and villages.
“There are numerous maps in this OCP that show points of concentration with more commercial services, where we anticipate more growth,” he said. “That’s where we are going to locate more homes for more people, and we need to ensure that we’re layering on top of that the services and amenities that make the community livable.”
Coun. Judy Brownoff called the document the future of Saanich and urged the public to read through it and offer their thoughts.
“Whether you’re a renter, whether you’re a youth growing up here, a property owner, you all need to be involved with this. Because from park usage that we’ve seen has increased substantially to all transportation options, all those sorts of things [are included],” she said. “We need to get our community out and engage.”
The engagement process will include a series of open houses, online sessions, a survey, in-person workshops with stakeholders and consulting with advisory committees.
Read the draft plan at bit.ly/3OixEAV.
>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]
