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Foes of plan to cut Grange Road trees present petition to CRD board

Residents from Saanich’s Grange Road neighbourhood rallied outside the Capital Regional District building Wednesday to further the cause of saving trees along their street from being felled.
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Saanich councillors tour Grange Road with area residents on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018.

Residents from Saanich’s Grange Road neighbourhood rallied outside the Capital Regional District building Wednesday to further the cause of saving trees along their street from being felled.

They presented a petition against the tree-cutting signed by about 380 people, handing it over at the front desk. The issue was not on the agenda at the CRD board meeting Wednesday afternoon.

The residents attracted attention last week with their opposition to a plan to cut down as many as 49 trees to make way for a sewage pipe down one side of the road — part of the CRD’s $765-million sewage-treatment project.

The pipe will link the McLoughlin Point treatment plant to the Hartland landfill.

The route planned for the pipe would mean cutting down a row of trees that forms part of an archway over Grange and taking advantage of an existing trench dug for a water main that is no longer used.

Map - Grange Road area in Saanich
Grange Road area in Saanich

Members of Saanich council, including incoming CRD board chairman Colin Plant, toured the site with neighbourhood residents on Saturday.

David Cubberley, a former NDP MLA and Saanich councillor who has lived on Grange Road for 30 years, said the number of signatures collected represents at least 95 per cent of people who were at home when the petition was presented.

“We did all of Grange Road and then we did the cross streets and feeder streets to a kind of equivalent distance on either side,” he said.

People are making themselves heard, Cubberley said.

“There’s unanimity in the community that these trees are not coming down,” he said.

“That pipe, if it’s going on Grange, it’s going in the road, which is where it belongs.”

Moving the pipe to the roadway would save trees, he said.

Marigold Road is another option where tree removal would not be an issue, Cubberley said.

Saanich Mayor Fred Haynes said last week he is optimistic residents will hear good news about the pipeline route.

Elizabeth Scott, the sewage-treatment project’s deputy project director, said a different alignment is being examined.

People were “blindsided” by the plan to remove trees, Cubberley said. “They did not notify residents of the area systematically.”

Cubberley said the proposed route goes against Saanich’s Carey Local Area Plan, which calls for preservation of the rural character, trees and streetscape on Grange.

jwbell@timescolonist.com