Monday, February 27, 2023 – Busy days at the District! Between strategic planning, budget preparations and day-to-day operations including development applications, a lot is happening and I am pleased to highlight several of these items:
The District’s participatory budget process includes two phases of public participation:
- Phase one: Citizen Budget survey and community conversations at local markets
- Phase two: Community Budget Open House
Your feedback, along with master plans and technical guidance from staff are used to build our annual budget. I invite you to participate and thank those who already have! I encourage you to have a look at the Budget 2023 What We Heard Report which captures the results from phase one participation. I also invite you to pencil your calendar for April 18th to save the date for the Community Budget Open House. The event will run from 2 pm to 7 pm and take place at the municipal hall.
To follow the budget conversation through its entirety, including the service-level review discussion underway right now (and continuing on March 17th and 21st), please visit letstalk.sooke.ca/budget.
At the February 13, 2023 Regular Council Meeting, staff shared that the developer of Sunriver Estates has applied for rezoning of the northwest corner of the development and discussions are ongoing regarding this application for 140 new housing units. At this time, Council has directed staff to continue working with the developer to provide a revised zoning application that establishes an alternative emergency access route and/or secondary access to Sunriver. For those interested in learning more about this proposal, the staff report is available on our website at sooke.ca/meetings.
Earlier this month, the District launched a Community Data Portal. The mobile-friendly portal makes research and analysis more accessible to community stakeholders and businesses seeking information to make decisions about investing in Sooke. There is a lot to explore; I encourage you to have a look at community-profile.sooke.ca.
You may have heard that Sooke Mountain and Discovery Island Marine provincial parks are being considered for inclusion in treaties being negotiated with the T’Sou-ke and Songhees Nations. On March 2nd from 4:30 pm to 7 pm at Edward Milne Community School, you are invited to join the Te’mexw Treaty Association (TTA) at a scheduled open house to find out more and share input on the proposed treaties.
For a listing of more upcoming events in Sooke, please visit sooke.ca/events.
With each update, I encourage residents to subscribe to the District’s monthly electronic mailing list. We hope you find this to be an easy and useful way to stay informed about activities happening and decisions being made in our community.
Another way to stay connected with District activities is over coffee! Many thanks to the 35 residents who joined Council at our first Chamber Coffee event in January. Next month, on Monday, March 20th from 10 am to 11:30 am, we’ll be meeting with residents at Broomhill Playground. Hope to see you there!
Warm regards,
Mayor Maja Tait