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Central Saanich residents to weigh in on new town hall proposal

Public open house happens next week at municipal hall

Residents of Central Saanich will have the opportunity to educate themselves on the municipality’s town hall project next week.

The municipality has long been considering a new facility and as of now, staff have outlined five options in a memorandum that was presented during a committees meeting on May 27.

The five options explored in detail are: maintaining the aging facilities, rehabilitating and completely overhauling the existing facilities, leasing new space for municipal operations elsewhere in Central Saanich, finding a strategic partnership with a developer (locating municipal operations within a mixed-use development) and total replacement of the municipal facility.

The costs and considerations for each of the five options are explored in the memorandum which will be part of the open house on Saturday, June 8.

The municipality has been looking at the options for a new town hall as far back as the 1990s.

In 2000, critical upgrades to the police wing were made to the tune of around $300,000. In 2002, upgrades to the administrative side of the building were made at a cost of around $200,000.

In 2006, the district began seriously looking into the needs and desires regarding municipal facilities and the exploration has been ongoing. A new firehall was constructed in the meantime to assure a safe base of emergency operations for the fire department and emergency services.

According to staff, the open house will offer detailed information to the public on the activities and timeline to date, the current analysis of the five options outlined in the memorandum from Monday’s meeting and an outline of the next steps in the process.

The open house runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on June 8 at municipal hall and a formal presentation and question and answer session will start at 11 a.m. For more information visit www.centralsaanich.ca or email townhallproject@csaanich.ca.