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OUR VIEW: PNR revisits its Sandown stance

Numbers show positive outlook on North Saanich's Sandown proposal

In a community torn among the flurry of arguments for and concerns around North Saanich’s Sandown proposal, some messages can be drowned while others scream loud and clear.

Two recent editorials in the Peninsula News Review discussed the costs and troubles some have pointed out in the proposal. These editorials didn’t properly portray the proposal and pointed a finger where blame did not belong.

North Saanich staff have done their homework and come up with a plan that could bring much needed farm land, protected within the Agricultural Land Reserve, to the community. If all goes according to plan, the proposal to turn the former race track into 83 acres of farmable land won’t cost taxpayers a thing.

In a new budget that hasn’t yet been approved by council (see page A5), staff have outlined how tax and lease revenues, plus land owner Bill Randall’s promise to give the municipality $100,000 toward remediation of the property, mean taxpayers aren’t on the hook. Although a recent cost analysis showed the municipality might have to spend almost $700,000 on the land, that cost could be spread over several years – and would always be covered by new revenues, much of which would come once Randall’s 12 acres are rezoned commercial.

As to the News Review’s suggestion that North Saanich slice a portion of the property and sell it to recover costs, such a move would not be needed – nor would the Agricultural Land Commission allow it.

Further, although it would have been useful for residents to know the associated costs long ago, staff assure us their hands were tied. They did, in fact, produce a cost estimate in July, reporting fencing and demolition could add up to $455,000.

Not until the ALC spelled out its conditions on the land in a mid-November report could North Saanich have come up with a more complete list of costs, which it delivered to council and released publicly, on Jan. 9.

The assertion that the Sandown proposal is a win-win-win situation stands.