Letter: Cadboro Bay resident worries about village’s future

Hello CBRA,

I submit the following letter (It was published in the Dec 22 Saanich News, here):

Saanich’s Cadboro Bay Local Area Plan Update is in the final stage of public input.  This stage involves a “Community Survey” outsourced to a simple online survey website.  The survey has no verification system that can determine if the person filling out the survey is from Cadboro Bay or owns a business here, nor is it even technically a requirement to fill out the survey, as it is open to “potential future residents” as well, which could include anyone in the world. 

With such a broad pool to draw on, the claim that it is a ‘community survey’ at all is a farce, and yet there it is, the final step of public input called phase 4 “draft plan review” before phase 5 “draft plan finalization” takes place. 

What is at stake?  The plan envisions turning the village essentially into a small town with up to 4 storeys at its core.

Perhaps we should all just give a new name to Cadboro Bay Village, which was supposedly not good enough as a village and call it The Global Village instead? 

Maybe the reason the residents want to live here is precisely because it is a village and not another overdeveloped metropolis as Victoria is quickly becoming.

If the municipality is actually concerned about local community input and not just pretending to be as they implement their wider (OCP) agenda here and elsewhere, then put the issue to an actual secure vote by the residents, so we can actually see if the residents want their village turned into a small town.

Sasha Izard

Resident of Cadboro Bay