Council Meeting

Good evening, Viewer Royal.

Welcome to the council meeting for May 2nd.

I'd like to call the meeting to order and recognize the Le Conguin speaking people known today as the Esquimalt Nation and the Songhees Nation, and that their historic connections to these lands continue to this day.

This evening we'll hear from the public who telephone in during public participation and question period portions of the agenda.

If you wish to provide your comments to council regarding the development permit for 7 Irkskeein Lane, there will be specific time to speak to these applications when they're considered during the meeting.

For members of the audience, Council Chambers is a safe, respectful, and inclusive place.

All members are encouraged to act accordingly.

Uh if you wish to provide comments by telephone, call 778-402-9227.

And when prompted, enter conference ID 339-067-068 pound.

You will be immediately muted once admitted to the meeting.

Please don't unmute until you're asked.

At the appropriate time on the agenda, I will then announce the last four digits of your phone number.

Ask you to mute the live webcast to avoid feedback.

Ask you to not use your speakerphone to ensure sound quality, and ask that you unmute yourself by pressing star six.

To begin, please indicate your name, address for the record.

Speakers will have five minutes each to speak during the public participation and two minutes to ask a question or questions during the question period, and you'll be timed.

This meeting will be recorded.

By participating in this webcast, you are consenting to being recorded, and recording will be available on the town's website for future access.

And with that, can I get a motion to approve the agenda, including the blue sheets, please?

Second.

Moved by Councillor Brown, seconded by Councillor Lemon.

All in favor.

Any opposed?

See no opposed.

Motion carries.

And for the minutes and receipt and adoption of the minutes for the special council meeting on April 25th and council meeting held on April 18th.

Can I get a motion to adopt?

Move adoption.

Councilor Rogers moves adoption.

Councillor McKenzie seconds.

Um, and I think we're down to a mayor's report, and I will be brief.

It's good to have all the council back together again in the same room and time zone.

Thank you, Councilor McKenzie and staff for arranging the best in bloom, which starts on the 5th of May.

A competition for those green thumbs to be recognized by their community for their hard work and effort.

This Friday also marks our women are sacred walk for a 10 a.m.

start on May 5th on Howell Road for a procession to lead to Maple Bank.

This event is sponsored by the Songhees Nation.

I have the privilege to represent the town with the Lieutenant Governor on the occasion of the coronation of King Charles on Saturday.

Also good news for you skateboarders.

The skateboard park is opening on the 13th of May from 1 to 3 at the WandaFuca Rec Center.

Last week I gave the first installment of the raise that was voted in for the mayor by the previous council back to the town and hope to pass back approximately $10,000 this year to assist in offsetting the cost of engagement and volunteer recognition.

That this time is tough for everybody when it comes to tax increases and extra um uh costs being associated with uh with rapid inflation and certainly um BC Assessments has judged that our houses get more expensive and therefore so do our taxes.

Um so I appreciate everybody's understanding and uh and Don's hard work and everybody that's contributed back for feedback for the engagement portion of uh the engagement we had on the taxation.

Um, and I appreciate that.

Um so I think we're down to uh public participation period, and we can go to first on the phone, Carl.

Have we got anybody on the phone?

Mayor Tobias, we have a caller with last four digits eight eight eight one.

Thank you.

Caller 8881.

Can you unmute yourself, please, and state your name and address.

Carl, are they still on the line or are they just uh having challenges on muting?

And if you can hear me, just press star six to unmute yourself.

Uh my kid, can you not hear me?

I can hear you now.

Perfect.

It's Kathleen Gilbert, uh, unit sixty-eight at 14 Erskine Lane.

Thank you very much for allowing me to speak uh briefly tonight.

Um I have just uh a lot of concerns about number seven, as we have had lots of concerns about number nine as well, but that's um ongoing right now.

Um I especially want to um ask about whether council is going to c um follow through with the idea of extending Erskine Lane so that we have two exits.

This is a very narrow lane.

It's just meters long, really, like point two uh kilometers long.

Uh and we are looking at uh an incredible increase in density in our on our little lane, and so I'm just wondering whether there's been any thought to that.

Thank you.

Thank you miss Gilbert and do we have anybody in the room that would like to address counsel uh there'll be a separate portion for Seven Excuse Lane and for uh Ms.

Gilbert question, I think that had been uh a topic of discussion, but I don't think it's advanced to uh planning stage uh at this time for a second um exit.

It's uh something that I think uh as these things develop uh council will have to address at some point.

Okay, so uh that brings us down to business arising from previous minutes, and I was to invite Councillor Rogers for the Rapid Transit Hub or Mobility Hub.

Uh yes, thank you.

Um as you can see, um uh colleagues, the um um attachment uh when we had the presentation from uh transit and um ministry of highways, um uh what we had specifically asked for on January the seventeenth is um the BC Transit be invited to provide an update on the rabbit transit mobility hub and the project overall.

Um my concerns is that um well we got a really good presentation on the uh uh Rapid Transit um project overall, um transit did not uh provide us um uh the specific details, even though on page 12 of their presentation you can see, and I've in the second page, I've uh blown that up for so that you could see, there are the details.

You we can see there's a draft concept to um the plan with respect to the light, with respect to the realignment of the galloping goose, and with respect to uh um the parking lot, that um uh I'm assuming that would be a park and ride.

And um although there was the suggestion that that was the format as it is today, you can see by the second picture, that's not the case.

So and lastly, I give you the illustration that back in 2016 in our transportation update, we had a concept from Transit about this overall mobility hub parking lot.

So, and it certainly was a point of discussion in the last draft of OCP.

At any rate, we do have a hint of the um mobility hub.

Um, and I would ask that uh staff uh contact um transit to provide the latest conceptual drawings full of them, all of them that would go from Ion Highway to Atkins.

Um I would also ask that staff would uh request copies of the um uh ministry of highways presentation.

They had given some uh diagrams further that we would um um seek um traffic analysis of the project and any implications to the surrounding roads um once uh ministry of highways has done those, and that we would request uh the transit um commit to proactive public engagement and keep uh council and staff appraised of all significant developments uh both of the project and of chickenization.

So that's my motion.

I wonder if I could have a segmenter.

Oh that was my motion.

Yep.

Thank you, Councilor Rogers, and seconded by Councillor Brown.

And I think now we can perhaps pause to discuss this.

Uh perhaps a question for staff and the last um picture and uh councillor Rogers' submission.

Um how much of that is CRD land and how much of that is private land?

Because it uh occurs to me we dealt with that issue before, and that's kind of the integral tire place.

And I thought that was private land.

Uh Mayor Tobias, hard to say um to say as a fact, but uh the integral tire is certainly on the for the sake of looking at that photo on the left side, it looks like uh we can certainly provide more information as to what is private and what is public, uh, should you wish.

Um, point of clarification to uh the mobility hub is the purview of the ministry, so we can certainly reach out to them about getting more information on that.

And that was uh discussed at the last committee of the whole.

Thank you.

Um, and uh just a follow-on question the remaining lands and it's darker uh in in the parking lot there, is that CRD land or is that town land anyway?

Uh Mayor Tobias is a good question.

If you look at the the middle um photo you'll you'll notice that there's a few lots in that area and um when we looked at the legal a portion of that would be uh CRD leased which would be ministry lands under the BC Transportation Finance Authority um but there are a lot of polygons there which leads me to believe that there is um there could be uh different uh landowners in the area so um you can certainly take a look at what's considered private what's public what's CRD, what's ministry?

Thank you.

Um any other comments or questions, Councilor Matt?

Yeah, just having a look at that, you know, given that uh our push is to put density sort of along the what we euphemistically refer to as the Callwood strip, that just seems like a horrible waste of uh property in terms of to turn it into a big parking lot.

I mean, if the province is set against or set dead set on sort of adding housing to the area, uh this just seems like a a complete waste of uh property.

And certainly the town of Uroy will get absolutely no tax dollars out of this, and so it's just gonna be a a drain on the community, as have a number of uh provincial initiatives in the past few years.

We've just come out on the the losing end, and and yet again here it is.

Thank you, Councillor Mattson.

And any other comments or questions?

Councilor Rogers.

Yes, thanks.

And and uh certainly speaking to Councilor Matson's point again um referring to the draft OCP um when uh it's made specific mention that um uh that uh the there was great concerns that we would not just want a uh a uh parking lot a park and ride that um is not the highest and best use and and the draft uh plan had suggested that um we work with i think agencies to uh make it something more significant, uh certainly much more better.

Um my understanding is that the galloping goose is actually owned uh by the province, and uh staff can correct me on this if I'm wrong, and and the CRD leases the uh galloping goose from the province.

So that land, if you if you look, you can you know it's hard to distinguish, but that's that's uh a portion therein, and and I'm we'd we'd have to see what the rest of it is.

Uh whoever owns it, the the point is that there's uh certainly concerns from um a wide range of individuals, including the mayor of Colwood, um, about um having uh yet another lights in in this area and and the possible congestion and and implications both uh for all directions of traffic, including, I would think an impediment to the rapid transit bus.

But um, we shall see how that works out.

But I just hope that uh transit is more forthcoming in the information and gives it to us in a very timely fashion.

Um Council Rogers, to make it crunchy, could I ask you just to summarize the three things you want in the motion?

You would want uh you're requesting staff contact Modi for an updated plan.

Your read it again?

Yes, please.

Sure.

Okay.

So the motion is that uh staff request the latest conceptual drawings uh from transit of the mobility hub, that we obtain copies of the um uh Modi um presentation and any traffic analysis for this project and and implications for the surrounding streets when that's ready.

That we request transit to commit to a proactive uh public consultation and that uh it would keep both staff and council appraised of all significant developments on the project and the signalization thank you council rogers uh so i think we're ready to call the question all in favor any opposed see none opposed motion carries thank you councillor rogers and i think we're at the point now for some staff reports on the development permit for seven erskin lanes thank you your worship jeff chalce here planner uh development permit application two zero twenty twenty three oh two is for seven erskin lane.

It's a development permit renewal for a 71 unit apartment building uh a number of variances are requested, and we'll go through that in the uh in the presentation.

The site uh was rezoned to a multifamily use in 2020.

At the time, a covenant was registered to secure road dedication, uh, road improvements that include uh improving the cul-de-sac at the end of Erskine Lane with um with a parking island and uh and community cash community amenities contributions.

Uh the site was formerly a contaminated site.

Um a development permit was approved and issued two years ago.

It actually expires May 4th, and here we are on May 2nd.

Uh, because they only received their certificate of compliance in January of this year, uh they haven't been able to construct.

So uh so they have come to extend that development permit.

The building is 99.5% the same as it was before.

It's a six-story building that's comprised of kind of two four-story sections of building put together.

So they have a six-story overlap.

And that's because the site is located on a slope, and this kind of minimizes the mass of the building and creates a more kind of relatable building form at the street.

In terms of site plan, because underground parking is provided, a lot of the site will be will be kind of excavated and part of that was done already as part of the site remediation.

In the kind of the south component of the property, there is a kind of a hill that was kind of retained with some native trees on it and those will kind of be preserved as a kind of a a natural area.

But overall there is a surface parking entrance at the kind of the driveway entrance of the building and at the street level it'll again be a four story building with kind of um with kind of a a walkway up to the front door.

In terms of finishes um this is where the the proposal kind of varies a little bit from what was originally pro proposed.

The proposal is to um to uh reduce the amount of seroclad which is a kind of ceramic coated siding with uh with more kind of hardy plank with the which is a cementitious siding the main visual difference is that the seraclad kind of has a horizontal kind of um uh striping to it texture to it uh whereas the hardy panel type is is a bit more kind of uh it's a cleaner uh cleaner uh product that has uh kind of a square form and kind of reveals that kind of create kind of more of a a cross uh pattern rather than than than horizontal in terms of the visual appearance um it it will look larger than the same in terms of light and dark on the on the building and in terms of considering a development permit there's there's kind of uh the main thing to look at is is whether it complies with the development primary guidelines and the zoning requirements so in general it it does comply with the development primary guidelines it's a building that that kind of steps up with the slope uh the building foot is articulated with balconies that kind of create more again kind of a uh visual interest on the building um there's varying roof lines as well uh with with element with parts of the the roof elevated and there are canopy and balcony projections that kind of kind of cover again add to the uh add to the texture um and then using uh color blocking which is basically uh exterior cladding with the different of variety of colors and textures kind of breaks up the mass of the building those these types of materials are high quality and durable um the uh there's also an outdoor gathering space uh uh basically above the parking lot kind of next to where the uh the trees would be preserved and those would have benches and plantings and a partial green and creates kind of a partial green roof of the building and the building would have dark skies friendly lighting.

In terms of zoning um a number of variances are requested, and I'll kind of go through them quickly.

The first one is the building height, and the uh the height variance is from uh 13.5 meters to 17 meters, and that's because of the way uh building height is measured.

It's measured around the whole building, so when you're on a slope, um it kind of uh makes the building height seem seem higher as shown in the diagram.

In terms of setbacks, a couple of minor setbacks are required at the rear of the building just because it's um it's a rectangular, it's a roughly a rectangular building on a on a site that's that's not rectangular.

But the the variance is quite minor, it's a difference of uh 0.5 to 0.7 meters.

Uh building of projections, it's the same as the same thing at the rear of the building again some balcony projections because it because the property is not entirely square and at the front of the building um the variance is to permit a uh a projection for the kind of over the front entrance to uh to stick out more and that's kind of appropriate to sort of mark the entrance of the building uh variance is requested for the height of the retaining wall and uh you can sort of see in this illustration here um at the side entrance of the building um the parquet actually kind of extends out across and that creates part of the the landscape deck.

There is a retaining wall, so that's part of it is structure and part of it is retaining wall uh to provide kind of a a walkway from the upper level down to the street as kind of a fire escape.

There is a retaining wall where the requested height is 3.4 meters, which is which is which is just for a part of the building.

It's not the previously we had 4.3 meters shown, and that was to the top of the guardrail, but to clarify it's only to the top of the retaining wall.

That retaining wall set back from the building and would be screened by vegetation.

In terms of servicing, two variances are requested.

One is to break a potential bike lane in front of the building, in front of the on the site frontage.

The standard uh requirement is for pocket parking in front of the street, and in this case, the variance is required to uh place that parking within a parking island instead of the front of the building.

That creates a more interesting streetscape and creates kind of a better use of the way that cul-de-sac is working in terms of creating a kind of a center for cars to go around.

So in conclusion, this recommended the council approve the development permits with the associated variances.

Additional conditions are that staff recommended one is to provide a landscape deposit, and the second is to clarify the visitor parking on at the time of building permit application.

But otherwise, the proposal complies with the development permit area guidelines, and the variances can be supported because of uh a number of kind of site specific reasons.

So the recommendation is again the recommendation is to prove the to issue the uh development permit.

Uh the applicant is also here in case there's any uh questions from council.

And do we want to have the applicant speak first or and then ask questions, or would you prefer to do it?

But uh you have a question of staff.

Question of staff, yes.

Yes, please.

So uh for my colleagues, I I mean, every was uh a fan of this project, thought it was way too dense and and and and and it didn't do anything for the community.

Um but one of the things I'm questions I do have is are are we too late?

Uh I mean, if you look at number nine, there was quite a bit of uh amenities put in there for the residents and there seems to be very little in here for on site for the residents.

And so it's one of the things I have a concern about.

That and the fact that there was no provision of funding for some of the roadworks further up Erskine Lane and including the traffic circle.

So I'm I'm wondering if have we missed a boat there or and and and now we're just dealing with uh some of these form and character things or can we actually require you know more community amenity or amenities on site for residents.

Well, the the first part is there are the amenities for the residents in this case is kind of a landscape area that would be extensively planted.

In terms of development permit, they don't talk about required amenities.

There's no requirement for amenities for residents.

I I guess my question was more to what was on site.

I mean, we went to great lengths to require number nine to do a number of things for residents on on site.

And I just maybe my question may be somewhat rhetorical, but I think in the future we as a council need to do more to require amenities and things for people to do on site as opposed to having them you know traverse all the way through the community to get someplace.

Thank you, Councillor Mattson uh go with Councilor Rogers and Councillor McKenzie.

Yes thanks uh thank you staff um yeah I I I quite agree there's not much uh changed since, but I do appreciate uh staff working on um uh uh securing the additional space for um a bike lane to go up the hill on that side.

So that's that's really great.

That we can, you know, whether or not 10 moves along, but that we do coordinate with um CRD and get a really decent access onto the Gallup and Deuce.

Uh the current one is quite insufficient.

Um and I guess uh back in the time when we were discussing number seven, uh, we didn't have um the rapid bus um efforts, you know, and it would seem that if with Rapid Bus um now being a reality, um uh it could have been quite possible for um number seven to come back and and make some reductions of of uh parking space because the bus uh uh they said the frequent service of rapid bus just a um a few meters away.

Um that's just uh I guess an editorial comment.

My concern is uh and a quick my question is um with respect to the um the vegetation, the natural trees that are going to be left on the site.

And again, I appreciate that that being uh protected.

Um and what I've seen with uh other developments is that these uh great holes are going on, and uh very little is is done to um help these these uh trees survive, uh particularly during droughts and limited rainfalls and so forth.

Um is there any uh ways that um uh the town could encourage uh um developers that they're constructing to um provide weekly watering to these trees to make sure that they will survive they they will be an asset to the development once it's uh completed um through through the mirror um so part of the part of the area the green the green area is already existing so it's actually the top of the hill which is actually a good part because most of the construction is happening below it um certainly uh likely a tree permit will be required at the time of uh building permit, and that's where um we can look at ways to ensure that that area is protected and uh irrigated if necessary.

So yeah, that would that would be uh nice.

We'll probably have that discussion when the applicant comes up too.

Thank you.

Uh Councillor McKenzie, then Councillor Brown, please.

Thank you.

The parking island is intended.

Do you know who that is intended for?

Is it solely for uh number seven or is it for the whole street?

And then related to that, will there be any other form of street parking on there, noting that it's quite narrow?

Um, through the mayor.

Uh there will be additional street parking in front of other developments.

That's kind of the the parking standard.

So nine Erskine Lane will have parking in front, ten Erskine lane will have parking in front.

Uh the parking, the parking in within the call de sac in in the parking island, that will be public parking, so it's not um it's not for not designated for any particular um you know residents mayor turvias just a point of clarification here there is actually not a lot of on-street parking up erskine because it's being uh replaced with uh buffer bike lane that goes from the connector from the galloping goose all the way up to walk his way have uh follow on council McKenzie Council Brown please yeah thank you thank you for that presentation uh I think it jumped out at me was nine variances for for two violas that seems like a lot to me, but you explained it very well, you know, point by point.

I really appreciate that.

Just on the second one, uh the the eighth and ninth variants, uh it's not clear it says to facilitate potential modifications.

Does that mean it's it's gonna happen or or or or are they committed to doing that?

Uh where it says uh to facilitate potential modifications to the road frontage of the property variance to requirements for pocket parking to permit parking island within the Cal de SAC and variance to the frontage requirements to permit the construction of a separated uh bicycle lane.

I think those are great things to have but but uh just bothered it says potential, so that means to be a could or could not happen.

Yeah, the design not not finalized, but ultimately works within the streets are under the preview of the director of engineering so um so when you do the final plans, you'll okay.

Understood.

Thank you.

Thank you, staff.

I see no other questions or comments from my colleagues right at this time.

Um staff, if you're complete, we could invite the applicant if you wanted to um answer or uh make any statements uh be available for any questions.

Uh thank you.

Uh my name is Kevin Klippenstein.

I'm with VDA architecture representing the client.

Um the just to address some of the comments, um, some direct, some sort of indirect.

Um, this project's been in the works for quite some time because we had to go through rezoning first.

So a lot of the things that you're addressing are are were resolved or we tried to resolve in the rezoning process.

And that's part of the reason why we didn't address the the street going up Erskine and with what we were going to do.

There's lots of talk between us, Jeff, council, committee of the whole about what to do uh for our development to make improvements up Erskine Lane.

That happened at the rezoning, where it which is a more appropriate time to deal with that rather than development permit.

And at that time, um, Nine Erskine was just an uh an old lot that was potentially for sale.

I don't even think it was for sale yet.

It may have had a for sale sign on it.

Nobody knew what was going to happen at Nine Erskine.

So that's why it was decided the best thing for the community of View Royal was to give a cash donation to allow View Royal to figure out what they wanted to do with Erskine and whether they wanted to put the money into that or have that development do the road and put the money into something else.

It just was not resolvable at that time.

As far as uh amenities on site, I don't I don't know.

I've I'm not familiar with what has happened in your negotiations with with uh Nine Erskine or skin lane.

We do have a large community community um being a site, the the residence-only garden on top of the parking.

That was one of the reasons there were several reasons why we kind of pushed the building further uh north in order to open that up we could have built it's more typical to build over the center of your parking and kind of balance the building out on the site and we pushed it back for a number of reasons one is to take advantage of that geography and shield some of the noise from the highway for at least some of the lower lower units another but a a significant part of that was to allow enough room that you can actually do something with the garden area on that.

There were lots of discussion about that.

There's nothing in stone yet about there's no covenant on it or anything like that, that it has to be residential gardens or something like that.

But that was always been part of the design discussions that have happened.

So there is, I mean, and that's a you know and when cities are giving up, City of Victoria is giving up urban space for community gardens, you know, that we think we feel that that's a pretty significant contribution to the the health of the of the residents that are going to be there.

Okay.

I can't remember if there's something else or I've lost my train of thought.

But uh other than that, no.

Oh, and the other thing that happened um on this that hasn't been addressed as well is there's a significant contribution to the to view royal in a sense, it's more nebulous, but this had to go through a full soil remediation.

And that's really what's delayed this from moving forward, and those soils are now cleaned up.

And I think any community should be glad when some contaminated soils get cleaned up, and that's no longer an issue.

So all of that has already been put into into the project.

Thank you.

Councilor Lemon, please.

Hi, thank you for that.

Um I I recall those that were on council a few years ago will recall that number nine was barely a twinkle in the eye when you came through rezoting and and received it.

Um, but since then, of course, number nine has taken off, and and poor older Skid Lane has and you know, the longtime residents there, the original residents, are um overwhelmed with all this taking place.

So my question is would you begin your build immediately?

I'm just thinking of you know all all the trucks and all the activity with number nine and you at the same time.

And of course, you know, certainly it would be your right, but that's my question.

Okay.

I don't have an answer for that.

We the the project has not entered into working drawings because it went through um after after the the development permit was was um granted, the developer rethought whether they wanted to continue on with this or not and they were hesitant on that they decided to put it on the market and see if anybody else was in interested in taking because it's a significant financial risk for them and they were wondering if it's better to take it now and and and have all their eggs in one basket or spread it out a little bit and and do smaller projects and they decided that this was probably a little bit large for them and let's let uh let's see if somebody's interested in purchasing it.

If they didn't get a purchaser they would have continued on with it, but they didn't get a purchaser.

So they'd managed to they did get a purchaser, so they managed to sell it.

Condition of the sale is is that the soils that they had their certificate, what's it called, certificate of compliance or whatever it's called for the contaminated soils was complete, which only happened sometime in January of this year, and that there was an active DP.

So they're finishing off.

My client is finishing off, and the current owners finishing off their commitments to the to the sale.

We have not been engaged to do the working drawings for the future client.

And so I can't I I I can't speak for them how quickly they're willing to move.

I know that they want this DP in place, which means this is what they want to build.

This is what they've purchased, and this is what they want to build.

Who they have engaged and how quickly they'll move on it, there's no way for me to answer that.

Okay.

Okay.

Got it.

Thank you.

Council Rogers, please.

Yes, hi.

Thank you.

I had forgotten about the $200,000 contribution, and I think there are a couple of good opportunities for us to invest that back into the community.

And for example, 600 bikes on that street, improve that access to the Gallup and so that people will be having a safe and easy access into town.

And I had, as you know, transit has worked very hard on the rapid transit system.

Minister Highway is doing extraordinary work on just amazing bus stops, you know, that um uh your future uh tenants or occupants will enjoy.

Um I'm hoping uh and say yes, that um uh the the company will actively promote um uh alternatives to the vehicle, as you can you heard from our the caller.

Uh with you know something like 800 cars on this road, it could be really daunting.

But with uh the Gallop of Goose nearby and and the rapid bus, I'm hoping that the the um the promo sales sheets will really emphasize those points.

Uh we'll certainly pass that along, and I agree with you.

And and parking is a funny thing.

It's it's gone through a lot of changes in the last 20 years, as we're seeing now, with even cities like Victoria asking for like the saying point, what was it?

They were they turned down 0.7 per unit.

It's too much parking.

Huge change from just five, six years ago, right?

We intentionally went for no parking variants on this not because we were supporting the use of cars but because it was such a contentious issue on this street because they were worried about getting their street parking removed so we made sure that we have on site all the required parking including all the visitor parking so that island in the center that was questioned who is that for is not specific for this development there's no there will be no res restriction that a visitor won't use it, but the intention is that everything on site can take care of the parking.

And um if if you guys want to talk about if I can take to the future owner that you would consider a reduction, I'm sure you might have them come back here and say, well what then you can get into some sort of negotiation with them about some other amenities too.

I'd be totally willing to take that back to to them because there perhaps is with way what's happening with parking these days, there perhaps is more parking than what is actually needed for this development.

We just didn't think it would go through with any kind of a parking uh variance.

May you uh follow up question we'll certainly take that under under advisement.

Um my other point to to staff, and and I guess it's gonna be a uh an ask of you is the protecting your um valuable assets, the green space behind, I think is gonna be really important for your again, your tenants.

Um and what we've seen with the Helmican Burnside um area, the the forest there with a great big pit, um, amputated uh routes, um the the whole concern of lack of rainfall, droughts, um uh who knows what we'll have in the summertime.

So um would you I'm hoping that uh you know your company will invest and make sure with good proper watering and care that these trees will survive to be those uh assets and help uh further.

I I think that's an excellent point uh because we are trying to retain the natural ecosystem system there and and some of the trees.

I mean that was an early, early decision because I mean it's kind of funny we're leaving we're leaving the soil in place that isn't contaminated because it's the original rock and soil which is kind of bizarre right because we found that it was it's such a pleasant thing and it's the natural ecosystem so there's sort of a line with where we're developing and there's all new landscaping obviously above that and that as much as possible we're leaving the the remaining uh trees and landscaping there um but then all the new stuff there's all sorts of restrictions on on irrigation that you have to have it irrigated for at the minimum of year.

It's typical.

I don't know what it is in View Royal.

Do you know what it is in View royal for the BC landscape standards.

Okay.

So it's gonna have to be irrigated for I don't I can't remember if it's a year or two after that it's it had the i if there are plants that can sustain itself without irrigation, you can cut it off, but nobody once the irrigation's in nobody turns it off, right?

It's there.

So to extend that into the other uh land is is is you know uh if if we use some small uh um unobtrusive uh uh lines just on top without digging because it is rock so we're not going to be able to get it buried but I can't imagine that that's a terribly either expensive or difficult thing to do.

So I will certainly pass that along.

Thank you, Councillor Rogers.

Questions for me.

Um a lot of my inbox is full about noise complaints from the highway uh from the sound and that that, of course, sound is increasing with more traffic being on the highway and us building closer to the highway.

So, what um prevention have we taken as a insulation thickness of windows or whatever?

Because our standard, I can say, isn't cutting it because we're still getting complaints from due developments next to the highway.

So just wondering what your response is, Therek.

Other than it was intentional to push the building away from the highway as much as possible to use that not that little hill in as much as possible as its own barrier.

Um there are no additional measures that we're taking.

I will say that I don't know about I don't know any of the specifics about what you're referring to and who you've had complaints from, but there's huge, huge differences in building code for insulation values, thickness of walls, the window parameters, the airtightness of buildings.

And I'd be somewhat surprised, but I'm not an acoustic expert if the current buildings aren't substantially better, I'll say, than 20 years ago.

So I don't know how old those buildings are that the people that are complaining.

But buildings are just the, I mean, they'll they'll have to be.

This is a step two of the building code.

There'll have to be some exterior insulation on the wall, which is going to help thicken it.

These will be two by six walls fully insulated.

Uh it'll be double glazed.

The window standards are much higher these days.

Um I haven't had a chance to look into it, but I understand the energy portion of the code has been jumped up again as of today, is my understanding.

So all of these, even though they're to deal with energy, all help the acoustics.

So I but did we do anything specific other than the sighting of the building?

No, there's nothing specific.

I'm I'm reluctant to um say okay, because what I'm you know increasingly concerned about is not only making the community a good place for the people that are living in it now, but also for the new neighbors that are moving into this place are they going to be the ones filling our inboxes with complaints about noise from the highway?

And so I'm not feeling really reassured from your response that we're actually that's a mitigation we're gonna have to take because it your line of sight to the highway there.

Like you're looking right at the highway.

So sound uh is is is gonna be an issue.

So I I would I would be grateful if there was a plan that was included that would mitigate noise from the highway, because that's not gonna make people very happy um i i if that's what they're exposed to.

So if there's something that you can do with the code tiling, extra um uh window reinforcement, whatever it is but i i'm just saying it's a challenge with modern construction right now that that we're facing um so i i thank you and and would appreciate that yeah um and i think uh was there other comments you wanted to make or other comments from council or questions not okay and i think this is a public participation time we could go to before we go through any of the uh motions that were recommended by staff so carl, have we got anybody uh on the line wishing to comment about seven arcs skin line?

Mayor Tobias, we have no callers at this time.

Thank you.

Uh anybody in the room that would like to comment on the um the motion for 7 Eric Skin Lane.

Nobody here.

So now that brings us, thank you very much.

You can have a seat if there's no other questions for my colleagues.

So now we've got a series of motions uh in front of us, and if I read them all out, I would be uh here all night.

But that council authorized the insurance issuance of a development uh permit number two zero two three oh two.

Uh and that includes uh height setback, uh balcony setback, balcony projections, sunlight control projections, and maximum height and retaining wall, and that there's also variances to uh pocket parking uh for the cul-de-sac and frontage requirements and further uh visitor parking spaces uh identified by the building permit plans and a security deposit for hard and soft landscaping is required prior to building permit issuance.

Uh all in favor.

Sir.

But first correspondence, please.

There is on the laid items to council agenda a one piece of correspondence.

And I move a shaded correspondence.

Thank you.

Uh correspondence receipt by um Councilor Rogers, second by Counselor Matson.

All in favor.

Move that received.

Thank you, Sarah, for picking that up.

And uh Council Bennett.

To your motion, um Mayor Tobias.

I'm I'm wondering if an amendment would be acceptable in that we ask the applicant to take a look at a parking reduction um in exchange for some community amenities and um ask the new owner to install um sound protection within the building within the building envelope staff please yeah just uh i um just for a point of clarification um so right now that so a reduction parking is considered a parking variance which will require a new opportunity for public comment and so we'd have to go through the entire notification again and another opportunity for public comment um with respect to requiring or we were um council can request the applicant to look into um like window types to mitigate noise.

Um, but as a part of a development permit, it is form a character and and landscaping.

So we are limited in terms of what we can ask for that are beyond our design guidelines.

So got it withdraw.

But I like where you were going with the sound mitigations.

We can request that if that's okay.

And that doesn't require uh public uh participation, and I think it's probably in the best interest of the folks that are moving in there that we do our utmost to make sure that it's um not as loud as it could be.

Sound attenuation measures.

Thank you.

Okay, so all of what is written, including the correspondence that we've uh received and a request uh for sound mitigation um as as uh as required by staff uh all in favor have we moved just the amendment or the full staff recommendation amendment first amendment first amendment first so we'll do the amendment for um including the sound mitigation on the very large motion so can I have a mover and her seconder very high move moved?

Moved for the uh amendment so move the up amendment yeah so uh I'll call the question on the amendment.

Do we have a seconder?

Did you second?

Okay.

Uh all in favor.

So it was moved by councillor Lemon, seconded by Councillor Mattson.

And um move the amended motion, all of it.

Second amended.

Seconded.

Uh mover, would you like to speak to it?

No?

No.

Seconder.

I would like to recommend that the $200,000 that is being put forth by the uh developer be uh considered to be put forward uh for a sidewalk uh from the corner of Erskine to uh Eagle Creek on the V Royal side.

That is, I think he was he was voicing intent there, counselor, if I wasn't uh mistaken.

Uh I'm not sure.

I mean, staff can probably comment.

I don't know if we can do that right now, but I'm just I'm saying you know that's something we can work out later, perhaps.

Uh, but it's it's certainly uh a ripe uh opportunity right now and very timely.

Agreed.

Um, so I've got a mover and a seconder.

So all in favor of the staff recommendation for the development permit.

Amended, so amended, yeah.

Uh all in favor?

Any opposed?

I'm going to oppose just because I can.

Um and uh motion passes.

Uh and I think that brings us down to six mile road improvements, hydro payments, uh staff.

Thank you, Mayor Tobias.

I'm the young director of engineering here to speak on behalf of uh Ben Luberts, who created this report.

Uh six mile road improvements species hydro payment.

So under the purchasing pie purchasing policy, uh, we require uh council to approve um uh uh payment of $91,833 for BC Hydro to install the utility works uh within the six mile road Atkins Road intersection area.

And um this needs to be done now as a means to uh continue our design and construction of the roundabout.

I'm with staff recommendations.

Uh thank you.

Move by councillor Matt Matson, seconded by uh counselor Rogers.

And I've just got a question like what are you doing?

Taking out power poles, putting it underground.

Just give us a highlight of kind of the activity.

Generally speaking, yes, that's right, Mayor Tobias.

Um, by putting it aroundabout, we need to rejake some of the polls.

Um, there's also some uh works that are required to um improve the loading of and the capacity due to lands beyond development and other partners, but that is nothing to do with this contribution.

This is strictly uh for our contribute contribution as part of the roundabout.

Thank you, Ivan.

Council McKenzie.

So I noted in your report that there was some engagement on this.

I was wondering if there was any I guess opposing uh thoughts on this from the community.

Um just curious.

Council McKenzie, you have to forgive me, I'll have to take a review of this report.

So I I believe you're referring to the project summary that's attached in the appendix.

And yes, that engagement was done as part of the six-mile corridor improvements, which included uh assets such as a roundabout.

Um in here is also it looks like uh there is um hydroduct work is also in the plan.

In terms of engagement, it was done several years ago, but public engagement was uh was conducted there to get it kind of get an idea of what improvements um would meet the needs of the direct residents in the area.

Okay, so there was no from what you recall or maybe council recalls, there were uh it it seemed that there wasn't any big opposition to this roundabout project.

I don't know as a fact, Council Mackenzie.

Yeah.

Just for I mean it was certainly approved by the council today, and we didn't at that time receive a lot of complaints uh in terms of a roundabout.

And the um, I guess the alternative then would be the current kind of stop sign that's um but challenging or a light, which uh didn't seem to work so well either, so that the the option was that was decided on was around the butter number so that was the recommendation.

Council Rogers.

Yeah.

Yeah, in in terms of uh the community uh uh input, I think um there were a number of um um from my recollection uh good reasons.

Um one was uh so that individuals there was a safe crossing.

If they didn't have to use the galloping goose and go up on top, they could cross the road.

Secondly, they enabled the number 53 bus to easily get out and go up to uh Theus Lake.

And um and it was also uh complementary to the stop sign that we put at Choko.

So all those improvements and and uh staff um uh this was it was critical to get um Ministry of Highways uh support and and they have supported this as well.

Yeah, okay.

Just a question with the all the hydro work, um this is if I understand more of an infrastructure issue.

Um does it um whatever lighting improvements that we make to the intersection, for example, will we have uh pedestrian crow um activated uh crossing uh signals uh for the roundabout?

That was uh discussed as part of the design review process as to undergo a warrant system.

Um I believe that warrant's been done, but the the actual um decision point eludes me.

I want to say that it will be included.

Um I'm probably about 80 percent sure that they are.

Thank you.

And uh just for my uh understanding the we we have a current roundabout now on watkiss uh in eagle creek and hospital way are these roundabouts going to look similar in uh than than the current one there uh i can certainly comment as an aside from this report uh they will generally look fairly similar the um access in egress out uh roundabouts generally they have to follow the um they generally follow the attack design guidelines for roundabouts.

Thank you.

And I and i note that i don't think the one on watkiss currently has a um activated pedestrian cross.

I could be wrong there, but just to for a matter of consistency, it would be nice to have them all the same so people that are driving get used to lights flashing and they know when to stop.

We can certainly discuss that as part of the next item.

Thank you.

So uh the staff recommendations that council approve the payment of 91,833 to BC Hydro for Utility Works in support of six-mile uh road roundabout.

Um we add to first and seconder.

All in favor.

Any opposed?

Councillor Brown is opposed.

Thank you.

And uh that'll move us to Watkiss Way roundabout update.

Thank you, Megar Tobias.

That's uh roundabout agenda.

Staff.

Uh no presentation here, but the uh the the sketches and the concepts are in the report.

Um so long story short, uh back at rezoning, um, there was a a concept for a roundabout.

And as we got into the detail design phase of that project, um, it was realized that uh part of that roundabout wouldn't be able to fit within the road right of way, specifically on the uh Stone Ridge side.

Um the amount of retaining uh would have uh encroached into the private property there, and the amount of disturbance and the removal of the hedges would have uh diminished privacy.

So uh staff decided to look at other options um as part of the works and services of the nine eroscan development.

And what you see as a revised concept is a more of an oval roundabout, so it's kind of squished on either side.

And um in doing that, we're also able to see additional benefits being that uh a couple of crosswalks could be located closer to the roundabout, um, continuous concrete concrete sidewalks um along the stone rich side of Walk is Way, and um uh better accessibility for for cyclists and giving them better choices whether they want to um be on the road or within the path.

So uh staff worked hard to try to find something that meets the needs while also doesn't uh encroach into private property.

We have done or the developer has done a pretty good cursory review of this.

Uh staff will continue to work with them to make sure that any retaining stays on uh town property.

Uh but the staff believe that this is a better uh design option.

Thank you.

Um questions go with councillor Lemon and Councillor Rogers, and Madsen, if that's your hand up, Councillor Matson.

Yeah, thank you, Ivan.

Um I I think this will be an interesting roundabout given that it's not round.

Um, so it will it will require some getting used to, I should think, for drivers.

But that's not my question.

My question is the sidewalk.

Um, um this I I guess I mean this is permanent, isn't it?

In perpetuity, there cannot be a proper sidewalk.

Um out of Stone Ridge.

So, yeah, on Stone Ridge, there's not enough space.

And I I I uh reviewed the video from the first roundabout presentation that was done, and at that time it was mentioned that that road right away was done um unique to the subdivision standards.

Uh it was fairly narrow.

And uh as a results, uh well it was they tried to install or incorporate a 1.2 meter wide sidewalk on that side.

While it may work within the line work of the drawing, um the reality is that it was getting the detailed design and looking at how far your the wall has to go down, and it is the walls generally can't go straight down.

They usually have a little bit of a camber, and what was realized that there was going to be quite a bit of disturbance to private property.

So it will be the kind of graveled um pathway.

It would be the idea would be to keep it as it is today.

So um two lanes.

Um I do know that as part of the 1.2 meter sidewalk uh that was presented last year, part of that was to convey um pedestrians down the Stone Ridge and then through the back wave to a path back up to Watkiss.

Uh, and so that that would provide accessibility there.

And that was because they couldn't provide a continuous concrete uh sidewalk on the northwest corner of that roundabout.

It was going to be just a gravel path.

So that was the option to convey uh pedestrians and other users down that way and then up along the Watkiss path.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councillor Lemon, uh Councilor Rogers, and then Councilor Matson, if you'd like to.

Thank you.

Um congratulations to to you and and uh the applicant developer to uh work out the solution.

It's um quite an achievement.

Uh and I think uh I agree with you, it's it's much better for the benefit of pedestrians and and the cyclists uh in most of the directions, although I'm so it you know it's a little disconcerting that uh people coming out of Stone Ridge are gonna have that uh challenge uh walking up and and um I'm just a little a little nervous about where cars are gonna just circle right into uh Stone Ridge and and maybe not be aware of the pedestrians.

So, you know, fingers crossed.

The um there's talk of vegetation.

Now did the vegetation that's being proposed is is minimal or or where are we thinking of that?

So the vegetation that would be that would have been disturbed as part of the original roundabout.

Um if you were to go down the hill, Stone Ridge, there is two hedges on both sides, and they provide a l element of privacy for those um homes.

And those homes are actually settled quite a few a couple meters lower than that part of the road.

So those hedges are necessary to maintain a level of privacy.

So the goal of this revised roundabout is to preserve as much of that vegetation vegetation as possible.

Um, based on the cursionary review, uh, on one side of the road, uh, we believe that a good chunk of that hedge can be retained, and if it cannot, then there is still sufficient space to install uh new hedges to uh preserve that privacy.

And then on the other side will probably be a little bit more of replanting.

But given that um the space is preserved, that there will be enough vegetation space to provide that level service to our neighbors.

Thank you.

So there's no vegetation that's going to obscure the views of drivers to see pedestrians or site lines are absolutely paramount.

Um along the walk kiss side, those walls, um, those uh what should we call those decorative um rock walls will be removed and then they would be relocated likely in a smaller fashion as was described last year.

And again, uh sight lines would be uh would be preserved.

Thank you.

Um if I may and my next question um to the uh pardon?

Yeah.

Towards uh from from the roundabout towards uh Eagle Creek, uh there are two bus stops on on each side.

Are um how we incorporate those bus stops in this design?

Uh the bus stops will be um reinstated, so likely just removal of the sign, um relocated to the new area, and then if we need to put uh a um extend the sidewalk to the curb for the stop, that would be what what is provided.

So there's no need to do a bus pull out not in this case no in fact uh quite oftentimes transit are are getting away from bus pull-outs in term to get um to maintain on-time performance and in this case it probably makes sense it's uh while it is one of the collector roads it's one that uh is not overly busy in the sense that it can um they can hold traffic back a bit council wetz so i'm quite happy to see that we will have crosswalks um made a good point we'll how will people safely get across the the crosswalks?

We'll be able to push a button and a light will start flashing and vising traffic.

So that's dependent on the the density and the crossing opportunities.

So it undergoes a warrant system, I believe at the time of design.

Uh uh flashing beacons were not warranted.

Um, but that said, uh given the uh incremental developments that may occur from time to time uh with Erskine further increasing in development, uh the there may be future trigger points to have uh flashing beacons.

I'm also wondering just the volume of traffic there in the mornings, people going up and down Watkins.

Would that therefore re how do you make it safe for pedestrians?

Well, right now there are uh roundabouts around the region that are that do not have um RRFBs or or uh flashing beacons.

And again, it really comes down to the crossing warrant to determine whether or not a um the flashing beacons are are required or not.

So for the nine Erskine development, um, and I don't know in the back of my head what the warrant said, but uh if there was no uh beacons there, it'd like to be because the the warrant didn't um didn't require one.

Uh but that said, given the development that's happening on Erskine in the future, um, there might be an opportunity to uh incorporate that in the future.

And certainly the the warrant would provide a good trigger point as to you know which development would would require it.

And the design will make sure that we can fit one in.

Okay.

So I guess part of my thought would be even if we don't use it don't have it in place to start with if we at least put in the the conduit etc to make it possible in the future.

Yeah you don't have to dig up the streets.

You you've taken the words right out of my mouth Counselor Matson so that's part of the detail design.

In the Navy we called it built for but not with that was how the entire ship was built.

Yeah we didn't have much equipment.

Council McKenzie the looking at the diagram it looks like the bike lane only does not go through the roundabout itself, it looks like it stops and then restarts on the other side I uh yeah, thanks for the question um and a very good observation.

Uh basically, I didn't zoom out the whole roundabout uh in total.

There is bike lanes to the approaches of the roundabout.

And then what happens is that per the Transportation Association of Canada design guidelines for roundabouts, your roundabouts are supposed to give cyclists a choice.

Either be a shared lane and go around the roundabout or to have a um a uh an opportunity for them to leave the road and go onto a wider concrete path, uh shared path around the roundabout that uses the um the sidewalks.

And that was an initiative that uh council has um has has action staff to always look into when it comes to roundabouts is to always try to find an opportunity for cyclists to uh leave the um the the vehicle travel path.

Okay, thank you.

I just I think given that the uh the crosswalk is further back, there might not be many people choosing that option to go back that far.

But yeah.

Yeah, if you look at the um the original roundabout concept, you'll notice that there is a the bike lane ends and then there's a path that goes into the share path.

And um, so the design element would be fairly similar to that.

Council Matson.

Yes, I'm um supporting Council Mattson's point and and uh thank you, staff for confirming that we will have uh roughed in wiring at least.

I know that when uh Stoner Ridge and um uh number 14 Erskine had petitioned for a crosswalk uh at Waskha staff were very concerned about the sight lines, the curvature of Watkinsway, and and being able to see um well enough for vehicles that are exceeding the speed limit.

So um I think having that wiring in in case uh where it's necessary for have pedestrian controlled um signals and access, all the better.

Most of them most of the flashes these days are solar powered, so it may not even require wiring.

But that said, uh staff are do have the option of options and what do we want to put in now versus what you want to do later.

Thank you.

Uh Councilor Matson, do you have another comment?

I'm just gonna move receipt.

Second.

Uh move receipt by Councilor Madsen, second by Councillor Lemon.

Thank you, Steph.

Uh and I think that brings us down.

All in favor.

Any opposed?

You're gonna stay where you are.

Yeah.

Uh final active transportation plan with a recommendation to be received.

Go ahead, Axe.

Thank you, Mayor Tobias.

Um, happy to answer any questions here.

Uh we're nearing the end of our journey here, and the purpose of uh what we're bringing forward to you here is uh kind of to segue from what we discussed last time, uh demonstrating to uh council what we've incorporated uh as part of councillors comments.

Um also um what we provided was a kind of a cover report on top of the AT plan to make sure that in the future when we go to budget deliberations and options development, that we do have some items that we still need to address because a lot of these many of these comments um are detail design and uh project initiative and budget based, and we don't want to forget that in the future.

So um this cover page is almost like a semi-guiding document as to um what council may consider in few in as part of future budget deliberations.

But in the meantime, the recommendation here is to receive this.

And uh just a point of clarification, Ivan.

So by moving receipt, we fulfilled the obligation to the province for the for the uh plan itself funding for the grant.

That is correct.

Yeah, can I get the uh council matts?

One of the questions.

Uh also for for people in the community who are really unhappy with this plan.

I guess this could be also a rhetorical question.

By receiving it, it in no way means that we endorse the recommendations that are included in this plan.

That is correct, Council Matson.

So mayor, um this active transportation network plan is a starting point to start the con conversation.

Um a good portion of this of this product that we have uh provides design guidelines and design options that council may consider in the future.

And what we would what staff will be relying on in the future is uh is council to guide us onto what option, how much money do we have for projects, um, what additional information that uh the council may require to make that decision.

So we will be relying on council for that in the future.

Thank you.

Councilor Roger.

Thank you.

I uh do appreciate the uh the amendments and changes that were made.

Um I think um it it helps a lot.

Um incorporating uh the feedback from the open house was also uh I had to do a word search, open house, to to find it, but uh yes, I see it um has been mostly covered uh quite quite well.

Um uh yes, I agree.

You know, active transportation is still a very important component to uh meet our commitments of greenhouse grass reductions.

Um I don't want to lose sight of that, and I hope that we can um work on the practical solutions um for the community and and also get our priorities right on on uh what projects to um uh to proceed with.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So uh Council Brown.

Yeah, I appreciate it just to to accept it.

Just a couple of comments.

As a community member, I did the questionnaire, uh obviously attended the open house.

Uh and I made comments uh again, I hate to be at bring this up ad nauseum, but I don't see even a whisper of Atkins Road, not a whisper, uh, other than the crossing where the where the uh at uh the galloping goose in Atkins.

And just uh just persons, just a couple of safety concerns.

Uh at that particular crossing there, they have bollards there, and they're the bollards are there for a reason.

They're to make sure people don't just a drunk or traffic's backed up down the road.

So I can take a shortcut just to keep vehicles off there.

And there is there is ballard, the bollards can be removed.

There's a key.

I know C or D.

Bylaw has a key.

I'm sure the fire department has a key if a fire truck or someone has to get up there.

So it's just a safety concern.

Um, and and also elephant feet.

I didn't even know what they they were, but I've looked it up, but I don't know what they mean.

And I can understand for the the bikes to the right away and turns.

But if you're telling cyclists not to um, they don't have to dismount.

Uh I think most bicyclists know that, and and I've noticed that they're getting better at stopping because they they they have a stop site and they're just supposed to yield to to traffic.

Um more and more people are coming to a stop, but they're straddling their bike.

But I think by if you put that in, it's gonna encourage more people to go racing through and not even look.

And seriously, at some point there's gonna be serious injury, bikes are gonna be destroyed, and someone's gonna die.

I'm serious.

I've I've seen some really collapses, I've seen crumpled bikes in the ditch, but those are just my comments because I know we're just gonna receive it today.

Thank you, Councilor Brown, Councilor McKitzie.

I think a lot of people have a concern.

It's it's kind of to counselor uh Mattson's comment.

A lot of people have concerns about the price tag associated with the plan, as do I.

However, um I know that we can remove projects in the future.

I think it's also open to adding projects in the future.

However, I I just don't want us planning financially and increasing tax rates, planning to meet the full budget or under this plan.

Um, so I don't know how we go about planning.

That might be a don question, but I don't want us to plan to achieve all those things and therefore increase the tax rates.

And that's a a very good question.

Um, there's a lot of hoops that staff needs to go through to present council with the needed information on what the impacts are, both positive and from a cost perspective, for some of these assets.

Um for example, the District of Saanich and uh town of Esquimwall, they have a bike, a separate bike lane sweeper that uh provides the needed maintenance.

That does cost a little bit of money, a little bit of funds and a little bit of maintenance.

So um staff's commitment to council in the future is to make sure we provide that information before we start going down the the hole of uh presenting these assets because uh building them is one thing, but uh maintaining them and and providing a a uh a safe and consistent um uh network is is just equally as important.

Thank you, um Ivan, and uh thank you for your comments.

Councillor McKenzie, Councillor Lemon, please.

Um, just a very short comment.

And I appreciate Ivan that you've highlighted in the exact summary that it is a high-level document and it as a high level plan.

Plans change.

Plans change as circumstances change, as life changes, as councils change, as communities change, and uh there's nothing about this that is written in stone.

So thank you for your work.

And I think uh do we get a first and seconder on this one yet to uh councillor Brown moves second seconded by Councillor Rogers.

All in favor of uh receipt?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion carries.

Uh, and now we're down to Hemkin Road Trestle Mural themes.

And thank you for that, Ivan.

Sarah.

Thank you, Mayor Tobias.

I have a presentation that will be coming up shortly.

So this is following up on a report that you saw both at the March Committee of the Whole, and then again at the beginning beginning.

Oh no, this is a different one.

Sorry, losing my it's been a very busy day.

Anyhow, this is following up from a project that started in 2022.

You also saw a project summary in the budget documents in February that we looked at, and it has to do with uh mural on the Island Corridor Foundation trestle.

So we will look at some engagement, is what this report is about.

And that is around mural themes.

So here is the mural from the school side.

And the recommendation before us is really just dealing with engagement for this project.

It's a pretty tight project.

It has to be done in the warmer weather months that we will soon be approaching.

And so we've identified some mural themes, and we're here before you tonight to see if you have others that you'd like to add, and to let you know that we will be putting or would like your your sanction, your blessing, to put a poll up on our website seeking input on these and saying to the public, and do you have any others?

Now the public wouldn't be able necessarily to then vote on those others, but we think this is a pretty good representation of ideas.

We could add yours though tonight if you have additional ones that you'd like to suggest.

So and then it would be the subject of a poll set to run over the next 11 days.

You wouldn't want it out for too long, people just lose interest.

So you know it's usually just a pretty quick hit.

So this is uh showing you where this will be applied.

So the the wing walls and then the major trestle components just on the flat front portion.

So what we would be proposing then just to keep you in the loop, the poll piece happening over the next little bit, then the the theme selection report would come to you to a meeting to say, here's what we heard from the poll.

That information would be prepared and put out to artists, select artists, because it's really a specialty field.

There's not a ton of people that go around doing this, and it's rather niche and unique.

And uh we'll be engaging somebody to help uh us with this because it really is a different kind of world.

And um then we will be looking to review submissions that come in.

Uh, this will take a including their holiday time and and my staff's holiday time as well uh to coordinate, get some feedback from CDAC in keeping with our public art uh policy, bring it all back, but also get ICF um their blessing once council has looked at it or before council's looked at it to say here's what we think we're gonna do, ICF, because they did ask to to see it uh before it be fixed, and then bring it back for us accordance in in accordance with the purchase or the public art policy, get council's final blessing before anything be painted on, and then the installation.

And uh again the recommendation is before you.

I have a question.

Counselor Matson, Councillor Lehman, please.

Yeah, so two things.

I mean, first in terms of putting this out for review, I think we need to, even if you just take stock pictures from somebody, you know, and saying it, here's an example, but so I think you need examples for people to vote on as opposed to just words.

Like a coastalish First Nations could be anything, but some sort of indication of what these things are going to look like would probably be helpful.

The other question I have is is it dangerous to actually have nice murals on there for people sort of coming around that corner?

And maybe it's an RCMP or uh ICBC question, just in terms of are we potentially causing the distraction?

Two good questions, I think, Sarah, if those yours.

Uh uh, thank you for the question, counselor, or questions, counselor Matson.

Uh I I have a few different thoughts about the provision of pictures.

I don't want to provide false advertising.

So while it may jiggle their mind, if, for example, uh co-sale ish would be the selection and then what gets affixed, or it it clearly won't be the image, the suggested image that we put up there.

Um what flack would we get from that?

And how would that skew voting?

So those are the two thoughts I have about it, rather than let people's imagination um be left alone to their own devices.

And so I would probably suggest that we don't and and just let people think about it on their own and use their own creativity and imagination in completing the poll.

And your second one was about safety.

Um, you're in a school zone, approaching or leaving, and so there really is already uh speed monitoring in that area and a speed restriction.

Well, more specifically then, have you contacted the RCMP to ask or ICBC to see if it's a a good or bad idea?

You must have some experience with that.

On this mural installation, I have not.

Maybe we could include that, Sarah, if you've chatted with them in the report uh after the poll, if that would satisfy I think council's desire to, you know, to just to make sure we're we're okay in doing this.

Um and if I could just ask a quick one, your co-Salish First Nations kind of theme would be done by a First Nations artist, I'm assuming my my thought would be those would be the only folks who would submit that type of proposal.

Um I I think that that would not be in keeping with this day and age.

Uh others typically wouldn't be submitting that type of proposal.

I would hope so as well.

Councilor Lennon, please.

I love everything about this, Sarah, so thank you.

Um question about tagging.

Will I don't know it I how do we uh clean it up because it's bound to happen.

We have discussed with the person who will be helping us with this project the application at the end of an anti-graffiti coating, um which I understand will help.

Um they will clearly know more about it than I do, um, but I think it will go a long way.

I think the other is that often artists or taggers view themselves as artists, and and in some cases it is very done very artfully, um, will not tag other people's arts.

I have seen it, but it's very rare.

Um, just to comment, and that is I've just one suggestion for an addition, and that is something to do with the water.

Be more specific about water, Councilor Lemon.

No, I'm just, you know, it in the list of things, you know, whether whether it's boats or waters or you know imagination.

A scene of the water, whatever.

It's just it's just you know waterfront, ocean, harbor.

Counselor Brown.

I suppose you could ask the midnight monkeys to to apply for their art for the ones that keep tagging the uh overpasses.

Uh and uh Port Angeles has a really nice mural.

If you're if you wanted to put examples up, I like Ron's idea of uh or Councillor Matson's idea of having examples in in Port Um Angeles.

They have a uh big old-fashioned uh ferry and it's 3D.

If you sit up in front of it and took a picture, people would think you're actually standing in front of a real ferry.

Just an example if you're if you are looking for examples.

Councillor uh McKenzie and then Councillor Rogers.

I have a potential addition for a theme and a question as well.

So for the theme, I was thinking perhaps uh I don't know how to describe it very well, an animated uh kind of map of the town, so that which highlights you know what parks, things like that.

In my head, I picture what was on the tube from Heathrow to downtown London.

It shows like the main places to go.

So you could have Portage Park, etc.

Um, and then my question was at one point I thought uh that the bridge down here on Old Island Highway was also being considered for a mural.

Is that correct?

Or no, it was never.

Maybe I just confused the two in my head.

That rings a dim memory, but I think it was narrowed down to one location.

I don't know, uh, Councillor Lemon, if that rings a bell to you.

Yeah, I think this is just the one for now.

So this has been primed and ready to go.

So there's not too much prep work that needs to be done.

Am I getting that right?

It can just be my understanding is that there it should be fairly good to go.

Prep work was done last fall.

It may need a bit of a washing between now and then, given the accumulation of winter, you know, buildup.

Okay, thank you.

Counselor Rogers, please.

So we've got two walls.

Are there gonna be two different pictures on each?

Or is it just on one wall?

Both sides will be done.

Right.

The same, but the same picture on both sides.

Oh, it could be up to the town.

That is up to the artist.

Typically they would give you a theme that is similar but different.

Like you're gonna get a look.

Uh-huh.

But they won't be identical.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think that would be boring for the artist, and I think that they would not give you that.

Yeah, I don't particularly care about the artist.

I I'm more concerned about um uh you know what uh the overall impact uh and benefit for the town.

Um another option to to consider is a heritage theme.

Um, for example, um the ENN Historic Train.

Um uh First Nation villages uh in Port Islandlet I mean there's and even uh the the fishmen that are uh fishing from the trestle uh on on the uh those those uh so some sort of heritage theme um I'm concerned that um uh trying to get feedback for this by the 15th, um maybe pressing it um I don't think we're gonna probably have enough time to get a lot of feedback.

Um I council Matson raised a point I never thought of before but um distraction.

Interesting point um I know that one of the big focal points is uh keeping your eyes on um on the crosswalks that uh the roundabout particularly when school kids are are coming um coming going going to and from the school um and I would hate a mural to distract um a driver so you know point uh point raised on that um and I guess the other the other thing is that um what's still worrying me if we're gonna have this um I don't know when we're gonna start this but we may be starting this around the same time that um people are going to get their taxes and they're going to be saying okay we got a 9.x percent uh increase and um HTML yeah, to the highest bidder.

Um so I'm I'm concerned that um you know what um the taxpayers will say if um this is we're giving our rationale is that we uh have to raise the taxes and they're gonna look at this and say, well, I'm paying the increase in taxes for this, something nice to have.

So maybe one of the questions we need to put on is all the way down to G, and G would be none of them.

I don't want it.

So maybe we ought to include that as so the public can give us some feedback um and support or not.

At least uh we have an opportunity to ask them.

Okay, just to help you out, Sarah.

What I've got is adding themes of water animated map, kind of like the London tube of the area, a heritage theme, and then adding a selection of potentially none.

I don't want anything on there.

Uh there that's already included, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

And uh, and I think with that, I think we've uh asked Sarah to go back to the RCMP, her appropriate authority, just to make sure there's no concerns about distraction.

Ivan.

Uh thank you, Mary Tobias.

Um, just one end with respect to uh the safety of the road that is important to engineering and our road users.

So uh as part of the some sort of uh guidelines, we'll engineering will want to make sure that whatever murals in place doesn't camouflage the signage in the area and also at the same time make sure that it is not um uh how do you say um bright or sharp or you know that could uh distractive.

Um we'll certainly want to look into that.

Uh with respect to funding, I just chatted with our with our greatest um director of finance here.

Uh this project is funded uh 100% through casino revenue and um make the assumption that such a great mural would uh dissuade people from tagging, hopefully maybe less in operational costs yeah no those are those are fine points ivan i thank you for for that and uh uh Sarah have you got enough input now yeah yes I will add uh a line of water slash ocean slash harbor a slash of uh uh map of the town of you royal highlighting parks shall we say or do you I'm not sure how you want that described I I think um yeah yeah kind of notable notable places so highlighting notable places.

Okay, sounds good.

Uh map of okay, so map of town of Vero Royal, highlighting notable places, heritage, and then in brackets, perhaps I'll put, you know, for example, ENN, comma First Nations villages.

And you, I think you'd meant mentioned fishing from bridges, something like that, and then N bracket, and then as the final option, um mural, or paint no mural, or something like that.

And just to clarify, uh, once we potentially selected a a style, the the intent was to go through Island Corridor Foundation for this is what we're intending to do.

Um that was a step or uh it is a step.

Um we already have permission theoretically to do it.

They want to see what it is before the final application.

So we already have their permission to proceed.

Um, but we will have um further to counselor Mattson's point, we will talk um with ICBC and uh the West RCMP for ideas or thoughts as well.

But it's a reasonable call to definitely reach out to those groups and and see what their thoughts are that we could include.

Thank you.

And uh just for everybody uh bringing everybody up to speed, the island since the last federal and provincial announcement went, the decisions about the corridor have gone down to the regional districts to engage uh First Nations as well as the local municipalities too.

Thanks for that.

Um so that's a a difficult task to do.

Uh so that process has started now.

So the island corridor Foundation is still a thing.

Barb de Jardam will be the contact shortly as it as it swings back.

Um there is uh still an interest, and I think it's going to CRD for some preliminary discussion about the electric battery operated train um uh thing that uh was an experiment uh that was a plan.

So that's still a thing, and just an update on the ENN trail and the CRD uh galloping goose.

There is still a plan to apply lighting and um and an extension width for uh pedestrian for um for the galloping goose.

I've asked them to include the ENN with that.

CRD would lead the um the the funding around that but they're just seeing that active transportation as a more um uh something that they need to invest in more uh for for both the enn and the and the uh galloping goose trails um however they are reliant on grants at this point and it looks like crd may end up funding that incrementally so that includes safety lights and width of the trail on both the goose and now EN councilor Metz.

So going back to to this one, one of the other things I'm hoping we do is like if if there's say a vote for uh First Nations, we I'm assuming we'll then put it out for some people to uh like an RFP or whatever you would call it.

So artists would put a like a rendering in and what they would like, and then that would come back to council to pick.

So we're not just gonna go.

It's it's just not gonna go to some artist who's just gonna come up with the concept and and do it.

It'll come back to us with some options.

I think that's what it's up to council to decide, and I think that's a a good suggestion so that we see a mock-up of the uh to approve it before somebody gets busy with a brush.

Uh councillor Roger.

So I'm I'm still a little nervous about um trying to get uh this out to people uh for a quick poll by the 14th.

That's a Sunday.

So um how does the staff anticipate getting uh public awareness?

Um are we going to put it out to uh school kids at Viewell Elementary or put it on bus stops?

Um how are we gonna let people know to vote on this?

It's uh drafted in a team in a Microsoft poll right now, and it will go up on our social media uh tomorrow, and we'll be out from the third to the fourteenth, and then a report coming to a late agenda on the 15th, and um and then proceed with the theme, then going out to artists um through our coordinator who is going to work with the art community um to come up with whatever proposals we receive in.

So could I recommend that we um to your point I think too much time it gets lost too little time it gets lost as well.

But I don't think there's anything that would put us behind the curve if we went to the end of the month for May and use everything, including counselors raising awareness and pointing them to the site.

If that sounds like a plausible idea, just to allow anybody commenting, and after pretty much 30 days, if you forgot to say something or didn't know about it, then we'll do our best to get the information out.

Would that affect the timeline at all, uh Sarah, if we if we pushed it to the end of the month?

Well, the timelines keep moving so we can accommodate.

Thank you.

Would appreciate that.

Councillor McKenzie.

I I yeah, I was gonna ask if there was a particular timeline, only because I the best in bloom is also happening during this timeline, and we're gonna be asking people to go on nominating and voting then.

So I don't know whether it's good or not to do it at the same time.

That's my only comment.

Or you could use the opportunity to cross promote it, which might be a thing.

Okay.

Um I don't think we really need to vote on that if that's kind of uh if anybody's got an opposition for um stending it to the thirtieth.

What's that?

Sorry.

Um and uh get people busy doing it.

Thank you, sir, very much for that.

Is that everything?

Do you need a motion?

Do you need a motion?

Uh I will we will take a motion.

I understand it will be with these amendments.

Um so if we could get a motion on that is I move your recommendation with the amendments and the including the change of deadline.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none uh brings us back I think to you again Sarah for um uh accessibility act BC Act update it does and thank you very much um for for that last uh because I think that will be a very exciting project it will take um back to counselor rogers point it won't be applique uh applied oh do not think it is coming during the tax payment time it will be later than that so do not worry about that so there you have it um so moving to the topic that I that in my mind we were starting with that now we're back on.

So this is a report that or a topic that we talked about in mid-March.

We talked about it uh again at the beginning of April.

Uh in mid March, Council tabled it till May Cow, which was next week.

I'm not here next week.

And uh recognizing that there was a September 1st uh deadline looming, other municipalities that were proposing to be partners with were advancing along.

I thought, oh, all right, we need to maybe reconsider this or think about it again.

So when we talked about it at the beginning of April, uh council passed a resolution to set aside 10,000 to work uh uh for with a consultant towards an accessibility plan with these uh potential partner member municipalities.

And uh council did still ask me at the time to participate and join in the April 20th um IACTE intermunici or intermunicipal advisory committee on disability issues meeting.

And so I did participate in that.

They had a guest that opened it, uh Dr.

Mike Prescott, who had quoted earlier in one of my reports, uh, he was there, which was great.

He's from the Okanagan.

Uh he is a lead for a group hired by the province to help agencies work towards compliance with the legislation.

And so he discussed uh some of the recent initiatives that the province is funding.

He talked about capacity building over time, that you, you know, start simply walk then run type of principle, um, and that uh plans will evolve over time.

And he talked about engagement with the disability community and reminded the group that the act doesn't require any of the organizations to actually do the changes or the physical upgrades, but just focus on the process.

Then the meeting attendees that were there discussed several issues that are listed in the report before you things like committee membership and identification of disabilities or not.

So we talked about the sample form that this group has talked about on April 4th to address that concern.

Other members talked about the great work by IACTI and their outreach work, and the sense that that work might not be as recognized as it should be, their advocacy work not being within the legislation scope and therefore a separate matter.

The benefits, though, from the breadth of that mandate, and would there be potential to separate out the social components of IACTI's work if that would be helpful to make things move forward.

So it was decided that a smaller group from IACTI would meet with the corporate officers from the seven municipalities at the end of May, which I think will be very productive, basically to look at some of the sticking points, and those were some of the ones we just talked about, being the advocacy and the social components primarily, some other ones as well.

But that we can meet to talk about what those issues may be, how we can get perhaps a revised terms of reference and move forward.

And that that work from the working group would go to IACT at their mid June.

They're going to call a special meeting, and that coming from that, hopefully, we'll have a new set of terms of reference to present to the member municipalities.

So we'll learn more about that.

Mike Prescott did talk about you know what, you can show good progress being made.

So that's good.

If you're not making your September 1st deadline, maybe less to panic about, if at least you're showing this good progress.

And so the motion is just to receive this report, this update before you tonight.

Um, the working group can proceed as we've described.

The funds are already set aside.

And um, so we may not be meeting our deadline, sure, but we are going to be making that progress.

They will simply just sit there, we'll go ahead and do the work, and a report will come back to you after that June 15th meeting with revised terms of reference.

And um, there is no timeline in our motion, so I think we're we're in business and we will just work on that.

Uh, the time implication or the staff time implication is really the only cost at this point that that entails.

So that is where we're at.

I was just gonna move.

Thank you, Sarah.

And uh, I think Councillor Brown had a comment, but before we go there, we could do the motions of uh receiving uh second and uh and then and then get into questions.

So we'll receipt counselor Matson will second it, and then counselor Brown fortuitously you're the first speaker up thank you very much for attend for the report and attending the meeting that was very helpful and dr presticott was very helpful he's not a I understand he's not a government employee he's a uh a contractor I guess would be the best term but he was very good and I I appreciate too he said yeah as long as you're moving towards and uh I'm looking forward to the meeting on May the third because I believe I'll be one of the persons from that committee uh meeting with Kim and the rest of the uh uh CAOs are no are you agreeing or it's corporate officers?

Yes it's the C AOs have not been involved is it's the corporate officers I could send Marnie a uh an email today, but she never responding because I thought that's what she meant.

It was corporate officers.

But thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Brown.

Counselor Matson.

No, I'm just saying I'm I'm happy with the current status and the way things are progressing.

And and I guess there'll be a meeting in June, and after that we'll hear about what the recommendations are from that committee.

So it's all good.

And I'm very happy that the I think the there's some alignment there now.

I think this is a topic that it's better to get right than to rush it.

And uh so I'm just glad that you've found a way to kind of uh uh and by pulling in the good doctor who's letting you know it's okay if you're on the trajectory, if it's not all done and you don't have this great accessibility plan by the first of September, you're working on that.

That's what we're expecting.

But it's a lens that I'd ask council to remind me of for accessibility because it affects everything that we approve as well.

Um, and you know, I just uh looking at a uh a fella in Langford that was trapped uh as a quadruple edict on his second floor for over a month because the only elevator in the apartment building went down, right?

And I know with uh my relatives um that when there's a service elevator that somebody's moving that day, they can't go anywhere.

So it it's something kind of to keep a lens on as we think about implications of buildings and and uh and accessibility, sir.

Well, and I think you make a good point with the word accessibility and importance for everyone, because I even think about the name IACTI, and we were talking in the office today about it.

And the issue isn't necessarily the IACTI name focuses on disability, when in fact I think the issue is on accessibility, not disability.

And I think it is an improvement for everyone, not just one group.

And and it may be that there's a name change for IACTI.

There's many changes to look at and and that may just be one of them, but I think it's so important for all our seven municipalities in the region and the province.

And I'm glad that the province is really pushing.

It's a gentle push, but I'm glad that it's coming.

Thanks, Sarah.

And this has uh accessibility, of course, has everything to do, and not just with physical accessibility.

It has to do with screen readers and dyslexia and the whole it's a lens.

It's you know not a more than just a policy.

But um, thank you for that, uh Sarah.

And I think we uh can move on with the agenda, and I think that brings us to committee of the whole resolutions and other reports.

And I think we've got some correspondence.

Um, some has been addressed both on the blue sheet and uh our um the ones that we have on our normal agenda.

Your worship on uh for action on uh number a, I would move that crankflower bridge, be lit to in a green for May 6th to mark the coronation of King Charles the Third.

That's uh uh I think what they were referring to is uh town hall but we um what is the let's talk about the cost if we can ask staff if uh that's even a doable thing sir from the lieutenant governor at all in terms of what protocol says we we should be doing as a municipality good point.

I think green was appropriate, and that seems to be going uh on as a theme, so it could be a green light.

Um, but as a far as appropriate for a coronation, it's almost lost in time now because last time we had a coronation was before I was born, I believe.

Um and uh that that that that that's a thing.

So I think the the modernization of the previous coronation is has been significant.

But not before Councillor Rogers was born.

This is true.

This is true.

I'll make an exception to that.

Sarah.

I believe the the bridge is put forward because it's already pre-lit with options available, and so it's fairly straightforward to change the lighting on that.

So that would be run for a period of the weekend uh then to mark the coronation?

I'll second coun councillor rogers.

Yeah, I'll second that.

Uh I'm gonna ask staff now if it's doable.

Does somebody remember where the key in the switch is to change the color yeah we uh mayor to bias we contacted the district of sandwich because they're the ones that have the key we've paid for have the bridge and we don't have a key okay so that's uh that's good so that's I'll let uh them know so that we'll be uh lit uh for the weekend and I think that was the intent for it so we've got a motion on the floor from councillor Rogers second by counselor lemon that the crackflower bridge be illuminated in the color green to mark the coronation of King Charles the third.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed.

And uh was that the only one you wanted to pull out of the stack, Council Roger.

Yeah, no, it um I would move um uh the correspondence uh B as well.

I appreciate what they're saying.

I move it.

Move receipt.

Second.

Second.

Thank you.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed.

Uh move receipt of item B.

And for information, we had um some comments, and then we had three late items uh on the um on the blue sheet.

I would move A and A to D for information.

Move receipt, second.

All in favor?

Just uh just a comment.

Um, I was uh really pleased with um um both uh uh Jane Divenshire's and VRCC's uh feedback on uh the step codes and and um uh zero carbon good work.

Thank you.

So that motion passed, uh none opposed, and now we're down to dawn's time, I believe, for the financial plan and bylaws that we discussed at the council of the hope.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

The first bylaw for your consideration today is the 2023 to 2027 financial plan brought back from the last council meeting at which it was presented, uh, with the one change that council asked for, which was to advance the hiring of a municipal um uh support person to January 1st of 2024.

That change has been made, and uh certainly all of the publications um online and uh paperwise um will be revised according to uh and and go along with this bylaw for public information thank you uh can i get a motion to receive uh councillor brown seconded by counselor rogers any discussion councilor brown i'll be brief but uh the tax increase this year or next about subsequent year, and this year too, is largely dependent on the new police building.

That's a big chunk, a big chunk and um it's very disappointing that the provincial government, I know they had to make a dis difficult decision in Surrey, however, uh they've committed up to 150 million dollars up over five years to keep the uh Surrey policing uh uh agency in place rather than uh switch to the RCMP, which still may happen.

But uh it's it's just that's just a statement uh that it's very disappointing because if they had to couldn't distribute that to other municipalities that have uh RCMP detachments, that money could have been spent if we've got some but it could have helped us out considerably.

Thank you, Councillor Brown.

Uh any other comments?

Counselor Matson.

Yeah, just I guess throughout the budget there were a number of things I I I didn't support, and you know, I'm so I'm still concerned about the level of the increase, but at this point in time I'm not gonna vote against first, second, and third.

Thank you, Councillor Matson.

Councillor McKenzie.

Uh I also um definitely not happy with the the amount of the increase.

However, I think um what I've learned is that I would like for next year maybe for us to start thinking about it sooner rather than because I felt it was a little bit of a time crunch that we had to consider it.

Uh because I would actually like to step back and look at our operations and the level of uh standards that we do.

Is it do we actually need to reduce those in order to keep the taxes somewhat reasonable?

So I don't know if that's something the rest of the council would be up for, but um yeah, I think we need to look really deeply at what we're paying for as our standard and if there's changes that need to be made in the future.

Thank you, Councillor McKenzie.

Now something that's been on my mind as well as we look at level of servicing, for instance, um, but also our level of growth, because around and about every 850 people that we add, we're adding another RCMP officer on potentially other associated firefighters equipment that goes along with that.

So some of this is directly attached to how much we're approving to build because the more we are growing, the we're we're going to have to increase the those uh those costs up.

So at $160,000 a year for an RCMP officer, plus or minus, that's a two percent tax increase if we're going by the you know that that threshold.

So that's something that I'm keeping in mind too, not just for growth, but uh for other things that uh I know Ivan's uh constantly bringing up things like operational maintenance, like what is this thing going to cost us over time to operate?

So it's significant.

Any other comments?

Councilor Roger.

Yes, um, I I I share the concerns about um uh the rate of increase, but I think we started at um um 14 and a half percent and uh I we we've seriously looked at it all and and um as as the mayor said um much of it is to do with um keeping up with particularly protective services police and farm making sure that we have uh that foundation and and of course um uh staffing to meet uh the resources uh and have the resources to uh to meet uh the community's needs um I note that um we had had uh tax increases uh in the previous um you know years and and try to keep them low because of the pandemic.

But part of that problem was um us uh becoming um too reliant on spending surplus, too reliant on diverting or um delaying um keeping our reserves healthy.

And and I thank staff for helping us and keeping us on that focus and trying to as much as possible avoid those bad habits that we've had in the past years.

Um like every other municipality, the last year was the election year, and yeah, we kept it low.

So I think we're now paying um for catch-up.

You you knew members of council aren't guilty of that, but we are.

And um I I uh I do recall that we've had um a double-digit uh inflation, or sorry, double-digit tax increase uh a number of years ago.

Uh so this isn't the highest tax increase we've ever had, but it it is significant, and and I agree that we should be definitely looking to um uh be creative in in the next year and and hopefully through our um our um uh planning for the next year we do that.

Keep that in mind as as soon as we meet on May the 15th.

So thank you for all your help, staff.

Thanks.

Uh Councilor Rogers.

I will make a comment that if you saw the news in the community of Bella Cool, I don't know what that region is, I think it's coastal as a regional district, they're experiencing 660% tax increase this year because they exhausted all of their surplus and revenue.

Uh Council Brown.

Should have turned it off before.

Um police budgeting.

Uh the five years I was in charge of soup detachment, every year we got a portion back because the police RCMP couldn't fulfill the full contingency uh every single year.

And I I believe it's probably similar here.

I'm not 100% sure.

But when they what whether it's 160 or 200,000, whatever it costs, is there some way of um maybe putting less into the budget?

And then if if it happens by miracle they do fill all the positions, then you pull from the contingency because uh we're funding over what we're going to use basically and I know it's it's difficult and it's gonna get worse uh if Surrey does stay with the RCMP they're already 500 positions short in the province they got 600 members off on long term uh medical leave they don't backfill for things like maternity leave uh so you run short and every time you run short the percentage of that goes back to misspell which you're aware of so I don't know if there's some way of say budget 130 000 and and then if it by miracle they do fill all positions then you use it rather than uh in if it's one year all of a sudden you had three members uh you could potentially have quite a big surplus at the end of the year because so I'm not sure if we've ever town ms of URLs ever used all the money for the policing continuous and uh through the mayor uh certainly councillor brown uh we have approached uh in the past uh this uh you know the issue exactly of you're speaking about with with the RCMP and the ability to fulfill our authorized strength um in a couple of ways one is just as you suggest and that is that one and a half uh RCMP authorized strength uh uh of the force for view royal is funded from reserve, which means it's not taxed for in the current year.

So we are essentially doing exactly as you say in and and saying that while we authorize you know 13 members, we're only going to fund through taxes, um, you know, 11 and a half, right?

So uh the other thing that we do and and what replaces some of that reserve um is that any uh um you know shortfall of the RCMP to actually fulfill the strengths.

Um if there are, we we do the calculation and uh every single year since I've been here anyway, that um if there is anything that was taxed that was not used for the police purposes that goes back into that reserve.

So that is being done and has been done as a matter of practice and policy, and I think it has put us in a in a good position, and that is something that I expect I'll be reporting to council in the future on the status of that reserve and how long we expect that to, you know, kind of continue based on some projections.

Thanks, Don.

Appreciate it.

Council Lemon.

First, I want to thank Dawn and her staff for your forbearance with us.

It was a difficult few days and weeks.

the tax bill that people are going to receive and and I know they'll be even less happy but as my colleague pointed out um we started up here and we got it down to here and there's no gravy it's it's it's it's business as usual um humanly well there's no gravy there's no extras um and we whittled where we could whittle and uh you know to my other colleague's point of you know taking a look at reducing services I I think that people choose to live in View Royal they they uh it's it's it's a it's a conscious choice for so many reasons including the the level of service in the town from our from our parks to our roads to our to to you know all of our green spaces to the service they get at town hall and I think I think it's it's I think it's our signature um the service that is provided by this town and I would be really really loath to reduce anything that makes our town less beautiful or less safe um you know what I I notice when I've left View Royal I know when I'm on a Saanich Road or I know when I'm on an Esquimalt road and it's it's instant and it's and thank you Ivan um it's it's uh it's a different experience anyway I I'm um I'm reluctant to um to uh to approve this tax level, but I'd be more reluctant to reduce services.

Thank you, Councillor Lemon.

So uh we got a motion uh and a seconder for uh receiving uh this financial plan.

Uh all in favor?

Any opposed?

None opposed.

You're just scatching your ear.

I thought you might be opposed, Councilor Matson, but you might be not opposed to receiving.

Uh and now we're down to financial plan bylaw one one three uh twenty twenty-three dot.

I move first through third.

Second.

Uh any comments, questions?

We've went through this at the council of the whole.

Seeing none, all in favor?

Any opposed?

None opposed.

Motion carries.

Uh tax rates.

We don't have an unhappy rate vote, do we?

Pardon me, Council.

We don't have an unhappy option, do we?

No.

Tax rates, which remain the same uh as uh the previous years, and uh um so that goes through first, second, uh, third reading.

Can I get a mover and a second?

First to third.

Counselor Matson moves.

Uh seconded by Councillor Brown.

Staff, did you want to add anything?

No, thank you.

Um All in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing not opposed, that's the third reading on bylaw 113 and tax rates.

Uh were uh that we just did, I believe.

Um we should be did we um did we do first or third on bylaw 1114?

I don't know.

I think that's where we are right now.

We did okay.

Yeah, uh so can I get a first and seconder on the uh bylaw 114, the levy rates for municipal, regional, district, and hospital purposes.

Thank you, Councilor McKenzie.

Can I get a seconder?

Second.