After 7 years, Sidney fire hall underway
Seven years after the hunt began for a new space, ground was broken Friday just south of Mary Winspear Centre for a $10-million Community Safety building.
The 26,000-square-foot building, designed by Bradley Shuya, will house the town’s fire department, B.C. Ambulance Services, a training facility, an emergency operations centre and the Peninsula Emergency Measures Organization.
Construction is slated to start this month with completion estimated for the fall of 2018.
“It’s a very well designed building and will definitely complement the front entrance of our town,” Mayor Steve Price said.
Price said it’s disappointing that costs rose by about $1 million due to delays in securing a site and higher construction rates in a hot market.
Previous arrangements to build on part of the playing field at Sidney Elementary school fell through, as did an arrangement to rent a large field on the Winspear site.
The annual lease payment to the Victoria Airport Authority for much of the site is only $1 thanks to a land swap made to facilitate the Sidney Crossing mall.
The town also stands to net several million dollars once the current fire hall on Third Street is sold, so does not have to borrow the full $10 million for the project.
The new site encompasses the town’s skateboard park, but a new one in Tulista Park should be ready by the time it is out of commission, Price said.
The town will also build workforce parking for day use to free up downtown parking for shoppers, with the spaces available to patrons of the Mary Winspear Centre at night.
The centre, operated by the Sidney and North Saanich Memorial Park Society as part of a 1922 community trust, stood to receive million of dollars in rent if the building were built on its fields.
Last year, however, the province and a B.C. Supreme Court justice expressed concerns about whether an emergency complex would comply with the trust’s definition of using the field for “community, cultural, athletic and recreational purposes.”
The town will rent an easement less than 100 metres long from the centre to allow vehicles to exit onto Bevan Road, something society president Richard Paquette said fully complies with the trust.