Region’s directors give green light to growth strategy

Must be approved by municipal councils

Municipal politicians on the Capital Regional District board have approved a regional growth strategy, a guide for the region to accommodate projected population increase.

The new strategy will now go to the CRD’s mayors and councils for final approval.

If their unanimous approval is not achieved within 60 days, the provincial government will force the region to binding arbitration.

Such a fate was already narrowly avoided last week.

A mediated solution was achieved to approve criteria and processes to allow the expansion of municipal water into the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area, those unincorporated areas of East Sooke, Malahat, Willis Point and the coastal strip from Otter Point to Port Renfrew.

The biggest objection was that piped water could encourage urban sprawl, but the agreement mollified concerns.

Mike Hicks, the CRD director representing the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area, was glad to see the new strategy accepted, not just because it could mean an expansion of water service.

The area’s small unincorporated communities, which don’t have their own municipal governments, rely on the CRD and its bylaws to govern growth and development. The lack of an updated regional growth plan was seen as putting those communities at a severe disadvantage.

The last approval was achieved in 2003.

The regional growth strategy deals with issues such as transportation, environment, urban sprawl, and farmland protection.

It comes as the CRD population continues to increase, with growth of 27.4 per cent expected by 2038.