LETTER: Sooke’s OCP a roadmap to deal with community’s growth

The draft Sooke official community plan (OCP) will now work its way to a public hearing and then a final vote by council. It’s down to the wire as the province requires all municipalities to have approved OCPs by the end of December 2025. The OCP process started in 2016, and it’s been a long road with significant expense. It has taken many hours of municipal staff time, citizen volunteer time and a large consulting bill to get to this point. Citizens have been asked again and again to participate.

The significance of Sooke’s draft OCP is as a visionary document developed after hearing from as many stakeholders as possible. The draft OCP balances many different points of view, but the vision at its centre is that we are A Small Town with a Big Heart. We want to be social and environmental stewards. We want our residents to thrive, and we want to protect our many natural assets for future generations. This is why most of us were attracted to Sooke.

The rising cost of living is a real point of concern for most of us, and when compared to this worry, the OCP may seem to have lost some of its significance. Today, more than ever, the pressures on livability come not just from increased property taxes but from all directions. Sooke’s recent rapid growth, projections for our future growth and problems with our infrastructure add to our worry that Sooke will become another sprawling suburb with livability issues. The District of Sooke is in a difficult position. It has only a very small amount of commercial and industrial tax base to contribute to ballooning municipal demands for services and infrastructure that we think we deserve.

Staff are given high marks for stickhandling the OCP for such a long time. Thank you for patiently listening to community voices. Thanks also to those who might help us reach our goals through nonprofit, federal or provincial contributions.

A Small Town with a Big Heart is the vision in both the old and new OCP as a leading guiding principle. It’s time to pass the OCP.

William Wallace