Public input gathered at open house

The District of Sooke staged an open house on November 26 at the SEAPARC Leisure Complex to find out what the public wants in the way parks and trails.

The event process was a carefully thought-out process facilitated by the District and consultants HB Lanarc. Participants were provided with information on 41 proposed projects within the district, plus five tokens they could attach to the projects they felt were most worthwhile.

Eleven of the projects, if supported, would take place inside existing parks. Those include:

• John Phillips Memorial Park

• Broom Hill Park

• Blythwood Park

• Shoreline Accesses

• Kaltasin Park

• Winfield Road Park

• Quimper Park

• Deerlepe Park

• Cedarview Place Park

The public was asked to consider trail-related projects in regard to the following 13 headings:

• Galloping Goose Connector

• Demamiel Creek Trails

• Cycling Lanes

• Waterfront Walk

• Broomhill Recreation Area

• Sooke Road/West Coast Road

• Off-Road Multi-Use Trail

• Kaltasin Trail Loop

• Pascoe Road Trail

• Charters Creek/ Harrison Trail

• Flowline Trail

• Silver Spray Trail Connector

Planner Katherine Lesyshen explained the accurate and useful system which was set up in order to prevent any sort of ‘bandwagon jumping,’ rather like a blind taste test.

It was not obvious to arriving participants, for example, how much support any specific projects were receiving so citizens were not necessarily influenced by what had gone on.

Any considerations of costs relating to one project or another have been put on hold until the feelings of the public are made clear to district staff. Further along when actual work is ready for the planning stages, a variety of grant funding opportunities ought to be available.

“In terms of the parks and trails and the overall system, the transportation master plan is also being developed right now,” said Lesyshen, “and a lot of the bike lanes and that sort of thing... there’s funding available for that through transportation or engineering infrastructure type things... and that links in to the parks and trails.”

More than 100 people took part in the info gathering session, a number that pleased the district organizers.

“It was a good showing in general,” said Lesyshen.

Information generated during the open house should be processed and ready to be made public in a matter of weeks.