Growth of Sooke is one of the most effective topics to get a lot of people upset - with many people having strong feelings for and against growth. Although it was a sunsetting industry within our boundaries even before incorporation, logging and secondary processing used to be a major economic driver. It is no longer - nor is agriculture, nor fisheries. At some point we have to accept we have become a predominantly suburban community. Yes that is a change, but fighting against it will not help - working to shape community growth to maximize green space, ocean access and adequate commercial space that is something we can and must do.
Since Sooke's incorporation 25 years ago, Sooke has grown significantly, from 8.7k in the 2001 census to 15k in the 2021 census. CRD estimates for the 2024 population are approximately 17k. Mostly averaging to 3% per year although with compounding that means we have doubled in population in the last quarter century.
In that time we have gone from a two lane highway from Langford to and through Sooke with a single bridge across Sooke River... to a mostly two lane highway and still a single bridge. There have been a lot of significant improvements, however, frequent accidents blocking the sections with no effective alternative route is still a frequent problem. Adding to the challenges of dealing with this, Highway 14 - both Sooke and West Coast Roads - are the jurisdiction of the Province.
Hard infrastructure other than transportation has predominantly kept up with growth. Growing pains definitely, for example as Sewer service area has expanded that has lead to significant one time costs for individuals but on a community level more often than not hidden. Sewer service has also not expanded to all areas that should be considered critical - for example Billings Spit/Milne's Landing area. The current water main replacement on Sooke Rd is a great example of community level impact, but the problem is mostly on transportation since there is no alternative route for most of distance.
Could and should there be improvements? Absolutely (and in some cases urgently)! A glaring lack for example is the water play park at fishy park closed many years ago and there is no water park in Sooke. So parents generally drive in to Langford or Colwood. Another example, if we look at the District of Sooke map of parks there is fairly decent park coverage - at least in terms of land although more things like water fountains, picnic tables, secondary playgrounds would be useful - North of Grant road. The amount of public parks in the core area between Throup/Waddams/Grant and the harbour? Insufficient - both for protecting greenspace and for community use.
This week I was asked a question.
Do you think Sooke is full
I dislike that question for a bunch of reasons but also, as a candidate or a councilor, it is a pretty revealing question.
I did answer it decently if succinctly in person, but it was building on a lot of conversations over the last couple of weeks and think it is appropriate to expand a bit here. My short answer was,
The land of Sooke is very much not full, however the infrastructure especially transportation is pretty full.
Making this more complicated is changes in federal and especially provincial political and legal landscapes means Sooke has reduced power. Also, due to recent growth Sooke is now at the size where we have to pay for a more things directly as a municipality vs the province - the biggest ticket item here is policing.
So, I'm very much not against growth - especially on existing privately held land - but we are going to have to make some unfortunately costly choices and planning them sooner rather than later will make it easier and significantly cheaper.
So to make growth happen responsibly, what do we need to do?
First and foremost we need to pass an updated OCP. Having an OCP from 2010 in 2025 is irresponsible - the former standard was every 10 years, with new changes the provincial standard is going to be 5 year updates. There was a draft OCP - with problems admittedly - before council in 2022 in the months leading up to the general election. The council at the time decided to kick the bucket down the line. However 3 years later, despite all councillors but one being direct incumbents and the other councillor being a previously serving councillor, we still don't have a new OCP.
There is a lot of other work we also need to do - although questions such as approximate location should be informed by the OCP hence the primacy of that. Some of which is actionable by Sooke, and some of which is solely in the realm of advocating to other governmental bodies such as School Board, SEAPark and Ministry of Transportation and Transit.
Example include:
- Better Long term planning. Don't wait 20 years for more things like the Throup to Phillips connector. Adding a ballot initiative to an existing voting opportunity aka any general or by-election has very close to negligible costs vs 40-50k for a standalone referendum. Most general elections we should be considering 2-3 costly ventures to better access community feeling and if federal or provincial funds become available be effectively pre-approved to just follow up on it and act. This will use some staff time for costing/updated costing of projects.
- (advocacy) Work to ensure new elementary school in Sunriver area is actualized.
- Work to adjust DCC (Development Cost Charges). DCCs have skyrocketed in most jurisdictions including Sooke and are a problem for housing affordability. But also we need infrastructure. Instead of large $ amounts we should be focused on adequate infrastructure in new neighbourhoods. For example if Sunriver wants to expand more, to be safe absolutely needs a second exist - such as new road connection from Philips to Otter Point (likely by way of Pascoe Rd). A permanent drivable road through to Phillips not a fire and construction access on a dead end residential road.
- Costs for everything has increased dramatically and especially for land is unlikely to change trajectory. We need to prioritize acquiring land particularly along the ocean front.
- Prezoning for development. Instead of a piece meal approach of making every small property have significant time and costs to rezone say this is our area of high density, and zone appropriately and permissively. Yes, following the OCP about where it says high density should be - particularly to my mind, the area between Maple Ave, West Coast Road/Sooke Road, Grant Road/Wadams Way and Charters, and the billings spit area - but make it easy for owners, city and developers. This has a major benefits in timelines, cost savings and potentially affordability - and encourages development where we as a community decide it should be.