Editor:
The following is an edited letter addressed to Sechelt mayor and council and shared with Coast Reporter.
After the Sechelt’s Feb. 28 committee of the whole, I came away feeling concerned about the three options for renovating the district’s offices. To me, none of those options were practical and all were far too expensive. The building housing the offices is old and poorly designed. All of the options presented seemed to be throwing good money after bad. Also, there was no mention of the space limitations for parking and future development. We need more cost-effective proposals for the long term rather than the band-aid and expensive options presented.
The district already proposed an excellent option in March 2022 that seemed to meet all the requirements for the next 30 years and was estimated to cost only $7.7M (in 2022), or about the same as the Option 3 band-aid solution presented on Feb. 28 ($8.25M). The March 2022 proposal stipulated that the offices should be located downtown. Why must Sechelt staff be downtown when the SCRD staff operates happily up Field Road? Perhaps Sechelt and the SCRD need to combine their offices to save money for both, but that is another discussion.
It seems evident that the most cost-effective solution is to build new offices for the district staff on the Dusty Road property already owned by the district. Thirty years from now, Dusty Road could very well be considered downtown. In the meantime, hourly transit service could be added to service Dusty Road, which would benefit everyone in East Porpoise Bay. Another significant advantage of moving the Sechelt offices is that the costly property on Cowrie Street could be sold to defray the relocation costs.
Of course, district staff could devise other, even more cost-effective options. We realize that the Sechelt Library, a precious community resource, also needs to be considered in any relocation plans. We ask the district to present options that meet community needs while keeping out-of-control taxes in check. In our opinion, the options presented to date do not.
Greg Deacon,
East Porpoise Bay Community Association, on behalf of the Directors
