Does Sooke want tourism?
Re: Sooke tourism stilted by poor marketing (News, Aug. 12)
As anyone who has endured the local antics for any length of time would know, tourism in Sooke is more of a rhetorical topic or a subject that serves as a focal point for a gathering; a social event.
Many good tourist attraction ideas have been killed in this area, some by mass protest emanating from Victoria – the jealous matron of tourism and all things British.
It is all talk no action out this way. Everybody wants to get his self-important name out there, so that another nullard can get nothing done with as much hustle and bustle and kerfuffle as they can muster.
I don’t think the core of movers and shakers in Sooke even want tourism. They want farming, and wild bush, and a harkening back to the old days, when the rivers were full of fish (before they ate them all), and the forests were thick with giant trees (which they cut down to clear the land for farming or for making boards).
What they should do here is just come out and say it – they just don’t want tourism out this way. And I’ll bet the tourists would start elbowing their way here post haste, as in reverse psychology.
On the other hand, as long as the local mantra remains, that Sooke is hard on the trail of getting as many tourists in here that they can cram – the tourists, smelling something fishy just go somewhere else. Somewhere like Victoria which reeks of tourism, and is chock-a-block with tourists, throwing their filthy lucre left and right.
Now do the people of Sooke really want any part of that? No – you bet not.
N. E. MacNab
Shirley
Horseshoes and parking, oh my!
It is one month short of a year since Sooke applied to the province for a grant to assist in building a bicycle trail to connect the Galloping Goose to Sooke Road.
Confirmation of the following requirements was requested in the application: completed public consultation, project design, property negotiations, and environmental mitigation measures. These were essential to declare the project “shelf ready.” Our application declared that our project was indeed shelf ready!
Today, a year later, we have yet to meet a single one of those requirements. In fact we have no idea where the trail will go after it leaves Kirby Road or what it will look like.
The District of Sooke was granted $75,000 which we must match. We have committed to further expenditures such as surveying, etc., which have already increased our costs to $110,000 plus.
The latest idea is to turn off River Road at the Girl Guide corner, and run the trail through district land down to the current site of the proposed horseshoe pitch. This will require considerable funding for tree removal, truckloads of fill, and likely protective railings.
However, dollars will be needed, not just for the trail, but because those who govern us have now decided that perhaps the horseshoe pitch should move up to the Girl Guide corner as well. Money has been spent on the current site, and there is certainly the expectation from the horseshoe club that new money needs to come from municipal coffers.
It has been clear to me for months, if not years, that the horseshoe pitch cannot be built on the River Road parcel. We are told constantly by Sooke council, municipal staff, and by the club, that with the permission from the Agricultural Land Commission to allow the pitch on that piece of ALR land, it becomes the one
and only permitted use.
But wait. The ALC may have given its permission, but it also makes it clear that the owner or occupier must still comply with local government bylaws.
Our zoning bylaw puts the RU3 zone on that property, and the only permitted use is agriculture. If the parcel is removed from the ALR, and declared a park, that would not change anything because parks are public places, and the horseshoe pitch requires a private clubhouse. If the parcel is rezoned to allow a horseshoe pitch for one group, a precedent will be set and the list of wishes will be endless.
Not yet satisfied, council decided to add a parking lot to the mixture, a necessary use perhaps, but one with its own set of issues and another bucket of money. The parking is intended for use by patrons of the playing fields owned by the community association, whose contribution to this community is unparalleled.
However, they are private owners of the fields, and this brings us back to private benefits on municipal land.
Suggestion to Sooke council: Toss the horseshoes. Park the parking for now. Concentrate on the bike path before you cost us another $75,000 by failing to meet the deadline.
Gail Hall
Sooke
