The District of Metchosin is moving closer to a decision on what to do with 113 acres of buffer land between it and the City of Langford after an earlier attempt to sell it to the Capital Regional District was met with controversy within the community.
At a public meeting Wednesday (Oct. 4), the district’s Buffer Land Working Group presented an update on its work which will result in a recommendation to council to the public and invited feedback and ideas.
“What we’ve come up with to this point is a three-phased approach,” said Coun. Jay Shukin, chair of the working group. “The first phase would be to rezone the buffer to our existing parkland zone as quickly as possible, then the second phase would be to initiate development of a new zoning designation that better reflects the conservation and preservation goals we have with the buffer land, and then the third phase would be to develop a park management plan for the buffer land.”
Shukin said the land is different from the other parkland the district manages because of the growth and development taking place in the Centre Mountain area on the Langford side of the border immediately adjacent to the land.
READ MORE: Relationships strained over Metchosin buffer zone sale
“The working group is really clear the land needs to be adequately resourced so those conservation and preservation values are maintained and developed.”
So important is the proper resourcing of the land that Shukin said the realization proper resourcing is not going to be possible would be the only situation where the district would revisit the idea of selling the land.
He said if it can’t be resourced properly, people could end up using the vacant and mostly untouched forest land for unauthorized purposes.
While the previous attempts to find a use for the land through a sale by the district’s previous council was met with much uproar from the community over a lack of consultation with the public before considering selling land the district received in a land swap deal approved by referendum in 2017, Shukin said the public seems to be much more satisfied with the current process being undertaken.
“There was a very engaged audience that came out (Wednesday), so there is an interest in what is going to happen to what is essentially a community-owned piece of land,” he said. “There were comments looking at climate change considerations, about the impact of Langford’s stormwater system on a piece of the buffer land, there was discussion on the potential for carbon credits that might come from maintaining forest area.”
The feedback, which was also received at a similar open meeting in May, has helped the working group deepen their understanding of what the land’s potential is, Shukin said.
With the feedback received, the working group will refine what will ultimately become their recommendation to council, which is expected to consider endorsing the plan by the end of the month.
READ MORE: Metchosin residents angry over stalled buffer zone sale to CRD