Last but not least, Saanich has agreed to a revised version of a plan designed to shape the future direction of the region.

Council Monday unanimously approved revisions to the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) under the auspice of the Capital Regional District (CRD). The RGS offers itself as a blue print for the region, guiding decisions on issues such as transportation, population growth and settlement patterns.

MondayB次元官网网址檚 vote makes Saanich the 13th and final CRD member to approve the revised RGS, clearing the way for its final approval, which requires prior unanimity among CRD members.

B次元官网网址淭his is such an important document, it justifies regional government,B次元官网网址� said Coun. Susan Brice.

The RGS first emerged as a guiding document in the mid-1990s and undergoes periodic revisions. But the most recent revisions to the document ran into opposition, when seven municipalities including Saanich refused to accept the updated RGS in late 2016 and early 2017. A non-binding mediation session in late December 2017 reached a compromise, following some back-and-forth between the provincial government and the CRD over the method of resolving the conflict.

B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 glad that the non-binding process worked,B次元官网网址� said Coun. Judy Brownoff.

While rejecting municipalities differed in their reasons for rejecting the original RGS draft, SaanichB次元官网网址檚 objections focused on two issues: growth management and water service.

Concerning the first, Saanich staff found the initial draft document had dropped language designed to funnel growth into certain areas, using a hierarchy of identified growth areas.

B次元官网网址淚n removing the defined growth hierarchy, the proposed Regional Growth Strategy defers to individual municipal [Official Community Plans] with respect to where population and employment centres should develop,B次元官网网址� it read. B次元官网网址淭his approach effectively diminishes the significant value of a regionally co-ordinated approach to growth management found in the current Regional Growth Strategy.B次元官网网址�

The new document now distinguishes (as it did in a previous version) between three types of growth areas: the metropolitan core, sub-regional nodes, and nodes. Each of these categories describes in broad strokes permitted forms of development.

Brownoff said this hierarchy is crucial to the success of the strategy, a point that Brice echoed in stressing the need for density.

Concerning the second, the new draft also includes language that deals with the creation of new and the extension of existing water lines, B次元官网网址渙ne of the strongest regulatory toolsB次元官网网址� with which the CRD can B次元官网网址渃urb sprawl in rural areas,B次元官网网址� including to a staff report.

Saanich (along with other critics) have argued that a B次元官网网址渕ore permissive regime for water service extensionsB次元官网网址� would likely lead to more development outside the urban containment boundary and undermine the goal of fitting 95 per cent of growth within the urban containment boundary.

Additional language now calls on the CRD to B次元官网网址渃onsider the current and future costs of infrastructure design, construction, maintenance, and operation when considering whether to provide for new services or extend existing services.B次元官网网址� The RGS also now states that B次元官网网址淸full] costs of water service extensions will be borne by new users.B次元官网网址� They would also bear the B次元官网网址淸lifecycle] costsB次元官网网址� of water service extensions to the B次元官网网址渕aximum extent.B次元官网网址�

Said differently, the document gives permission for new water lines in the future, while attaching user-based fees to them in an effort to discourage them. The RGS also limits water extensions in the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area outside the urban containment boundary, and adds language that emphasizes the conservation of land, water, and energy in the delivery of infrastructure.

The mediation process also led to other revisions that strengthened the language around climate change, agriculture and food security, among other issues.

Overall, the non-binding mediation addressed some 30 issues.

Coun. Fred Haynes praised the overall spirit and substance of the document, which he said B次元官网网址渆nhances and echoesB次元官网网址� SaanichB次元官网网址檚 Official Community Plan.

Mayor Richard Atwell expressed hope that the document will not end up on a shelf in calling for a more flexible and responsive document.

B次元官网网址淲hat we have is good, but not great, and we need to get to great,B次元官网网址� he said.