PENINSULA
NEWS
Established 1912
2012
9th Annual
Peninsula Feature
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women in
Business
It’s a woman’s world
ti Renewedd callll ffor action
Our Women in Business pullout celebrates the women who make our business community tick, inside today’s edition
MP May takes up call for legislation on oil tankers on infamous anniversary, page A8
Supplement to the
Watch for breaking news at www.peninsulanewsreview.com
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
A fine day for a fete More than 100 gathered to welcome the return of the Anacortes-Sidney ferry Sunday under blue skies and warm weather. Meanwhile, an important and long awaited deal concerning the vessel was signed. See the story, page A5, and go online to peninsulanewsreview. com for a photo gallery from the event. Below, the crowd applauds speeches at the international ferry terminal. At right, town crier Kenny Podmore makes his proclamation of the ferry’s arrival. photos by Erin Cardone
Mixed messages in Keating feedback Christine van Reeuwyk News staff
Though the district set a larger venue, about 50 people trickled in to the public hearing last week (March 21) to address a pair of bylaws that would allow for large retail stores in the Keating area. While all 19 people who spoke showed some form of opposition to the bylaws, competing visions voiced by the residents highlighted part
of the problem facing council: the community’s desires are varied when it comes to revitalizing the Keating corridor. Some want to see it made a viable shopping corridor while others are concerned that it be successful, but stay within the official community plan statement that Keating not become a third commercial centre in competition with the Brentwood Bay and Saanichton village centres. Bylaw 1760 would amend
the official community plan in Central Saanich for large retail uses in the industrial area on Keating X Road by removing the 53,800 square feet floor area restriction for single retail use. Bylaw 1761 would amend the land use bylaw similarly, allowing for larger floor area ratio, but would affect all land in the district zoned light industrial (L1). “My main concern is the second bylaw, the one that in
effect turns the entire industrial area into a commercial area. At the moment there are a few people employed in buildings in the industrial area,” said Ian Cameron, who spoke first. He noted that in one building he visited there are five businesses, three of which he uses. The estimated payrolls in those businesses run from $32,000 to $63,000 a year and most of those employees live in Central Saanich.
“If this goes through and a big box retailer builds there, what would the wages be of the people working there? It would be minimum wage,” Cameron said. “At the moment we’ve got local industries that are making useful things and paying decent wages … and all that money stays right here.” PLEASE SEE: Large retail push, page A22 Our View, page A10
Inside ■ A business owner calls for a committee focused on economic development. ■ Speakers express frustration over lack of progress on a highway overpass in Central Saanich.