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OAK BAYNEWS

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Friday, January 15, 2010 ll EDITORIAL Page A6 ARTS Page A10 SPORTS Page A15 CLASSIFIEDS Page A18

Garden increase mulledResidents without their own backyard garden may have a chance to get dirt under their fingernails. Community, Page A4

An Idol is crownedA casual crooner captures the fans’ hearts and the judges’ votes in Victoria Idol 2010. Arts, Page A11

Sharon Tiffin/News staff

Water great time we’re havingTwo-year-olds Felix Campbell (front) and Walter Adikedcsky have a great time getting wet and dirty in one of the many puddles around Oak Bay, while Felix’s mom Brittany Campbell looks on. After having good, not-so-clean fun at Willows Beach, the kids went home to splash in a nice warm bath.

Uplands residents win sewer fightVivian MoreauNews staff

They came, they lis-tened, they backtracked.

Oak Bay council nixed a plan Monday to separate sewage and storm water lines for 390 homes in the Uplands neighbourhood.

“My sense is that this particular community has said ‘Bigger is not better,’” Coun. Tara Ney said to applause from a packed house of 150 mostly Uplands homeowners at municipal hall.

Residents came to hear whether council would go ahead with a provin-cially mandated project that would have required each homeowner to install an electric pump on their property, as well as a new sewage line from their home to the street.

A protest launched last month forced council to schedule a spe-cial public meeting last week at Monterey Recreation Centre. Fol-lowing that marathon five-hour meeting before about 250 people, council chose to make the deci-sion whether to proceed with the $7.65-million project at this week’s regular meeting.

They agreed six to one on Mon-day not to go ahead, a decision that effectively nullifies a joint federal-provincial infrastructure grant that would have paid two-thirds of the project’s cost.

Oak Bay Mayor Christopher Causton apologized to the crowd for not consulting properly with residents before deciding to move forward, saying he had

heard their concerns “loud and clear.”

A comprehensive consultation process will now begin on how best to comply with the prov-ince’s mandate. It is not known where funding might come for a new project.

The decision to regroup may

have had more to do with a pushed-up completion date than Uplands residents’ outrage.

Changes to the project’s dead-line caused the municipality to go into hurry-up mode, Causton said. Not only did the province move the deadline up to March 2011 from 2016, it informed the municipality last week that the project needed to be completed by 2011, not just begun.

“We can’t do the project by 2011,” Causton said.

Oak Bay sewage committee chair Coun. John Herbert was candid in admitting he had not asked enough questions before agreeing to the project.

“There was no excuse for me not asking the hard questions,” he said.

Continued on page A14

File photo

Sewage overflow problems in the Uplands neighbourhood will need a different solution, after Oak Bay council voted to pull back on a proposal that would have forced homeowners to install electric pumps and new sewer lines on their properties.

In a nutshell■ The province wants a $7.65-million Uplands sewage and storm water separation project completed by March 2011. ■ Oak Bay will start from square one, with input from Uplands residents, on what to do next.

Council foregoes funding for project, nixes hurried option