The Columbia Shuswap Regional District board will be rethinking its proposed purchase of South Shuswap’s Centennial Field for the creation of a community park.
In a news release issued Thursday, Oct. 3, the CSRD reported that the alternative approval process garnered enough signatures of people opposed to the borrowing of funds.
In such a process, if at least 10 per cent of electors in a proposed area record their opposition to a proposal, it must either go to referendum or be abandoned.
In this case, 671 responses were needed to stop the CSRD from proceeding with the borrowing. More than double that – 1,501 - were received.
Read more: New South Shuswap community park proposed for Blind Bay
Read more: CSRD open house to focus on Centennial Field
The proposed bylaws would have authorized the CSRD to borrow $1.77 million for a maximum term of 25 years to acquire and develop the 9.5 acre property into Centennial Field Community Park. The annual costs for this service were to be recovered through the collection of taxes levied against the value of land and improvements for those properties within Electoral Area C, South Shuswap.
Under the Local Government Act, the CSRD must receive the approval of the electors before it can adopt bylaws to establish a service levy or incur long-term debt.
The CSRD states that because elector approval was not received, the board will now discuss at its board meeting on Oct. 17 at 9:30 a.m. whether to proceed to referendum or discontinue the process. The CSRD offices are located at 555 Harbourfront Dr. NE.
@SalmonArm
marthawickett@saobserver.net
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