Oak Bay’s completely new official community plan (OCP) was justified in large part by the need for more options for affordable housing.
Now it seems that because more staff are needed to administer this new OCP, all of our taxes must go up, and not just by a little, but by a lot. Taxes are one of the contributing factors that make housing unaffordable.
If the mayor really believed in affordable housing, then wouldn’t he be lowering taxes, not raising them? Our tax money comes mainly from single family dwellings. Once you add the kind of developments council is suggesting, you have to ensure it is going to provide the revenue to supply the municipal services and not the other way around.
This financial information has to be given to the public. I firmly believe that the new OCP should be shelved until we taxpayers can afford it.
Mary Douglas
Oak Bay