The Benefits

• Help struggling businesses in the Saanichton Village area through population growth and greater demand for services;
  
• Add approximately 16 acres of publicly accessible parkland to the local area.
  
• Provide a greater tax base for the municipality, generating an additional $1 million a year in general property tax revenue;
  
• Direct reinvestment in community facilities, including fire and public safety, healthcare, park upgrades and other community amenities, including support for more affordable housing.
  
• Reduce transportation dependency by linking with bus routes, adding walking and cycling paths which provides the missing link in the north-south pedestrian corridor on East Saanich Rd.
  
• Upgrade water capacity pressure and distribution to this quadrant of the municipality;
  
• Provide an exciting diversity of housing choices, which will provide many residents with the opportunity to “age in place”, as their housing requirement needs change;
  
• Provide the additional land needed to address the current shortage of developable land within the existing urban containment boundary;
  
• Utilize land near to existing development and the community core, reducing travel dependence;
• Utilize land that is unusable for agriculture while preserving arable land for food production;
• Utilize underused services more fully, spreading and reducing the tax load. Currently hydro, water, sewer, schools and our local hospital are all being underutilized;
• No cost to taxpayers in developing the site. Any road upgrades will be at Vantreight Farms’ expense.
  
• Establish Central Saanich as a leader in sustainable development, helping the District meet environmental goals.

Total Farm Taxes currently generated for the Municipality from this parcel is $2,984. Total net revenues received over a 20 year period by the community from the development may be in the order of $ 20m. This represents a substantial opportunity for Central Saanich to increase its tax base, and to help spread the cost of municipal services more widely, to everyone's benefit.

Annual Tax Revenue Current vs. Estimated*

*Uses 2006 Ministry of Community Services Data

NOTE: When reviewing these values, calculated from 2006 Ministry of Community Services Data, it is important to keep in mind that the “Estimated Total Assessed Value” is NOT what Vantreight Farms will realize from the project. This amount is based on the assessed value of the total project at completion, including all lands and buildings. The “Total Residential Property Taxes and Charges” is the annual value of tax dollars, which will be generated from these three types of land uses.

• Contribute to community energy and resource independence by using integrated farm and development resources as a catalyst to support community waste improvements;
• By integrating development and farm resources, directly address carbon footprint and GHG reduction, which are at the root of climate change;
• Reduce energy needs for the farm, residents and the community;
• Use neighborhood and district heating to more efficiently heat and cool the farm, community and residential property, aimed at reducing long term costs, maintenance and energy dependence
• Optimizing combined resources from the farm, residents and the community with the aim of moving towards and achieving, zero waste;
• Potentially, redirect household and community waste, and "mining" existing waste facilities (i.e. Hartland landfill) to further reduce leachates and be "GHG (greenhouse gases) negative" – to reduce GHGs for the community;
• Create new watercourses to support ecological restoration, ecosystem support and rehabilitation, while increasing carbon sequestration and reducing GHGs and carbon;
• Reduce depletion and potentially wind back groundwater levels and depletion through groundwater recharging and reduction in groundwater withdrawals;
• More directly beneficial to the community, create and publicly dedicate creekside trails to town infrastructure, improve public access, reduce vehicular dependance
  and improve human health, with benefits to groundwater recharging, and generally improve the community;
• Use local materials to reduce emissions and reinvest in local businesses and craftsmanship, thus creating a social, environmental and economic benefit beyond the development;
• Use living walls and green roofs as much as possible to improve insulation, mitigate stormwater runoff and reduce heat island effect and lower ambient temperature. All these contribute to mitigating climate change impacts while making the development more visually appealing;
• Use materials that use low- or zero- "volatile organic compounds" – the substances that contribute to asthma and other human health issues, thereby benefitting residents and reducing the consequent burdens on the healthcare system, while improving individual productivity;
• Minimize use of lighting and other resource-intensive aspects, to lower BC Hydro transmission demand, directly contributing to provincial energy reduction targets while lowering residents' energy costs;
• Improve use of daylighting with consequent benefits on human health and performance;
• Direct reinvestment in community facilities including fire and public safety, healthcare and other community amenities, including support for more affordable housing;
  
• Create roads, trails and sidewalks that support ecosystems by addressing stormwater runoff. Thus reduce impact of climate change and limit or eliminate the impact on municipal stormwater infrastructure by integrated flow management.

• Preserve more ALR land as actively farmed land. One of the goals of the project is to expand the Vantreight Farms holdings of farmland. This will help ensure proper crop rotation and the long-term viability of the farm;
  
• Increase the net amount of land dedicated to farm production;
  
• Reduce dependence on groundwater supplies, through an integrated resource management strategy, benefiting the wider community;
  
• Supply nutrients and organic matter back onto the fields of the farm to improve soil sustainability for the future;
  
• Improve the farms’ ecological and economic sustainability for generations to come by lowering energy and heating needs.