Two Victoria city councillors, Marg Gardiner and Stephen Hammond, would like to have the City put the Centennial Square Revitalization Project on hold indefinitely.
The duo penned a motion which will be considered at this week’s committee of the whole meeting on Thursday, July 10th.
This motion comes as some funding for Centennial Square’s revitalization was redirected to the Community Safety and Wellbeing (CSWB) Plan.
The City announced that $2.5 million of grant funding would be redirected to the CSWB Plan, which would mean that the eastern portion of the Centennial Square project would be put on hold while the western portion would go forward as planned.
The eastern portion of the square was the most controversial with many people in the city advocating to keep the sequoia tree that City staff have repeatedly said will have to be removed.
“It appears there is significant support for the City’s new CSWB initiative to take quick action on crime, social disorder and ways to find housing for the unhoused,” reads the motion penned by Gardiner and Hammond.
With this in mind, $2.5 million being redirected away from the Centennial Square project and the fact that the City would have to take on $6.7 million in debt to complete the redesign of the square, Hammond and Gardiner are arguing that the entire project should be held.
“We need to send a message of ‘security over splashpads.’”
The motions recommendations are to redirect the remaining grant funding intended for Centennial Square to the CSWB Plan, postpone the square redesign project until a time that the City will not go into debt in order to complete it and redirect other arts funding towards the square.
The CSWB Plan’s initial steps will cost over $13 million, of which Victoria has to come up with over $10 million from other ongoing projects and services.
This plan will continue to cost more as new phases are embarked upon, which the City will have to begin considering in next year’s Draft Financial Plan.
As for the Centennial Square Revitalization Project, it was approved in July 2024, when council directed City staff to proceed with revitalization plans informed by the robust community engagement that took place in 2018.
This plan to give the square a robust makeover was approved to the tune of $11.2 million.
