This is the final week for residents of the City of Nanaimo to file their opposition to the city taking out a loan for up to $48.5 million for the first phase of a new operations centre.
The first phase of a new operations centre would replace the public works yard built in the 1960s and cover foundational work for a new fleet maintenance facility, stormwater management infrastructure at the yard and at Fire Rescue Station number two, converting the Fire Training Tower to burn natural gas fires instead of wood, and a new trial to completed the circle of trails at Beban Park.
Future phases would include storage buildings, heavy fleet equipment areas, administrative buildings, staff parking, fueling stations and supply building renovations.
All together the four-phase project is estimated to cost a total of $164.5 million, though that estimate could change.
The approval for the loan is going through what’s known as an Alternative Approval Process (AAP) instead of a city-wide referendum, where least 10 per cent of eligible voters — or 7,799 people — have to fill out a form against the borrowing bylaw and return it to City Hall by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, November 3.
If that threshold is reached the borrowing bylaw will be brought back to council for consideration of what to do next.
Local homeowner Noni Bartlett says that the city should have run a referendum on the proposal.