Hundreds of Summerland residents were not enough to deny borrowing two proposed projects as the municipality used the alternative approval process to determine support for borrowing.
The projects would see borrowing of $3,365,080 over a 25-year term for upgrades to Wharton Street and up to $2,693,470, to be repaid over a 25-year term for upgrades to Victoria Road South.
Under the alternative approval process, a project will move forward if fewer than 10 per cent of eligible electors submit a form indicating their opposition to the project.
If the 10 per cent figure is met, the municipality could consider holding a formal referendum on the two projects.
The number of eligible electors in Summerland is 10,029, according to municipal statements on the vote results. This means the threshold would have been 1,002 responses.
This threshold was not met for either of the two borrowing proposals, but the results came close.
For the Wharton Street project, the number of responses received was just 73 short of the total required, while for the Victoria Road project, it was 234 below the number needed.
A total of 932 elector responses were received on the Wharton Street project, with three rejected. The 929 accepted responses works out to 9.26 per cent of the estimated eligible voters in Summerland.
There were a total of 771 elector response forms received for the Victoria Road upgrade project, with three rejected. The 768 accepted forms represents an estimated 7.66 per cent of voters.
The total cost of the Wharton Street project is estimated at $8.557 million, while the Victoria Road project had a budget of $3.85 million.
If either or both projects had received elector response forms from at least 10 per cent of the estimated eligible electors, council would have had the option to go to a full referendum or to not adopt the bylaws.
The public responses to these two projects was much greater than the last time the municipality used the alternative approval process to determine support for borrowing.
Kendra Kinsley, director of corporate services for Summerland, said the municipality used the process in 2024 to determine support for a Prairie Valley Road project and the primary clarifier upgrade at the wastewater treatment plant.
The municipality received 22 elector response forms for the Prairie Valley Road project and 19 for the primary clarifier project. The two borrowing bylaws were for a total of $3.732 million 鈥� 2.4 million for the road upgrades and $1.232 million for the wastewater treatment plant upgrades.
The last time Summerland used a referendum to determine support for a borrowing proposal was in early November 2023 when voters rejected a proposal to borrow up to $50 million for the proposed replacement of the Summerland Aquatic and Fitness Centre.
