There are some public misconceptions about a hotel's application to build a private marina, according to Sooke’s mayor.
Maja Tait, mayor of Sooke, said the Prestige Oceanfront Resort wants to build the marina for its customers to arrive by water, but somehow members of the public have gotten the perception that they want to build a float plane berth.
“It would be configured so that if a guest were to choose to arrive by float plane that they would be able to do that,” Tait said. “People already are able to in Sooke. This isn’t a new connection between Sooke and Vancouver or anything like that. It’s just that someone might arrive to Sooke by a float plane.”
Tait said the marina will have nine berths for hotel guests and a refueling station that will be available to the public.
She said some people think the marina would be a float plane marina, but it would actually just be a marina for hotel guests to use during their stay.
“The marina with the nine berths is solely for the hotel,” Tait said. “Or you may have like a whale watching or recreational fishing that might want to pick their guest up from there, they would be allowed to do that.”
Tait said she isn’t sure where the misconception came from, but thinks it might be due to when council was considering a float plane dock 10 years ago.
“In the past, a long time ago there was talk of ‘oh we need a customs office, we want to get on this route and connect Sooke with all these other places by float plane’,” Tait said. “That was like 10 years ago. I think some people might still know about that and that might be why they’re thinking this is coming.”
Sooke will be holding a public hearing on the application on Tuesday to give the public an opportunity to weigh in.