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Why Setbacks Matter: Protecting the Green Heart of Saanich

M. Rose Munro

Jan 22, 2025

Setbacks in Saanich’s single‑family areas are often dismissed as technical zoning details, yet they are one of the most powerful tools shaping the municipality’s character, ecological health, and quality of life. Far from outdated, setbacks remain essential to preserving the green, spacious, and safe neighbourhoods that define Saanich. In a moment of rapid policy change and densification pressure, it is worth remembering why setbacks exist, and why they matter.

Setbacks protect green space and the urban forest.

Front, side, and rear setbacks create room for mature trees, permeable landscapes, and wildlife corridors. They cool streets, support pollinators, absorb stormwater, and maintain the ecological networks that make Saanich unique. Push buildings to the lot line, and these functions collapse: root zones disappear, habitat fragments, and nature is squeezed out of the suburban fabric.

Setbacks support habitat and biodiversity.

Ecological networks don’t exist only in parks, they run through yards, hedgerows, and the quiet spaces between homes. Setbacks provide nesting areas, pollinator pathways, and safe zones for small mammals. Without them, these micro‑habitats vanish.

Setbacks preserve privacy and livability.

Side setbacks prevent window‑to‑window intrusion; rear setbacks protect private outdoor space; front setbacks buffer homes from street noise. Without them, houses loom over each other, shadows lengthen, and the sense of personal space erodes. This doesn’t create vibrancy, it creates stress.

Setbacks reduce fire risk and improve emergency access.

Saanich recorded more than 4,900 emergency incidents in 2025 alone, including fire‑suppression calls. The 2024 Quadra Street construction‑site fire sent embers onto nearby homes, ignited spot fires, and forced evacuations – a stark reminder of how quickly fire spreads when structures sit too close together. Setbacks create defensible space, slow fire transmission, and give firefighters room to work. They are a simple, proven safety measure.

Setbacks ensure light, air, and human comfort.

They allow sunlight into homes and gardens, maintain airflow, prevent overshadowing, and support healthy outdoor living. Remove setbacks, and the result is darker interiors, reduced garden viability, and a more oppressive built environment.

Setbacks preserve neighbourhood character.

They create the rhythm of open yards, consistent building lines, and greenery that residents value. Shrinking setbacks disrupts this balance and replaces harmony with visual clutter.

Setbacks support mental well-being.

Green space, privacy, sunlight, and quiet are public‑health assets. Setbacks help create calmer, healthier neighbourhoods – benefits well‑documented in environmental psychology.

Setbacks a foundation worth protecting.

Setbacks are not arbitrary measurements. They are a carefully calibrated system that protects ecological health, privacy, safety, and livability. Once green space and buffers are lost, they are extraordinarily difficult to restore.

Saanich Council must recognize that setbacks are not inconveniences to be negotiated away at the request of developers. They are structural safeguards. When developers push to reduce them, they are seeking to maximize buildable area and profit, not public good. A single variance may seem minor, but repeated concessions reshape entire neighbourhoods, replacing green space with hard edges and squeezing nature out. Council’s responsibility is to protect the public realm and ensure neighbourhoods remain healthy and functional for generations. Upholding setbacks is responsible governance – choosing long‑term community well‑being over short‑term private gain. It would be deeply disappointing, even shameful, for an elected council to set aside those responsibilities to satisfy land developers.

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See also:

Index of CRD Watch articles concerning the environment/ecology. – CRD Watch Homepage