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A community group working to protect 2.2 hectares of green space on Kings Road, near Royal Jubilee Hospital, will have more time to raise money for the project. Saanich council has decided to extend the group’s fundraising deadline to March 31, 2021, from Aug. 31 due to the unforeseen impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“When we first created this process to fundraise and we had deadlines, the world was a very different place,” Coun. Karen Harper said. “The time that we have all been isolating is time that [it] has not been possible to do any kind of fundraising.”

Saanich purchased the Kings Road property from B.C. Hydro for $5.5 million, but made clear it needed to raise half of that money from other sources or it would have to sell some of the land.

The Saanich Legacy Foundation’s Kings Road Green Space Committee is leading fundraising efforts and had asked council to extend the campaign deadline.

“The rationale for this request is the limitations the province has put in place due to COVID-19,” the committee said in a letter. “This includes the large group activities that we were planning, as well as face-to-face meetings with potential donors, many of whom may be in the high-risk group for COVID-19 infection.”

Saanich Mayor Fred Haynes supported the extension, given the pandemic’s impact on the economy and the fact that “community activities and priorities are evolving in uncertain ways.”