According to the Oak Bay News, a cyclist was hit at the corner of Beach Drive and Estevan Avenue on Friday. Given the claim of the vehicle running the stop sign, it must have been on Estevan, not Beach Drive. The 32-year-old man apparently tumbled over the hood of the car. This likely means that he was right in fromt of her when she accelerated. Thankfully he apparently wasn’t seriously hurt, although who knows what kinds of long term injuries he might have sustained. As per usual, the drive got off nearly scot free:
The woman, 32, was ticketed for failing to stop.
Image courtesy Streetsblog New York
How about driving without due care? I guess you need to kill somebody before you get this one. As light bedtime reading, I suggest Death of Cyclists in BC, by the Helmet Safety Institute. The report was written by the Chief Coroner of BC’s office and covers accidents from 1986-95. Wonder if the numbers of deaths has gone down since then, given that more cyclists equals less deaths in total. I think I would have to plumb the byzantine depths of ICBC or maybe WCB to get that info. Maybe another day.
The site in Oak Bay is the old orchard on Cedar Hill X Rd near Crestview Rd as can be seen on the right. This is a part of UVic and is a very common dog walking site. I have no idea how much of the site they are planning to use or if the orchard will remain, but I expect at least some of that information will be at the upcoming public consultations. I wonder what Citizen Canine will say about the possibility of using this location.
Fields near McCoy Rd. on UVic property
The second site on UVic lands is near McCoy Road in the fields there. Again, I have no idea how much space they are going to take, but I sincerely hope that they don’t remove the trail that connects to the end of McCoy Road. That is a great biking and walking connection to avoid having to go all the way down to the corner of McKenzie Ave. and Gordon Head Rd.
Haro Woods near UVic
The last site is the previously mentioned lands in Haro Woods that the CRD purchased last year. I don’t know exactly where in Haro Woods, as outlined in yellow in the map on the right, but I know that UVic owns a portion as well. There isn’t much more to say about this, except that it is one of the few pieces of relatively intact forest left in the area. Also, there is a large field on Queen Alexandria lands just across the road. In all the years I have been going up that direction, as I used to go to school at Frank Hobbs elementary, that field has been sitting largely empty. Why not use it?
Haro Woods, because it has been previously announced, has already attracted a lot of attention. There is a Save Haro Woods website, and the Cadboro Bay Residents Association has come out strongly against this site as well, asking for it be turned into a park.
There are two open houses coming up, on the 16th at Gordon Head United Church and the 17th at Cadboro Bay United Church. Both of those forums run 3pm to 8pm. There is also neighbourhood workshop that requires pre-registration on the 22nd of June between 6:30pm and 9pm at the Queenswood Centre. This information and more can be seen on the wasterwatermadeclear’s public forums page. There is also a report from the CRD’s contractor about the feedback from the previous public forums and the principles used in deciding a location.
Personally, I like none of these sites, but I think the orchard site is probably least worst, provided the orchard itself survives and public access for walking dogs is preserved. However, if they do choose the Haro Woods site, they are really setting themselves up to fail. I think we will see UVic students and other environmental activists chaining themselves to equipment and tree sitting, potentially delaying the project months. I almost wonder if this is why the other two spots have just appeared, to avoid that very scenario.
Spring is here and many people have excess plants from their vegetable or flower gardens. Thankfully the Oak Bay Community Association has a solution for you. They are planning on holding plant swaps starting June 25th at the Estevan Food Roots Pocket Market, which runs every Thursday from 3pm to 6pm.The swap itself will only run from 3:30 to 4:30. To kick it all off, there will be a swap this weekend at 2252 Cranmore from 9am to 11am. This is part of the 10th annual Garagelennium, an Oak Bay-wide coordinated garage sale. This year there are almost 100 houses taking part and some donating their profits to charity. Be up early, as the event only runs from 9am to 1pm.
The association also recently launched their website, the Oak Bay Connector, which I have added along with a whole host of other Oak Bay links on the right-hand side. If you see any link that should be there, leave a comment and I can add it.
For the second time in a row, a report from the council meeting last night. The meeting was the usual grab bag of stuff such as variance and bylaw approvals, plus the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the new Sea Rescue boat house. Also discussed but not on the agenda was the latest on sewage treatment. The bench was shy two last night, with both Mayor Causton and Hazel Braithwaite away, leaving Nils Jensen as acting Mayor.
Rough map of Island View Park acquisition
First up was a presentation by the CRD on their acquisition of a piece of land to attach to Island View Park, as they announced last month. The plan involves the piece of land seen on the right, which will then be split up. In very crude terms, roughly the red portion west of the ridge, which is in the ALR, would be sold and the yellow portion added to the park. The total cost would be $4.7 million, of which about half is expected to be recouped via the sale of the western half. In the end, the council voted for the acquisition.
Next up were block parties. There were quite a few of them. I plan on having a full post with all the upcoming block parties, including maps later this week, but the interesting bit for those wishing to host them is that getting approval might be about to get a whole lot easier. Councillor Jensen asked if staff could handle these requests in the future, which would require rewriting the bylaw, so don’t expect this done until the fall at the earliest.
In new business, Herbert gave a quick update on the sewage treatment. As was covered in the press, the sewage treatment committee has recommended that the CRD go for the 3 site option. Due to the byzantine politics in the region, this doesn’t mean we are necessarily getting 3 plants. The sewage committee only recommends a solution to the whole CRD board and they make the final decision.
Haro Woods - Photo courtesy Cadboro Bay Residents Association
Adding to the fun are 3 public hearings next week on the potential Haro Woods station (schedule of meetings). Officially these meetings are to discuss a sewage plant in Saanich East or North Oak Bay, but given the CRD already owns the Haro Woods lands, this is kind of a cart/horse thing. Of course, if enough people bitch, another site might get considered. This means that North Oak Bay could get a treatment site and have no public hearings, a fact that made more than one councillor quite annoyed. This isn’t the first time that Oak Bay has been ignored, this happened during the last round as well. In fact, the last time the sewage people were in Oak Bay was in April and over the history of the project they have only come to Oak Bay a half dozen times.
Onwards from sewage brings us to variances to construction bylaws, of which only 2218 Central Ave raised major issues. This is a request to reduce the number of parking spots from the required two to just one. Given parking’s generative effect on traffic, this is a good thing. Sadly, Allan Cassidy didn’t see it that way, asking “what is so wrong with the current bylaw that we keep granting exceptions?” In response, both Jensen and Ney thought that the whole bylaw should be reconsidered, given that we should be reducing car use and encouraging gardens, not asphalt. We can only hope that this happens. In the end, the variance passed 3 to 2, with Herbert and Cassidy opposed.
During the last council meeting while discussing 2218 Central, it was discovered that any councillor can bring back any motion for reconsideration at the next meeting. This time it was the potential tree bylaw amendment which was defeated on a tie. It allows removal of trees that damage significant structures as well as a blanket provision for council to allow removal of a tree if they feel it harms a residents way of life. Herbert thought that council should have a “sober second look”, which led to much back and forth about “opening the floodgates” for reconsidering bylaws and talk about a general review in the fall. In the end, the whole matter was deferred until they have a whole council there. I predict this isn’t the last time that a councillor brings back a motion for reconsideration and thus won’t be the last time we get to hear Cassidy talk about the “slippery slope”.
Which brings us to the last item of the evening, the new boat house saga. The basics are that the Oak Bay Sea Rescue Society needs a new boat house for the new, bigger boat that they just got. However, given provincial law and zoning, they need a new water lease to build the bigger boat house. The major sticking point is the ability to dock either Sea Rescue’s older boat or a rescued vessel alongside the new boathouse. OB Marine Group doesn’t like because they claim it will constrain their ability to dock vessels near the boathouse. At the end of the night, after discussing and rejecting a compromise that would just allow construction of the boathouse without the mooring, the whole issue will end up a public hearing on June 22nd. Expect a longer piece from me about the whole issue later this week.
There was actually a Times Colonist reporter in the audience last night, a realitive rarity. Apparently this whole boathouse issue is big enough news to get coverage. Given the rumours of the demise of the Oak Bay News, the future of reporting in Oak Bay looks bleak.
Oak Bay has been considering legalisation of secondary suites for most of this year already and they have recently sent out a form asking for opinion on secondary suites as part of the tax notice. But us poor renters don’t own the property and thus don’t receive the tax notices (although we do pay the property tax, just via our rent).
Fear not, as the municipality has taken us into consideration. As Councillor Nils Jensen points out, 25% of Oak Bay residents are renters, so our opinion is important. You can pick up a form during business hours from the municipal hall at 2167 Oak Bay Ave. The deadline for it to be returned in July 10th, although this might get extended, depending on responses. You will need to show proof of residency to get a form.
The next meeting of the secondary suites committee is currently TBA, but I will announce it here when that date does get decided.
There are a few interesting announcements today from the CRD and the Federal Government regarding communities, planning and green space.
The CRD is looking for people to sit on their Regional Parks citizen advisory panel for the new Regional Parks Strategic Plan. If you are interested, the site has documents with more information and the deadline for applying is June 12th, 2009.
The new CRD Pedestrian and Bicycling Master Plan has its launch event next week. Curiously, it doesn’t have a website yet, so to get a better idea of what this plan with entail, see the Request for Proposals (PDF). The CRD has selected Alta Planning & Design out of Portland to do the initial stages of the work. Alta has done some great work all over the US and Canada and they are very focused on planning for bicycling and walking, so I look forward to they can bring to our great region. The initial report is due this fall with the larger plan including network maps done by Spring 2010.
The federal government also dropped another tiny little bit of money in the bucket today, with a $4.2 million announcement of the EQuilibrium™ Communities Initiative. And yes, they did trademark the name. So sayeth the press release:
The new $4.2- million, EQuilibrium™ Communities Initiative will seek to improve community planning and develop healthy sustainable communities that are energy-efficient, economically viable and vibrant places to live.
Colour me not impressed. $4.2 million is nothing. The new CRD plan above will cost $20,000 – $30,000 just for the inital report with the 2nd and 3rd stages being considerably more. I suspect this might just be a feel good thing for Lisa Raitt, better known the whole Chalk River “sexy” isotopes statement, bad-mouthing a fellow minister on tape and leaving documents behind at a newspaper issue.
I am off to council tonight, where the agenda pretty normal. It is the season for block party requests and there are the usual rezoning requests. Also up is a letter from the Oak Bay Marine Group regarding the ongoing saga of the getting the Sea Rescue Society a new boathouse.
Managed to finally get to the Tea Party today, after being quite busy yesterday. Even though I arrived after 3 and after the airshow, there were still tonnes of people there. I did see large numbers streaming up Estevan Rd to their parked cars on Musgrave and nearly all the streets between there and the water. But then again, I don’t blame them for driving. The bike parking situation at Willows Park is quite abysmal, even on non-busy days. There is exactly one bike rack there, as can be seen to the left. It was full. This meant that bikes spilled out and where parked everywhere.
When I arrived, I ended up having to raft my bike up with a very nice gentlemen by the name of Terry who was similarily looking for a spot. We ended up parked near the toilets, right near the giant mess of bikes seen below. You can see the rest on in my 2009 Tea Party flickr set but there was one other picture that amused me. That was this one of two bikes locked to an Oak Bay Works flashing sign.
Hopefully for next year, there will be more bike parking. Maybe if we get organized soon enough, Safer Cycling Oak Bay and/or the Community Association could get the portable racks that Chain Chain Chain have. It would be nice if Shooting Star Amusements could provide bike parking as well, just like they provided the lone bench seen below.
Bikes locked to Oak Bay Works signShooting Star Amusement's portable benchMass of bikes locked to rail
Today is the Oak Bay Tea Party Parade, an event I remember fondly from my youth. Sadly, I ended up having to run down to a friends house and thus I had no camera to take pictures. I did notice a few things, however:
Ronald McDonald House had a Hummer H2 pulling a small trailer. How very American
Apparently candy is still thrown in Oak Bay. Contrast that with the Victoria Day parade in downtown, which has no thrown or even handed out candy
Random groups I saw marching today: Liberal Party, La Leche League (who promote breast feeding), somebody talking about homeless (I couldn’t read their banner) and the Cadillac club (which I mention because they had a Cimarron, not even considered a Cadillac by some)
There were a couple of groups I was suprised to see here and not at the Victoria Day Parade:
There were the usual old fire engines, including Saanich Historical Society’s restored 1950s North Pender Fire Dept engine.
The Royal Victoria Yacht Club festooned one of their kayak trailers with various signal flags. Quite spectacular.
One of the most persistent problems facing non-car drivers is that complete auto-centricity of directions listed on most websites, of which sports teams and their stadiums seem to be especially bad for. Take the new Highlanders FC team. For starters, they choose to play in car-happy Langford rather than Royal Athletic Park or UVic’s Centennial Stadium, but take a peek at the image on their page of directions:
Yes, that is a picture of an empty parking lot. And yes, they have transit directions, stuffed alongside parking under the heading “Park & Ride Locations”. No link to the schedule of either the 50 or the Langford Trolley and absolutely no mention of whether they have bike parking of any sort or even the best biking routes (like say, the Galloping Goose). And a map? Nope.
If they want a half-decent idea of what their directions site should look like, they should take a look at the San Francisco Giants baseball team’s page, which lists transit first. They even have maps at the bottom, both of the local area and stops and a larger route map. Sadly their page lists the truly excellent bike lockup facilities provided by the San Francisco Bike Coalition at their games under “Getting there by car”, but not everything can be perfect. How good are these valeted bike spots? Streetfilms, out of New York, was there and shot this video:
Interestingly, the new FitinFitness program, which consists of Greater Victoria recreation centres, along with BC transit, the CRD and the Y, lists bus route information, with links to schedules on their page, but nobody but the CRD have any bus information on their facilities websites. The CRD’s SEAPARC leisure centre in Sooke’s page even lists biking via the Goose.
Looks like we in the livable streets community here in Greater Victoria has some outreach to do.
Been a little bit busy recently with real life, so I have been sitting on these pictures of the Bowker Creek Rubber Ducky Race. This is the 11th annual hosted by the Oak Bay High Environment Club, but actually the 12th race ever hosted. The weather cooperated for the event, with a nice light breeze and beautiful sunshine. Given the low volume of water in the creek and the breeze, this meant that the race was actually up the creek, not down it. Of course, what you really came here to see are some pictures:
The youngest volunteer and some of her fellowsUrban Raincatcher Gazette display with Freya, a volunteerNDP MP Denise Savoie chats with with a member of the publicDavid Lock calls everybody to announce the start of the raceSonora Godfrey and fellow student just before the startStudents watch the ducks cross the line
Mayor Causton speaking with with a member of the publicDavid Lock marshalls his volunteers/studentsOak Bay Councillor Pam CopleyStudents wait with boxes of ducks for the start of the raceThe ducks are in the water!David Lock announces the results
Kudos to Sonera and David for organizing the event and all the people that came out and bought rubber ducks. It was a great event and hopefully this will keep Bowker Creek and all the work that needs to be done in the public eye and in their mind.
