Author: corey.burger

Council delays Oak Bay Lodge decision

At last night’s marathon council session, council ultimately decided to delay the decision until early November (either the 7th or 14th). Baptist Housing apparently faces a deadline of November 10th for their funding, which is intertwined in the Mount View property in Saanich, so this delay still allows them to complete the deal.

The plan has changed somewhat, with the building dropping by one metre and pulling back towards Cadboro Bay Rd, at the cost of four mature Garry Oak trees, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy neighbours, who were fairly unanimous in saying they felt that the project was rushed and out of scale with the neighbourhood.

Another bone of contention was the revelation that although the plans were filed initially in late May, it wasn’t until August that they were brought forward. The delay was at the request of Baptist Housing, although whether they had to for legal reasons or not is unclear.

Baptist Housing did promise to work with the neighbours on the design, although it seems fairly clear that the total number of beds, 320, isn’t going to change, as that is part of the 550+ that Baptist Housing has said it will provide to VIHA between Oak Bay Lodge and Mount View. Councillor Ney did wonder why Oak Bay got the larger number, but Baptist Housing said that Mount View is already a 7-story building.

After Baptist Housing meets with the neighbours, it will head back to Council on October 24th, likely to be sent for the legally-required public notification period of two weeks, which brings the decision back either on November 14th or the 7th, depending on if council decides to hold a special council meeting that night.

As a final aside, likely this will be Mayor Causton’s final major decision, as he mentioned that when he first arrived as mayor, his first was sewage. He laughed as he said there was “no link”.

Oak Bay releases Active Transportation Plan

Oak Bay Council last night approved the Active Transportation Plan, a first for the municipality. Developed by Boulevard, based here in Greater Victoria, the plan covers walking and cycling, as well as touching on public transit.

I will have more to say about in the next day or so, but I wanted to post it here so other’s could read it. Please ignore the comments on the side of the page, they are my notes.

[download id=”10″ format=”1″] And sorry about the size, I wanted to upload at a high resolution so that the maps came through.

Quick followup on Oak Bay Lodge

(Sorry about the delay in this update, I have been on vacation from the 18th to the 26th)

Just a few clarifying points on my post on Oak Bay Lodge just over a week ago:

  • The building is to be 6 stories, not 5
  • The Mount Tolmie lands ultimate disposition is unclear at this time. Saanich Council has made it very clear that they will not rezone the land, so that likely ends any chance of it being sold off.
  • Where is the cost/benefit analysis of replacing vs repairing Oak Bay Lodge that Oak Bay Council asked for, and was promised by VIHA CEO Waldner, in Janurary 2010?

Ultimately, I suspect that like the school, which was just delayed, I suspect this project won’t start construction this fall.

Baptist Housing proposes 5-story Oak Bay Lodge replacement

Baptist Housing, owner of many senior’s facilities in British Columbia — including Shannon Oaks in Oak Bay — came to Oak Bay Council with a five story Oak Bay Lodge replacement, tentatively named Garry Oaks. The 320-bed facility would be a mixture of dementia care and long-term residential living, removing any independent living that currently exists at Oak Bay Lodge. Given that Shannon Oaks, Baptist Housing’s independent living facility just up the street, isn’t full yet, this isn’t shocking, but it is disappointing.

However, it appears that the threat of the land being sold has passed, as the land is being transferred from VIHA to the Capital Regional Health District, owners of the existing land at RJH and VGH. It isn’t clear yet what will happen with the Mount Tolmie land and buildings, as this is a linked development, designed to replace both Oak Bay Lodge, Mount Tolmie and the Bapist Housing-owned Mount Edwards Court.

Happily for the any future residents, the new facility will keep full on-site food preparation and laundry. Patrick Cotter, the architect, had this to say on the topic of food:

The new building will have a full central kitchen on-site that will provide lunch and dinner service, this will be augmented with a complete kitchen in each of the 16 resident houses that will provide food preparation for individual breakfast service throughout the morning; will provide individual service of lunch and dinner within the resident houses; and snacks and drinks throughout the remainder of the day.

The deal gets more complicated, however, when you consider yet another moving piece: Baptist Housing’s Mount View Heights, a contentious development on the old Mount View School Grounds on Carey Road. Cotter Architects is also designing the 260-bed facility there, which VIHA is somehow combining with the new Oak Bay Lodge/Garry Oaks development to trumpet their “increase in beds”

So much remains murky, including whether or not this building, in this size will get past Oak Bay Council. Cotter claimed that reducing it in size would reduce its effectiveness (ie: profit), as it is designed around 20-unit “neighbourhoods”. Stay tuned for more.

 

UVic proposes giant parking increase

UVic, after a decade of slowly drawing down their parking supply, and reaping the rewards for doing so,  has decided to build a giant parkade on north-end of campus. Why is UVic proposing this now? What hass changed that they need so much new parking now? What happened to their much-vaunted sustainability?

The crazy part is that it isn’t even needed. Although there are a few place around the campus that might need a few fixes (such as Arbutus Rd.) there certainly isn’t some giant crisis that only a new parkade can solve. Nor is the proposed parkade in a good location – the north side of the. campus away from most of the buildings. UVic’s own 2010 Traffic Audit ([download id=”9″ format=”1″]something I worked on), says this

The results from the 2010 survey document the continued positive trends with decreases in total automobile-related trips and large increases in both pedestrian and bicycle trips.

One of the big questions is this – Why bring it forward now? I suspect that like the Baptist Housing folks who are replacing Oak Bay Lodge, UVic hoped that it could slide it under the radar in the quiet summer months. Not to mention getting approval before the next municipal election, due November 19th.

Even sadder is that UVic is currently stonewalling BC Transit on a new transit exchange at the university, something that BC Transit desperately needs to expand transit service for the students and staff of UVic, but cannot due to lack of space. BC Transit even started a process to get public opinion on where that transit exchange might go (something I wrote about in April). But UVic claims to have no funding for any new exchange. So where is the funding for this parkade coming from? It is explicitly tied to the sport centre, approved in a referendum of UVic students in 2009.

Thankfully, it appears that UVic run into no small amount of opposition from the local community, causing Saanich Council to delay the proposal until the fall.