The committee, made up of members of council, endorsed the bylaw which would forbid camping on City medians and boulevards and would bar trespassing on medians after dark. The bylaw is intended to break up the Pandora Avenue tent city and reduce the increasing number of pedestrian/vehicle collisions.

Mayor Dean Fortin talks to the media after Council voted to send the anti-camping bylaw to final reading. Photo by Robert Randall © VibrantVictoria.ca.

Council voted to allow public comment on September 23 so that citizens could give feedback on the bylaw before it becomes official. Normally, public hearings and not held for bylaws dealing with streets and boulevards.

Councillor Phillipe Lucas was the lone “no” vote, saying council should delay introduction of the bylaw so that additional research could be made on the causes and consequences of homelessness and its relation to addictions. Claiming HIV/AIDS and Hep C were deadlier than nearby speeding traffic, Lucas reiterated his call for increased harm-reduction services, including a fixed needled exchange site. Lucas also recommended traffic calming measures on Pandora avenue in order to slow down traffic passing by the tent city.

Mayor Fortin abruptly cut off Lucas saying there was no link between harm reduction services and the problem of mind-altered pedestrians blindly wandering into traffic at all hours. Fortin said speed bumps would serve as a “launching pad” for cars and cyclists coming down the avenue, rather than making the street safer. A visibly angry Lucas insisted the bylaw would increase long-term problems on the boulevard.

The City says 14,000 to 15,000 vehicles a day come down Pandora Avenue. Vic PD reports that collisions on the block this year are up 58 per cent.

Councillors Chris Coleman and Sonya Chandler were absent from the meeting. Final hearing and vote is scheduled for September 24, the day after the public are invited to speak to council on the subject.

To discuss homelessness on the VibrantVictoria discussion forum, click here.

Copyright © 2010 by VibrantVictoria.ca.  All rights reserved.

The Jukebox is the third proposal on the 1000-block View Street property since the early 2000’s.

The first proposal, designed by Number 10 Architecture, was for a two-tower residential project.  A second design featured a low-rise building with a 14-storey component on the northwest corner of the property.

Have any questions or wish to share new information about this building? View or participate in this building’s active discussion on the forum.

Stay up to date on Victoria’s construction scene by following VibrantVictoria.ca’s VicConstruction Twitter feed.

Councilor Charlayne Thornton-Joe (left) listens as pub owner Bonnie Bradley speaks at an August 26 Council meeting. Photo by Robert Randall © VibrantVictoria.ca.

Thornton-Joe, the top vote getter in the 2008 civic election, has held the portfolio since first being elected in 2002. She also has the neighbouring Burnside/Gorge portfolio and will remain council’s representative to that district. Luton currently is liaison to the Victoria West neighbourhood.

As council Liaison to Downtown and Harris Green, Thornton-Joe was involved in many challenging downtown issues from graffiti to mental health, addictions and homelessness. She also served as council’s representative to the Downtown Residents’ Association and the Burnside-Gorge Community Association and served as city council representative at board meetings for both organizations.

The switch is believed to be motivated in part by the recommendations in 2008’s Cuff Report on Governance which called for more rotation of duties among councillors. Report author George Cuff believes this levels the playing field by preventing councillors from dominating a particular issue or becoming entrenched in a closely-guarded portfolio.

This is not the first time in recent memory a prominent portfolio was yanked from a councillor. In 2005, former Mayor Alan Lowe took away the prestigious planning portfolio from from a stunned councillor Pam Madoff. Lowe handed the plum appointment to then-councillor Bea Holland, who Lowe was quoted at the time saying was more “staff friendly”.

Thornton-Joe says that while unexpected, she accepts the Mayor’s decision and looks forward to continuing to serve the Burnside-Gorge neighbourhood. This area is expected to see an increase in urban issues this fall when the new Streetlink shelter on Ellice Street opens and the View Street Bottle Depot relocates to Queens Street.

VibrantVictoria’s discussion forum features a thread devoted to the Cuff Report. A thread featuring Mayor and Council goals for this term can be found here.

Copyright © 2010 by VibrantVictoria.ca.  All rights reserved.

Street campers in the 900 block Pandora. Photo by Robert Randall © VibrantVictoria.ca.

The bylaw will be presented to Council this Thursday morning at the meeting of the City’s Governance and Priorities Committee. If approved, it will later be sent to Council for a vote, and if passed, will become Victoria’s newest bylaw. As the regulation is under the domain of streets and boulevards, no public hearing will be held.

The proposed bylaw states that camping will be prohibited on medians including parts of Pandora Avenue, Blanshard Street, Begbie Avenue and the Johnson Street bridgehead–essentially all grassy areas surrounded by busy arterial roads.

The move was made in the wake of several instances where street people have walked into busy Pandora Avenue traffic. Two people have died after being hit by vehicles traveling down Pandora Avenue in recent months. Several near-misses have been reported as well.

In addition, the bylaw will outlaw loitering on the medians between sunset and sunrise, meaning anyone on the problem boulevards or medians not in the process of lawfully crossing the street is contravening the bylaw. This gives police the power to move along any person standing, lying, squatting or camping on City medians at night. Any tent in these areas will require Engineering approval before being put up, which would permit tents used for community celebrations but disallow tents used for temporary shelter.

City Hall hopes the bylaw will force street campers to use the available shelter beds provided this summer. It is believed that some of the population already has access to housing. City staff have also said that the 900 block of Pandora Avenue is becoming a destination for the region’s illicit drug shoppers.

Left to be seen will be the impact the new bylaw may have on problems associated with social disorder. Dispersal of Victoria’s street population from Pandora Avenue may mean an increase in drug dealing, sex acts and human waste in the remaining alleys, parking lots and doorways throughout Downtown.

To discuss homelessness on the VibrantVictoria discussion forum, click here.

Copyright © 2010 by VibrantVictoria.ca.  All rights reserved.

The 777 foot Zaandam and the 965 foot Celebrity Infinity, en-route from Ketchikan, Alaska and Skagway, Alaska, respectively, stopped within arms reach of Victoria’s Ogden Point cruise ship facility to determine a course of action as 35-knot winds swept over James Bay.  The Master of the Ship of each vessel, with the advice of a local pilot, ultimately decided that a call to port would be too risky and the sailings continued on to Seattle.

Holland America's Zaandam, a 777 foot vessel with nearly 1,500 passengers, was one of two cruise ships unable to dock at Ogden Point on Thursday due to poor weather. Photo © by Holland America.

The decision to abort the scheduled visit impacted not only the local tourism industry in Victoria, but also the port facility that had many staff on stand-by anticipating the arrival of the ships and the thousands of cruise ship passengers looking forward to visiting the capital.

“Victoria as a whole really loses out when a cruise ship is unable to dock due to poor weather conditions,” said Greater Victoria Harbour Authority acting CEO Sonterra Ross.

Ross estimates that the direct financial loss to local businesses due to the canceled calls was close to $200,000.  According to numbers from 2009, each cruise ship passenger spends an average of $56 in Victoria while visiting attractions such as Butchart Gardens, catching taxis to and from the terminal facility, and grabbing a bite to eat or picking up souvenirs.

And yet the total cost of a missed visit to Victoria is not only one of dollars and cents, says Ross, as it impacts the passengers who are anticipating a stop-over in Victoria prior to ending their trip.

“Cruise ship passenger feedback shows that many would-be visitors are disappointed with a missed call to port as for many individuals an opportunity to visit Victoria is one of the highlights of an Alaskan cruise from Seattle,” Ross said.

Of the 180 scheduled cruise ship visits through Thursday, August 26, eight, including the two calls from Thursday, have missed their call to port due to bad weather.  Although eight out of 180 is not a high number, it is nearing Ogden Point’s record of 10 missed calls.  And that record was enough to cancel provision stops in Victoria.

“Due to the weather uncertainty in Victoria cruise ship supply deliveries through Ogden Point were canceled in 2010 and that has had a real impact on local suppliers. Cruise ships can not risk going without provisions and if there is a chance a vessel may not be able to dock, provisions will be supplied in a facility that can guarantee delivery,” Ross said.

The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority believes that for the time-being there is not much that can be done when the weather is uncooperative.  However, future plans may lead towards building a secondary breakwater off McCauley Point on the Esquimalt side of the harbour.  The additional breakwater would not be a complete safeguard from wild weather, Ross says, although it would certainly help.

Between August 27 and October 03 nearly 50 cruise ship visits are anticipated at Ogden Point.  Weather permitting, of course.

To discuss the cruise ship industry and the Ogden Point terminal facility on the VibrantVictoria discussion forum, click here.

Copyright © by VibrantVictoria.ca.  All rights reserved.

Downtown Victoria’s 2010 office vacancy rate has increased from 4% to 6.1%, according to a report by Colliers International’s Victoria office.  The regional vacancy rate rose by 1.9% to 6.3%.

Colliers reports that 330,000 sq. ft. of new office space will be added to the region throughout 2010 with projects such as Atrium at 800 Yates Street, 947 Fort and offices at the new Uptown development in Saanich.  However, the record new supply of space coupled with provincial government downsizing will result in vacancy rates at nearly double 2009’s rate and approximately 3% above the 10-year average.

Downtown's newest office building, Atrium, is nearing the end of construction. Photo © by VibrantVictoria.ca.

Just a few years ago the office market in Victoria was a different story.  The region was readying for a major influx of office properties as the economy, fueled by private-sector investment and a relatively stable provincial government financial outlook, roared ahead.

Multiple large-scale projects were proposed that combined, would have padded downtown Victoria’s office space by nearly half a million square feet.  Unfortunately the economic slowdown of 2008, coupled with a red-hot provincial government-agenda-turned-layoff-spritz  quickly put a stop to multiple projects.

The victims included The Radius, once planned as a 13-storey office and 17-storey residential complex along Chatham Street between Douglas and Blanshard streets, which actually managed to secure commercial tenants before financing dried up.  And just south of Radius the 15-storey Gateway Green development by Tri-Eagle Development Corporation failed to materialize as a major tenant never signed on.  Gateway Green, however, remains a proposal.

Across downtown at Douglas and Courtney streets Westbank Development Corporation partnered with the St. Andrew’s Church to redevelop the church’s Kirk Hall property along Courtney Street and Westbank’s Ballantyne property along Douglas Street.  Ultimately both partners cut ties and at one point each had a mid-rise office proposal in the works (the Kirk Hall property was envisioned as a 10-storey project).

In the 700-block of Yates Street, Concert Properties recently canceled plans for a 12-storey office building and instead is focusing on a 16-storey residential toweer, citing market economics as the driver behind the switch.

High vacancy rates do not necessarily equate to all-around negatives for the region.  For office tenants, increased vacancy rates translate into landlord concessions as the market reacts to decreased demand.  Coupled with more choices for tenants, the perfect opportunity for local organizations to move up to new digs or re-negotiate lease contracts is on the horizon.

For more on the Victoria office market and to discuss issues related to the topic, refer to VibrantVictoria’s Office space and office development discussion thread.

Copyright © 2010 by VibrantVictoria.ca.  All rights reserved.

As covered previously here, Don and Bonnie Bradley hope to open their combination brewery, restaurant and pub October 1 in the former Direct Buy location on Bay Street near the foot of the Point Ellice Bridge.

Councillor Chris Coleman (right) asks co-owner Bonnie Bradley a question regarding Moon Under Water's rezoning application. Photo by Robert Randall © VibrantVictoria.ca.

Following on the positive recommendation of City staff, Council said the granting of a Liquor Primary license, a requirement for the pub, would have little or no negative impact on the neighbourhood.

When one Councillor mentioned there are no known problems associated with local English-style pubs, Councillor John Luton joked there indeed was a problem–not enough of them.

Councillor Chris Coleman mentioned the pub’s limited drink menu, which would only feature beers, ciders and scotches. Bradley said that the limitation was voluntary and City Staff confirmed that if the pub changed hands, any new owner could open a full-service bar. However, the owners say they wish to cater to a discerning clientele with a smaller selection of quality alcohol, rather than offer what Bradley calls “cheap three-ounce-pour martini-style drinks” that encourage overindulgence.

The pub's name was inspired by a George Orwell article. Image supplied.

The Bradleys were seeking a parking variance in addition to the rezoning. Because bylaws state that there must be one parking space for every three seats, a seven stall variance was requested and granted. Paul Seal, who spoke in support at the Public Hearing noted that the number 14 bus stops right outside the entrance of the proposed 86-seat pub. Denis Oliver was the sole dissenting citizen at the packed hearing, stating that Victoria has more Liquor Primary licenses per capita than any other BC city and should therefore approve no more. A comment from the Burnside-Gorge community meeting said a return to industrial use would be preferable for the Rock Bay site.  Bonnie Bradley disagreed, saying the brewery actually returns the former home furnishings buying club to a manufacturing use more suited to its M-3 industrial zoning.

Bonnie Bradley told Council the pub would be a welcome addition to the Rock Bay neighbourhood and plans on having business-friendly soup and sandwich lunch specials for the numerous workers in the area. Council was shown a list signed by employees of neighbouring businesses endorsing the pub.

To discuss the Moon Under Water Pub on the VibrantVictoria.ca discussion forum, click here.

Copyright © 2010 by VibrantVictoria.ca.  All rights reserved.

The move in will take place in two phases this Fall as their new home nears completion in Downtown’s Atrium office building, also the new home of BC Ferries’ corporate office.

Employees and visitors get a spectacular view of the multi-level atrium at the building's core. Photo by Robert Randall © VibrantVictoria.ca.

LTSA’s corporate office and the Surveyor General Division opens September 10, 2010. The mailing address is 200-1321 Blanshard Street, V8W 9J3. The local phone number is 250-387-7280.

The Land Titles Office officially opens October 18, 2010 when the public can visit the LTSA at suite 110-1321 Blanshard Street.

On November 1, 2010, the consolidated LTSA office will launch a new customer service centre, able to receive inquiries from across the Province. Users can call 1-877-577-LTSA (5872) from 8:00 a.m to 4:30 p.m.

The LTSA’s offices in Victoria, New Westminster and Kamloops register all real property ownership and conduct all private and Crown land surveys. The LTSA is a statutory corporation established in 2005.

Follow the progress of the Atrium Building by following this link to VibrantVictoria’s discussion forum.

More information on the LTSA can be found at ltsa.ca.

Artist's rendering of the Brix on Borden. Photo supplied.

Located on Borden Street, across from the Monkey Tree Pub off McKenzie Avenue, the townhome complex is on track for an October 2011 completion date on the first phase, with Phase 2 arriving two months later according to Kelly Olinger of DFH Realty. Olinger says the disclosure agreement has been released and sales are now underway.

Dump trucks remove fill from the Brix on Borden building site. Photo by Robert Randall © VibrantVictoria.ca.

The low-rise proposal did not come forward without controversy. Residents from nearby Cumberland Road complained to Saanich Council that the proposal’s driveway location would exacerbate an already congested intersection at Borden and Cedar Hill Cross Road. Council was told by the neighbours that the intersection was near the only exit the small enclave of streets behind the Motor Vehicle Branch had and that rush-hour snarls would bog down local traffic.

Brix developers are hoping that the close proximity to a wide range of shopping and bus routes will mean less car usage by residents and little impact on local roads.

The contemporary-styled building offers smallish one or two bedroom suites ranging from 495 to 765 square feet.

Take part in a discussion on the progress of Brix on Borden by following this link to the VibrantVictoria forum.

Copyright © 2010 by VibrantVictoria.ca.  All rights reserved.

An employee from West Bay Marina claims there was an incident in which a ferry captain bumped into a boat belonging to a marina user. When no apology was forthcoming from the captain or the Victoria Harbour Ferries over the alleged incident, the marina stopped allowing the ferries to use West Bay’s marina at the foot of Head Street.

Hobbis is aware of West Bay management’s claim of “unsafe and irresponsible” driving by ferry captains but denies there is a safety issue involving the company he says has a 21-year record of safe ferry operations to Esquimalt. “Frankly, I don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s a painful thing”, Hobbis says. “We are working to find an alternate temporary docking site in Esquimalt before the end of the tourist season”.

Victoria Harbour Ferries operates a fleet of 14 ferries that make stops between Victoria West, James Bay, the Inner Harbour and the Gorge.

Copyright © 2010 by VibrantVictoria.ca.  All rights reserved.