Gotta laugh at this:
http://www.cfax1070....e-torn-down-onc
Mayor suspects Oak Bay Lodge will be torn down once CRD takes ownership
Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen suspects the existing Oak Bay Lodge building will not be re-purposed , but will be torn down once the Capital Regional District takes over.
It was announced Tuesday that the CRD will get the property from Island Health in 2019.
Oak Bay Lodge is currently used as a long term care facility but that operation is scheduled to close by 2019, leading some to speculate the CRD might use the building as another facility for housing the homeless.
When Jensen was asked about that possibility on the C-FAX morning show, he said he doubts the building will be repurposed and is "99% sure" it'll get bulldozed and something else will be built.
He went on to suggest he'd like to see a new health facility focused on senior.
Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen said the transfer will provide the community with an opportunity to consider what should happen to the space.
“It’s a very important area of Oak Bay and careful consideration has to be given to ensure that it’s the right use that’s in keeping with the surrounding neighbourhood,” he said, noting that the area is residential.
Late last year, the hospital district board unanimously agreed to borrow up to $30 million to build supportive housing — as health facilities — for the chronically homeless, provided the province agreed to match the funds.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps believes the Oak Bay Lodge site would be an excellent candidate for redevelopment for social housing.
“A CRD-owned property is an easy one because the ownership structure is such that the CRD can do the work, basically, as the developer,” Helps said.
Jensen said all options should be considered.
“I don’t think at this point we should take any of the options off the table,” he said.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>