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The More Victoria Changes, the More It Stays the Same...


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#481 aastra

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Posted 05 November 2020 - 08:17 PM

Anyway, these news items prove the old adage: you can't make a few yeggs without cracking a safe.



#482 Rob Randall

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Posted 05 November 2020 - 08:24 PM

Yeah, safecracking was a big thing back then. Although it seems it wasn't movie-style safecracking with a guy dressed in black listening with a stethoscope. These articles seem to describe either dragging them out the back door or blasting them out with explosives.

 

I recall an old article about Charlayne Thornton-Joe's grandfather's safe being busted out of his shoe repair shop on Government St.



#483 aastra

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Posted 05 November 2020 - 08:50 PM

I'm just wondering if there will ever be an era when people aren't asking for more beat cops. Oak frickin' Bay in 1963 needed more beat cops. Here's an idea: put one on Oak Bay Avenue, put another one around Fort and Foul Bay. Done.

 

And I'm also wondering what the city police were doing with their time if these big jobs were happening regularly and yet the thieves were still getting away with it so easily. The "Victoria was so sleepy in the 1950s" argument seems to make no sense in this regard. If there were almost a hundred city cops then what were they doing? How many were on the job at any one time? How many were downtown at any given moment? Need I mention the police HQ was right downtown? Were they involved at all in responding to incidents in Colwood, Saanich, Oak Bay, etc.?



#484 aastra

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Posted 05 November 2020 - 09:16 PM

The city desperately needed to increase on-street parking:

 

 

Daily Colonist
October 31, 1950

Parking Report Favors Cutting Loading Zones

Police Survey Recommends Reducing Areas by Quarter

Recommendations for sizeable reductions in loading and bus zones in the downtown area are included in a comprehensive parking survey report just completed by the Victoria Police Department. (aastra says: the overburdened police department)

Although Chief Blackstock declined to give details of the report, it is understood his department is recommending that about one-quarter of the total amount of space allotted to loading zones, prohibited areas, taxi stands and other types of special zones, be wiped out and restored to parking of private cars.

A reduction in the space now set aside for bus zones also is expected to be recommended to the works committee.

"Total amount of space allotted to all zones, excluding bus zones, is in excess of 9,000 feet. If the police department recommendations are approved, it is believed more than 2,000 feet will be returned for use as general parking space."

Unknown Quantity

It is not known how much of the several thousand feet of bus zones will be recommended for abolition.

To the exasperated driver, who has wasted 20 minutes circling the block looking for a parking space, frequent loading zones, prohibited parking areas and long bus zones are intolerable. Firms making use of the zones, however, present convincing arguments in favor of the amount of space allotted.



#485 aastra

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Posted 05 November 2020 - 09:30 PM

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
March 29, 1962

 

Furious Residents Accuse Officials

Some 300 angry ratepayers of the Glen Lake-Colwood-Langford area last night flayed representatives of the provincial government for turning the district into a community planning area without consulting the people.

One angry area resident lashed out at what he considered to be an attempt to impose the government's will on the district.

"Are you trying to sneak us in the back door and make a municipality out of us while we're not looking?" shouted a woman.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
March 29, 1962

Schoolyard Craze

Latest craze to hit schoolyards is tetherball. Greater Vitoria school board installed dozens on poles set in ground, with ball attached by rope to top. Two, four or more can play. Each side tries to make ball circle pole three times in one direction.


Edited by aastra, 05 November 2020 - 09:31 PM.


#486 aastra

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Posted 18 November 2020 - 10:12 AM

The premise that Victoria's image is constantly changing but also never changing has been an element of the city's mythology for ages. It's the shtick. Today the city's image is starting to change because of Lisa Helps, but yesterday the city's image was starting to change because of condo towers, and before that the city's image was starting to change because blah blah blah. And yet with every new day the city's image is only just starting to change, right now. It had been an unchanging constant up until this morning.

 

I can't help but consider how dozens of notable buildings in Victoria's old downtown were wiped out in the span of ~30 years from the 1950s through the 1980s. I can't help but think of all the alterations to streets and traffic patterns, the new JSB, etc. Doesn't it seem a bit convenient that Victorians reserve the right to insist their city is frozen in time even while they wipe things out and do all sorts of dramatic alterations without a second thought? It reminds me of the tree-chopping fetish, which is indulged like crazy even while Victorians still try to depict themselves as being hardcore environmentalists.

 

 

Monocle Magazine, 2020

 

Long thought of by Canadians as a place for the “newlywed and nearly dead”, Victoria, British Columbia’s provincial capital, is evolving. First, Victoria’s long-held reputation as a serious, sedate city – a characterisation that often cloaks government towns – has continued to slip away, thanks, in part, to shifts in its population and a progressive agenda from the city’s mayor, Lisa Helps.

 

--

 

 

Times-Colonist
June 11, 2019

("Victoria: Then and Now" comment)

Where did our sleepy little town go?

We woke up to discover the real world on our doorstep, It is our new world.

With limited land options, we can’t grow out so we must grow up and the high prices reflect that.

Many are moving in with no memory of how it used to be.

 

--

 

 

By ANNA KEMP
Monday Magazine
Jul 25 2007

...this summer it seems the good times have dried up and some frustrated downtown businesses are concerned about where our fair city is headed. I don’t know who coined the term “No Fun City” (it wasn’t us, was it?), but the term is starting to stick.

Some of the main complaints centre on the actions and attitudes of Liquor Control and Licensing Branch inspectors who, according to Liam Lux, general manager of Lucky Bar and spokesperson for the Victoria Bar and Cabaret Association, are becoming increasingly difficult to please.

...some businesses feel they are being unfairly treated. “They seem to be trying to hand out as many tickets as possible,” says Lux...

“When it’s costing the hospitality industry into the three-digit numbers, we’ll eventually be talking about a closed, bankrupt downtown.”

Rob Woodland, City of Victoria corporate administrator, agrees that the City is supportive of downtown residential development (aastra says: !!!!!!) which can sometimes conflict with downtown nightlife.

Jeff Hurry is owner of The Joint pizza shop on Wharf Street, one of the late-night eateries threatened with the new nuisance bylaw.

“The city has this weird concept that they want people to be living downtown but not having fun downtown,” says Hurry. “Downtown core revitalization sounds great—lets get more people living downtown and not commuting . . . but the people moving down here, paying half a million dollars for an apartment . . . they know they are moving downtown, but they’re spending so much money that they end up complaining when they’re woken up at night by people having fun.

Victoria used to be called the place of the newly wed and nearly dead, I thought it would be the opposite way with the revitalization thing, but now they want us to go home and go to bed at 11 p.m. . . . It’s a small-city mentality, but we’re not a small city anymore.

Are people who move downtown perhaps expecting too much to want quiet streets below them? Is the city pandering too much to the concerns of developers? From the perspective of many downtown late night businesses, one thing is certain—the city is not giving enough thought to Victoria’s nightlife and the businesses that provide it.

 

--

 

 

A Vancouverite reflects on Victoria:
Jackson, Kristin

May, 1990

The land of the newly wed and nearly dead.

That's what we used to call Victoria when I was growing up in Vancouver.

Yet Victoria has changed, and I've changed. The city is growing rapidly and is increasingly sophisticated. My youthful perceptions -- and prejudices -- have mellowed. And now that we're both more grown-up, Victoria strikes me as a fine place to visit or live.

"There are some concerns about transportation and congestion... and about running out of developable land in the urban area,"

Urban growth has already changed the face of the city. In the old neighborhoods near the downtown, boxy apartment buildings loom above graceful 100-year-old wooden houses. New hotels and condominiums are sprouting up around the Inner Harbor.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
April 9, 1972

...it seems to have polarized, somewhat dramatically, between the preservation of Victoria's time-honored (if belabored) image as a little bit of olde England, and dazzling rebirth as a swinging city of the 70s.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
January 6, 1970

"It's kind of sad, really... Victoria has changed tremendously in the past few years..."

"...if this trend continues, and there is no reason to suppose that it will not, the city we have known and loved will be no more. I suppose it's inevitable..." (aastra says: or maybe not, since we're STILL talking about it ~50 years later)

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
May 30, 1969

Changing Victoria

In June of 1961, I came to Victoria from New York for the same reason that I think most tourists come: to get away from noise, confusion, commercialism, and all the nerve-racking conditions that industrial communities are heir to.

I found what I came for. It was different: a lovely residential city of flowers, where the grime and hideous noises of giant trucks, steel riveting and ear-splitting sounds in the streets and the skies above, did not exist.

What a different in eight years! I wonder if the tourists who come in crowds to see Victoria because it is different, will stop coming if it becomes like other typical industrial cities? I wonder why Victoria cannot be preserved as a residential community and Vancouver and Nanaimo be developed as commercial centres?

One very happy experiment in renovation and city improvement is Bastion Square, which keeps the original character and charm of Victoria. (aastra says: in Victoria you keep the city's character by doing dramatic alteration projects)

The Europeans keep their beautiful, historic towns sacrosanct, and expand their commercial developments in other areas. I wish that we would follow their example.


Edited by aastra, 18 November 2020 - 10:15 AM.

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#487 aastra

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Posted 18 November 2020 - 10:17 AM

Too big, too small, too quiet, too noisy, too boring, too busy, too quaint, too dirty, too safe, too dangerous...

 

Too much development, but every new development is unprecedented...

 

It just plays on endless repeat, decade after decade.



#488 Nparker

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Posted 18 November 2020 - 10:19 AM

Nothing is as constant as decrying change in the CoV.



#489 aastra

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Posted 18 November 2020 - 10:33 AM

But notice how the city had already changed dramatically at some point (many points) in the past, and then reverted back to an unchanged condition again later. The street scene, homelessness, crime... the mythology pervades all aspects.

 

Heck, a massive percentage of old Victoria's population was not only non-British but also non-European. Thousands of Chinese were living right downtown and the Chinatown covered several blocks. And yet Victoria has also always been white as a bedsheet and it's only just now (in 2020, or 1995, or 1975, or etc.) starting to show some diversity. When you have these endless contradictions and nobody can keep the story straight, that's 100% politics.

 

 

"By the time the (Canadian Pacific) Railway was finished in 1885, Victoria's Chinatown had grown enormously. It covered about eight city blocks, and it's said the Chinese population in the city was almost one-third of the city population."

from Times-Colonist...

 

 

By the way from that same article, the very same CoV that wiped out a big chunk of Chinatown for its Centennial Square "blight removal" mission would be Chinatown's defender just a few years later:

 

 

Adams said the City of Victoria enacted strict building guidelines to preserve the historic flavour of Chinatown after local Chinese-Canadian organizations and others expressed concerns the area could fall into disrepair and lose its cultural importance.

 

Endless back and forth, shifting sand...


Edited by aastra, 18 November 2020 - 11:06 AM.


#490 aastra

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Posted 23 November 2020 - 09:11 PM

...

 

 

Daily Colonist
June 6, 1963

Zoning Hearing

Apartment Protests Expected in Saanich

Cries of protest are expected to be heard in Saanich council chamber... when public hearings are held for two proposed garden apartment developments.

One of the projects would be located behind the Hillside shopping centre and the other in Saanich panhandle.

Growing Opposition
Increasing opposition has been encountered in recent months by councils throughout Greater Victoria on rezoning applications.

Westcott Apartments of Vancouver, who built Bickerton Court high-rise apartment on Douglas Street, plans to build a 160-suite garden apartment between Townley and Newton Streets, west of Richmond Road...

F. G. Rainsford plans to build a 46-unit garden apartment on the west side of Shelly Street, north of North Dairy Road...

The Westcott development would have a swimming pool and two or three play areas for 82 three-bedroom suites, 66 two-bedroom suites and 12 single bedroom suites in the two-storey apartments.

The Rainsford development would be like a number of individual houses joined to each other, but each with its own carport and entrance leading through an enclosed patio to the housing unit.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
November 3, 1960

Slab to Mark Start of "High-Rise" Block

Victoria's first "high-rise" apartment block has begun rising on Douglas across from Beacon Hill Park.

When complete, the block being built by Westcott Construction Ltd. will have eight storeys and 60 suites.

Three areas in James Bay were recently rezoned to allow this type of development, with a height limit of 12 storeys.

...city planning and inspection chief Roderick Clack said yesterday he has had "five or six serious discussions" in connection with possible other applications.



#491 aastra

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Posted 23 November 2020 - 09:56 PM

For crying out loud, it's a park. It's called Beacon Hill PARK. The very fact that challenging Beacon Hill Park's identity as a park has been an ongoing & ever-present sub-genre of Victoria politics for more than a hundred years is a glaring indicator of how false and hollow the local political scene was and still is (more so now than ever):

 

 

Daily Colonist
January 29, 1929

Refreshment Pavilion

City Solicitor H.S. Pringle reported to the council that he had investigated the deed of trust with respect to Beacon Hill Park and was of the opinion that the city would be quite within its rights to erect a light refreshment pavilion in the park. The solicitor's opinion was forwarded to the parks committee.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
March 21, 1953

A Park To Be Proud Of

Aldermanic critics of Beacon Hill Park surely were straying off the proper track when they offered adverse comment.

...Beacon Hill Park was deeded in trust for the benefit of Victoria citizens and it has been developed into a thing of grace and beauty precisely for that purpose.

Indeed, it is the only real park in the whole Greater Victoria district, and it provides during most months of the year a haven deeply appreciated by the thousands of people from all four municipalities who enjoy its amenities. Victoria would certainly be a bleak place without Beacon Hill Park...

...many park lovers, in fact the community as a whole, would be deeply resentful if Beacon Hill Park were to be despoiled in any way.

 

--

 

 

Daily Colonist
June 2, 1966

Park Policy

City council's parks committee has unanimously voted in favor of rejecting a private proposal to build a 75-foot "tree house" in Beacon Hill Park combining tourist offices, a showcase for forest companies, and a lookout.

But once again there is a disturbing note in the form of advice to the alderman, backed by legal opinions, that it would be possible under the deed of trust to have a commercial venture in the park providing it were kept within rigid city control.

This may be so: a broad enough interpretation to encompass the tree-house tower or various other projects with recreational aspects put forward at other times could be given to Judge Matthew Begbie's decision in 1884 that "all establishments addressing themselves to profit or UTILITY are, I think, excluded under the terms of the trust, except the profit and utility that be derived from open air recreations..., and such buildings and erections as are ancillary to public recreation therein."

But as the long parade of rejected proposals for developments within the park has gone by... another kind of "trust" has developed. This is an understanding by the people of Victoria that Beacon Hill Park will neither be opened up for commercial use NOR FOR ANY utilization that would eat into its open and natural spaces with buildings and additional parking areas.

This trust is of no legal effect, but council does well to recognize it... and thus to establish it even more firmly as enduring civic policy.



#492 Rob Randall

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Posted 23 November 2020 - 10:25 PM

City Solicitor H.S. Pringle reported to the council that he had investigated the deed of trust with respect to Beacon Hill Park and was of the opinion that the city would be quite within its rights to erect a light refreshment pavilion in the park.

 

 

 

Mr. Pringle suggested fried potato crisps be offered for sale, with the provision that the individual chips not be manufactured randomly but rather uniformly and with conformity, which is the Victorian way. Furthermore, Mr. Pringle declaimed that the crisps be transported and stored in cylindrical tubes, in order to conserve storage space within the confines of the park.


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#493 aastra

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Posted 25 November 2020 - 05:17 PM

^Rob Randall lays it on thick. I think he has a chip on his shoulder. But I shouldn't get ruffled. He's frito say whatever he likes.


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#494 aastra

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Posted 27 November 2020 - 10:13 PM

Apartment living was luxurious back in 1966. Victorians today are probably wondering, if the city was packed with prestigious and luxurious apartments back in the mid-1960s, what the heck happened to them all since then? (hint: they're still there)

 

FYI: check out the illustration in the ad for the West Bay apartment complex. It was originally planned to be "Victoria's largest high rise complex" with five large buildings, beginning with the Princess Patricia.

 

 

Daily Colonist
September 20, 1966

Apartments on Parade


A Handy Guide to Greater Victoria's Finest Apartments

The Beacon Arms
Camelot Apartments
Charter House
The Coach House
La Maison Blanche
Lord and Lady Simcoe
Pandora Villa
The Park Pacific
The Park Royal
Pemberton Court
Princess Patricia
Regent Towers
The Rembrandt
The Rockland Arms
The Royal Arms
Rudyard Kipling

 

 

Daily Colonist
September 20, 1966

Apartment Life Steps Up

Luxury, prestige and peace of mind are three items which attract Victoria residents in ever-increasing numbers to become apartment dwellers.

The modern apartment offers a life of ease to a tenant. They can enjoy inviting swimming pools set in lush gardens, sauna baths, sundecks, balconies, piped-in music and other benefits which produce and impressive aura of gracious living.

There is little comparison between today's apartment and those of pre-Second World War vintage.

Apartment dwellers in prewar Victoria made up only six per cent of the city's population, whereas now they stand at more than 18 per cent.

Professional planners say the move to apartment living will continue to increase as more and more people find it expensive and less attractive to live in the suburbs.

(aastra says: In 1966! The love affair with post-1945 suburban life sure didn't last long. It almost makes one wonder how Saanich was able to grow by another ~55,000 people between then and now?)

They claim the key to the present increasing trend to move from single-family dwellings into apartments lies in economics and convenience.

BIG POINT

A Victoria realtor said he felt man's natural laziness was also a big point in desirability of apartment life.

Aside from taking out the garbage, there are few other tasks concerned with apartment tenancy, he said.

The realtor observed that Greater Victoria has apartments that cater to every taste and every pocketbook. There are the Garden apartments, which unlike most will take children. Scattered throughout the area are numerous three- and four-storey apartment buildings, all luxurious in varying degrees.

Then clawing skyward are the high-rises, in which cost and luxury depend on the number of floors up and the number of rooms.

But all have been designed with one primary purpose -- a pleasant, carefree life for the tenants.

The inconveniences that used to be connected with multi-family dwellings have been refined out of modern apartment living. Resident managers are on call to iron out any threatened inconvenience from a leaky faucet to an over-volumed television set.

Suites vary in size as they do in rents in the various buildings, but the automatic elevator is an item they all have, whether it be a frame and stucco apartment or the lofty reinforced concrete and steel high-rise.

Even the elevator has been engineered for the pleasure of the tenants. They are generally high-speed, self-operated cars designed to ensure minimum waiting time.

"Elderly people have a fear of falling down steps," says an apartment manager. "The elevator makes it possible for them to live in a stair-free home, and this is hard to duplicate in a privately owned house."

Accommodation ranges from one-bedroom units to three-bedroom, two-bathroom units. Some contain more than 1,200 square feet of floor area.

Many have oak floors throughout. Others are completely equipped with wall-to-wall carpeting, while some have been finished in perpetually-polished, highly-glazed vinyl.

All suites are equipped with electric ranges and fridges, and the buildings have fully automatic laundry facilities provided for tenant use.

Most of the apartments also supply window drapes to keep the exterior appearances of the building uniform.

(aastra says: are we seeing parallels to the hype and anxieties that surround today's supposedly luxurious apartments?)

In many suites, large sliding glass doors lead out onto private balconies.

 

(aastra sayings: I stand corrected. Many of today's supposedly luxurious apartments don't even have balconies!)

"I don't think more than 10 per cent of the balconies throughout the whole area are ever used, but tenants prefer them just the same."

"Most likely it's the psychological effect of just being able to step outside into the fresh air whenever one feels like it. I guess it could be called some kind of an emotional escape hatch," he said.

 

(aastra says: or it could be called a fundamental physical need to breathe fresh air)

Moving into an apartment does not mean the green-thumb artist must give up gardening. "Most apartment managers welcome suggestions and help in maintaining the building's landscaping.

Many of the most beautiful floral displays enhancing apartment grounds throughout the city were planted and are cared for by garden-happy tenants.

 

(aastra says: the tenants are lazy and they don't like fresh air, but they can't resist doing unpaid yard work for property management companies.)

Like most modern buildings in this area, the high-rises have been designed to withstand earth tremors. Their foundations are anchored to the bedrock with steel dowels to give the building strength in coping with any horizontal movement of the earth.

According to the Victoria fire department, the threat of fire in high-rises has been brought to a minimum by the buildings' design and construction.

"They are mostly concrete, and also have sensing devices throughout the building which trip off the fire alarm system when room temperature raises above a set point," a deputy fire chief explained.

He also pointed out that smoke towers -- inside fire escapes -- were located at the ends of the hallways.

"These are separated from the rest of the building by smoke doors with an automatic closing system, and have been designed to withstand fire for approximately three-quarters of an hour."

In event of emergency at any of Victoria's high-rises, the fire department has pre-planned its strategy for use on each individual high-rise.

The demand for apartments is increasing, says a property manager of one of Victoria's largest rental agencies.

One tenant who moved into an apartment some six months ago said he would not trade this new way of living for anything.

"I am finally free of being tied to a house."

"I can come home from work now without having to mow the lawn, water the garden, or fix some household gadget that has broken down during the day."

"I come in after a busy day, put on my swim trunks, and head for the pool."

He said to own a house was fine -- he did for 25 years -- but if a person really wanted to get some enjoyment out of life he recommended apartment living.

"All I'm required to do now is to pay the rent, and everything I need for good relaxed living is right at my fingertips."


Edited by aastra, 27 November 2020 - 10:38 PM.


#495 Nparker

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Posted 27 November 2020 - 10:21 PM

Clearly I was born too late to enjoy these luxurious, Jetson-era apartments.



#496 aastra

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Posted 27 November 2020 - 10:54 PM

Dude, perpetually-polished vinyl floors! They'll never wear out! Many years later they'll look perfectly new, without so much as a scratch.


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#497 aastra

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Posted 27 November 2020 - 10:57 PM

Dallas Road at Olympia Ave:

 

 

Daily Colonist
November 8, 1969

New-Apartment Taxes Assesses by Air Space

A 24-suite, eight-storey, $1,000,000 luxury apartment building will be built on Dallas Road at Olympia Avenue starting early in the new year, Victoria builder George Farmer said Friday.

The building will be topped with a penthouse and is being financed by local interests.

...the city's board of variance granted minor adjustments to its normal 70-foot height restriction in that part of the city.

The new building will be 77 feet high with three luxury apartments on each floor. All parking will be underground.

Each apartment will have 1,400 feet of floor space and will be individually owned rather than rented. Estimated price range for the apartments was from $37,000 to $40,000 a unit.

MAJOR PROJECT
It will be the first major project to be built in Victoria under the Strata Titles Act, provincial legislation which permits the city to assess the air space occupied by apartments for taxation purposes.

Before the act, the city was able to tax the apartment building as a whole and the land on which it stood, but under the terms of the new legislation, it will be able to assess and tax each individually-owned apartment.

Each individual owner will pay his share of the total tax on the basis of the value and desirability of his apartment.

Victoria's senior planner Peter Crisp said he anticipates no delays...

"It is the ideal type of development for the Dallas Road area," Mr. Crisp said. "The design is good, permitting medium-density occupancy while getting away from what you might call a great mass of concrete. The apartment is in the shape of a slim tower with lots of air space around it."



#498 aastra

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Posted 27 November 2020 - 11:16 PM

Did we all know that Saanich already has overbuilt infrastructure sufficient to support double its current population?

 

 

Daily Colonist (The Victoria Express)
May 4, 1974

Peninsula Given Reprieve

Two concepts for population distribution in metropolitan Victoria to the end of this century are outlined in the report. They are designed to accommodate a projected population of 367,000 (against the present 222,300) by the year 2001.

The basic difference between the two concepts is one of growth limitation on the peninsula.

Concept A... calls for a 35,000 population in North and Central Saanich and Sidney -- a little more than double the present figure of 16,200.

But the second option -- and one which (Capital Region Board Chairman) Jim Campbell said the planning committee is strongly urging the board to adopt -- envisages a maximum population in the peninsula communities of 21,000 people and shifts the emphasis on satellite growth to the Highland area.

Earmarked for 11,000 inhabitants in the earlier proposal, the Highlands would see a revised population figure of 25,000 to accommodate the 14,000 previously destined for the peninsula communities.

Both options would provide a population figure of 272,000 in the urban core area comprising Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay and Esquimalt (present total 167,400) and 49,000 in the remaining electoral areas where the present population totals 26,500.

On environmental grounds, the plan proposes that no more small-lot subdivision be allowed in most of Colwood and View Royal and a large part of Langford, until sewers are installed.

...a subdivision freeze in the Colwood-Langford-View Royal area would compound an already-serious housing shortage, Campbell said, and for that reason provincial government co-operation in helping to finance sewer construction must be a high priority.

Pollen said one of the major problems to be resolved will be the financial situation in the municipality of Saanich, which is earmarked for a total population of 143,500 by 2001 -- far less than the 236,000 figure attainable under present policies.

He said if it is found that Saanich has "over-extended" itself with expenditure on sewers and other capital costs, on the basis of earlier population projections, the bulk of that responsibility will have to be picked up by the provincial government.

Alternatively, Pollen said, there was no reason why such costs shouldn't be met through a "punitive" tax on capital gains resulting from land speculation.



#499 Rob Randall

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Posted 28 November 2020 - 07:32 AM

Interesting hearing Pollen's "pull up the drawbridge" approach applied beyond his precious Victoria Old Town out to the outlying municipalities.

 

That lack of sewer service affects Langford residents to this day. There are residents in older homes with aging septic systems faced with daunting costs associated with hooking up to Langford's slowly expanding sewer service. 

 

And the idea of putting density in the Highlands rather than the peninsula is baffling.



#500 Nparker

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Posted 28 November 2020 - 08:39 AM

...Each apartment will have 1,400 feet of floor space and will be individually owned rather than rented. Estimated price range for the apartments was from $37,000 to $40,000 a unit....

Good luck buying a 1400 square foot, brand new, Dallas Road condo for $270,000 (the inflationary equivalent) today.



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