111 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

How many trees had to come down in Langford for that wood?

[Victoria Watcher]

Saanich council to approve site and design of new PKOLS communications tower

 

The new tower is expected to be erected near the parking lot at the mountain’s summit.

 

 

https://www.timescol...s-tower-7771723

 

 

Saanich issued a request for proposals for the design, supply and installation of a new communication tower on Mount PKOLS, saying the existing tower has reached the end of its useful life.

 

A replacement is also required by the end of next year due to new federal regulations around wind and weight.

 

While design and location have yet to be finalized, CAO Brent Reems said the new tower is expected to be erected near the parking lot at the mountain’s summit.

 

He said placing the new tower in the same spot as the existing tower would require “significant environmental damage” through tree removal.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 November 2023 - 01:09 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Users of popular Saanich park fear proposed tower will ruin its ‘aesthetics’

PKOLS-Mount Douglas Conservancy objects to tower location


https://www.vicnews....thetics-7114361


Saanich has limited time to figure out the construction plans for the tower as it is a crucial part of CREST operations, the regional emergency communications infrastructure.





^ OK while that might be true it’s a critical part of CREST. The existing tower has been there for decades. Why the hurry-up now?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 November 2023 - 07:54 AM.

[dasmo]

Why not put CREST on Starlink and lose the tower?

[Victoria Watcher]

Little communication about that new tower

 

 

“If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise …. ” You’ll certainly be shocked, today or soon, if you go to the summit parking lot in PKOLS Mount Douglas Park.

 

Saanich is taking a key part off that open area for a new communications tower. Structural standards require replacement of the existing one, but they do not require relocating it from beside the existing east summit location that has balanced park, engineering and commercial interests so well.

 

Neither do they require making it higher.

 

Saanich hides behind the motherhood issues of safety and security (CREST is up there), but those issues have nothing to do with the new location or height. Saanich has kept all information on a short leash.

 

What’s happening, and why, is murky. It appears that the finite plan will only be revealed when it is too late to be modified.

 

Historically, in B.C. Tel days, the communications facility was an illegal, commercial operation in the park, then in the hands of the City of Victoria. Hence, in the late 1980s, the last Social Credit government took the park back briefly, to allow subdivision of the communications site, and of the main roads, out of it.

 

This was to enable existing trespasses, not to expand them. Then, in the early 1990s, the new NDP government handed the remainders to Saanich.

 

I have been part of the Friends of Mount Douglas Park, now the PKOLS Mount Douglas Conservancy, for 35 years, and never has such political spin and bureaucratic stonewalling been as hostile, or at least patronizing, as on this project.

 

What appears to be happening is that the facility user/tenants have asked for a great deal more capacity than they have now, or may ever need, and would rather have the tower where they can drive right up to it.

 

Perhaps the builders would rather have a flat construction site, too. Costs be damned. Park be damned. Park users be damned.

 

This is no teddy bears’ picnic. It’s more like the foxes have taken over the henhouse.

 

 

Claude Maurice

Oak Bay

(grew up in Saanich)

 

 

https://www.timescol...versary-8322301

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 February 2024 - 02:51 AM.

[dasmo]

“ never has such political spin and bureaucratic stonewalling been as hostile, or at least patronizing,”

[aastra]

 

...never has such political spin and bureaucratic stonewalling been as hostile, or at least patronizing, as on this project.

 

As severe as it might seem, it probably doesn't even crack the top 10,000 recent examples.

[dasmo]

As severe as it might seem, it probably doesn't even crack the top 10,000 recent examples.

I highlighted it for its copy paste potential!

[Victoria Watcher]

The site of the replacement communications tower slated to be built on top of PKOLS (formerly Mount Douglas) will finally be revealed this week.

The District of Saanich is holding an open house at the Gordon Head Lawn Bowling Club to provide the community with details on the project on Thursday (April 4) from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

According to an announcement about the open house, the district will inform residents why the tower is being replaced, where the new tower will be built, what it will look like, what the benefits of the new tower are, what will happen to the old one and the schedule for the project. This project has stirred some controversy among local conservationists who are concerned about the aesthetic impacts of a new tower.

Darrell Wick of the PKOLS-Mount Douglas Conservancy has been vocal about his concern that the location — which he says will be on the current site of the parking lot — could ruin the view.

“When you’re walking up the road, the view is going to be combated by these monitor towers,” Wick told Black Press Media late last year.

Though the district has yet to reveal the chosen site for the tower, there was exploratory digging done in February, and it was in the parking lot area.

https://www.vicnews....evealed-7336339

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 April 2024 - 08:12 AM.

[dasmo]

If we are going to overspend maybe we can make it interesting looking? Cary on the design language of the white bridge :-)

 

[Victoria Watcher]

An open house held by the District of Saanich to explain the ins and outs of the communications tower replacement on top of PKOLS has left many attendees perplexed and perturbed by the district’s engagement efforts.

“It sounds to me like it’s a done deal, and that there has been no public consultation,” said Greg Glover, who identified as a daily park user. “This is a presentation not of which one would you prefer, it’s more like ‘Here’s what we considered, and here’s what we’re going to do.’”



https://www.vicnews....l-tower-7338597

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 April 2024 - 06:19 PM.

[Nparker]

...It sounds to me like it’s a done deal, and that there has been no public consultation...

Welcome to public engagement - 2024 style.