Changes are in the works to the Price's Lack and Safe building on Fort Street. Photo © by VibrantVictoria.ca.

The aging single-story Price’s Lock and Safe building along Fort Street’s Antique Row is slated to shed its dated exterior.

Described by the Downtown Victoria Residents’ Association’s Chair Robert Randall as a “modest” proposal, the changes would include construction of an additional floor set several meters back from the street, planned as office space for Price’s, while the street level would be allocated to retail in a refreshed space.

Yet the real story about this proposal isn’t necessarily the proposal itself.  As it turns out, Robert Randall may not be the only residential association chair briefed on the project.  The reason being is, officially, the proposal isn’t even on his turf.  It’s in Fairfield.

Yes, Fairfield, otherwise known as a quieter, less densely populated James Bay, eats up two city blocks that front onto to the south side of Fort Street, one of the busiest downtown streets.

The border of Fairfield extends into what most residents would define as downtown or Harris Green (a downtown residential and retail district), running east along Quadra Street to Fort Street, then jutting back along Blanshard Street.  And the same border showdown occurs at Linden and Fort streets, through to Cook, where the dissecting line mysteriously swoops south along Cook Street for a single block and connects with Quadra through Meares Street.

To the average passerby a political border is likely meaningless.  However, borders come with rules that govern behind-the-scenes activity in our communities, and that’s where a border slalom can interfere with municipal planning and development.  While the Price’s proposal may just work within the context of the southern side of this block of Fort Street, a more involved application may have had to downsize or call it quits irrespective of its neighbours immediately across the street.

Meanwhile, the City of Victoria recently held a public engagement session for the new official community plan for downtown.  As it turns out, even the City has a difficult time differentiating between the borders of downtown and other communities.

“The City can’t even stick to a single definition of ‘Downtown,’” writes VibrantVictoria.ca forum member “piltdownman.”  “I picked up a handout on the “Draft Downtown Plan” on the weekend and in it [the City] had two different maps of what downtown contains. Then when it comes to banning skateboards the downtown area has changed again,” he writes.

In effect, this project, albeit tiny and unlikely to make major headlines on its own, inadvertently exposed an issue relatively unknown by the public that is has been the source of frustration facing players in the real-estate development and municipal planning world on more than one occasion.

To discuss the Price’s Lock and Safe project on the VibrantVictoria.ca discussion forum, click here.

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