"Downtown" Saanich

Saanich council votes ‘yes’ to downtown core pre-zoning

 

https://www.cheknews...zoning-1200825/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saanich has so many other areas* they could make better.  A "downtown" with the busiest road in the municipality cutting through the middle is not much.

 

* Cadboro Bay Village

Cordova Bay Beach

Gorge/Tillicum

Shelbourne Plaza area

Gordon Head / Mckenzie

University Heights

Quadra / McKenzie

All of Royal Oak.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 April 2024 - 05:04 AM.

Saanich council have moved a step closer to establishing a city centre in the Uptown-Douglas area.

 

Councillors on Monday endorsed terms of reference for staff to work on a pre-zoning and network design project for the area.

 

The unanimous vote gives district staff licence to determine how best to pre-zone a section of the district — bordered by Saanich Road to the north, Tolmie Avenue to the south, Blanshard Avenue to the east and Tennyson Avenue and Harriet Road to the west — in order to shape the kind of development the district wants there.

 

In seven months, staff will come back to council with recommended bylaw changes designed to reshape the future of the area to match the vision of the Uptown-Douglas plan.

 

The comprehensive land-use plan, adopted in 2022, is designed to transform, over the next 20 to 30 years, the area into mixed-use, walkable neighbourhoods that will serve as the heart of Saanich.

 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...g-ahead-8644022

 

 

Good grief.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 April 2024 - 07:48 AM.

So Oak St is envisioned to be the focal point of the new core? Seems odd, does the muni envision all those car dealerships will be the center 'showpiece'? After all I'm pretty sure they aren't going anywhere.

 

Same question re all the other established office supply, furniture and other businesses on that street most of which have been there for decades. As above IMO Gorge/Tillicum especially makes a lot more sense, as does McKenzie/Quadra, even Uni Heights.

 

Rather than "a" central core maybe we could steal a page from metro Vancouver and build up a series of "town centres" with each servicing a specific area like those suggested above, and each wrapped around and bound up in major transit hubs.

My vision would see a much more cool Cadboro Bay even if a bit of the park is lost (I know, I know, it's probably designated as some kind of wetland, but it's kind of useless).

 

 

 

 

I mean come on, walk up and down Tolmie and Oak Street, what's to enjoy?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 April 2024 - 08:06 AM.

Tillicum Mall.

 

I mean come on, walk up and down Tolmie and Oak Street, what's to enjoy?

 

Methinks Metrotown then-and-now would be the kind of example they want to emulate at Uptown.

I'd say there are some blocks and intersections in the Uptown area where a less auto-centric and more mixed-use neighbourhood vibe has legitimate potential. Even just a few decent redevelopments could create some small pockets of "there" in the middle of it all.

But we can be sure a truly sweeping transformation of the larger Uptown area would take many, many decades. Literally, probably closer to 100 years than 50 years. We're still working on the Songhees, ~40 years and counting. Dockside Green is still only 2/3 finished, etc.

Indeed.

Uptown got underway when, in 2004 or thereabouts? That final residential phase has been promised for over a decade.

So Oak St is envisioned to be the focal point of the new core? Seems odd, does the muni envision all those car dealerships will be the center 'showpiece'? After all I'm pretty sure they aren't going anywhere.

 

I imagine that with a few strokes of the magic money pen (ie re-zoning), Saanich council could make the land so valuable that the dealerships couldn't afford or want to stay!

If the land was/is available I think this area should steal another page from Vancouver and concentrate the dealerships in an auto-mall similar to Richmond. Maybe on the Oak Bay border

 

Just think what d/t looked like a few short years ago - and I can remember all the way back to 1965 - and all that d/t real estate taken up by car dealerships. Not to mention the old auto junkyard that used to be on View St. Yep we didn't want to look like other cities by building "awful, horrible" tall buildings in the core - but we were perfectly content with a junk yard and car lots everywhere.

For now, the Denny’s is gone from Douglas and we might soon see another JP dealership expansion.

I just love how the redundancy and folly of fractured municipalities is highlighted by Saanich declaring the existing ‘Uptown’ neighborhood their new “Downtown.”

^ Not unusual in cities with distinct neighbourhoods. Most tend to have a central area.

I’m aware of that- I lived in TO and have been all over NYC.

My point is its funny how the region (and private developers planners) already named the area uptown, which reflects the urban reality very appropriately. It is already the defacto CBD of Saanich; the uptown name confers that as well, if only informally.

It’s just a cute little small town irony, that in each little kingdom - wishing to show its own gravity and importance by declaring its own downtown - has chosen an area that everyone already knows as uptown - a name which reflects the actual urban reality perfectly.

It's also funny because every municipality outside of the CoV has historically made no secret of their collective contempt for their city's actual downtown (downtown Victoria), but now suddenly in the 2020s we've decided Saanich should have a designated downtown area, too. I guess this time around we're going to do it right?

 

Creating new districts that have a legitimate downtown character is no easy task. It tends to take a long time and a huge investment, and even the best examples end up being more poseur than reality. Methinks conceptually it would make much more sense to embrace the idea of "Uptown" (which is already pretty solidly established in people's minds) and then set about improving and enhancing it, rather than envisioning the transformation of Uptown into a downtown for Saanich.

Saanich will reconvene a public hearing Tuesday night to decide if its first new Official Community Plan in 16 years is ready for prime time.

 

Following a marathon public hearing this past week when the public were given time to weigh in on the merits of the plan, council will spend May 7 deliberating the contents of a plan that is designed to lay a foundation for growth in the district.

 

The public input this past week offered a broad range of opinions on the document, with some supporters appreciating the need for change, some suggesting the document was neither aggressive nor ambitious enough in tackling the need for more housing, while others raised concerns about the pace and nature of change.

 

Mayor Dean Murdock said much of the concern that was raised and feedback given has been heard over the past two years of public engagement.

 

“I think that the OCP represents change, and of course that’s going to create some uncertainty and probably fear for some folks about what that will mean in their neighbourhood,” he said. “A lot of very common themes that emerged talked about protecting the natural environment, retaining the character of neighbourhoods and preserving what we love about Saanich, and I think those are shared aspirations.”

 

One of the biggest sticking points raised during the public session was what happens to local area plans.

 

The draft OCP includes all of the local area plans and adopts them as policy, rather than ­forming part of the bylaw. The idea is to have the updated OCP take precedence, while still being informed by the local area plans.

 

While Saanich staff and council maintain the change will have a negligible effect, many residents suggested the plans were being discarded and their neighbourhoods would be vulnerable to massive change.

Murdock doesn’t see it that way, and insists district staff will still consider the guidelines in the local area plans when considering new development applications.

But the change means the OCP will be the dominant document and could override the neighbourhood plan.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...ty-plan-8699701

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 May 2024 - 05:15 AM.

Such silliness. As has already been said, putting a downtown at what is quite rightfully Uptown Victoria is really quite funny. As I have said before, Saanich has a downtown already. It is downtown Victoria. The reason it hasn't developed its own downtown is because it is not really a distinct place. Saanich is the continuation of Victoria. Hopefully we see some of this discussed through the upcoming Citizen's Assembly. This naming of a downtown is really a bulwark against that process I am fairly certain. 

 

This naming of a downtown is really a bulwark against that process...

 

In the very least it confuses things in terms of what could/should happen. If you have downtown Victoria at one end and downtown Saanich at the other end, then what do we call the portion in between and what kind of character should it have? Maybe we're envisioning the day when there won't be a portion in between? Two distinct downtown areas will butt right up against one another?

If the Uptown area were two miles further north and disconnected from the Douglas/Blanshard corridor then the notion of downtown Saanich would have more plausibility for me. But as is, the uptown designation and uptown identity wouldn't seem to require much tinkering. Why not run with the ball we're already holding*, make some great plays, and maybe even score a few touchdowns, instead of searching for an altogether different ball to play with?

*sports analogy

Midtown

Midtown between downtown and uptown, but not midtown between downtown and downtown.

The best part is if you try to walk from one downtown to the other you have to traverse the highest concentration of homeless in all of North America.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 May 2024 - 11:53 AM.