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[VicHockeyFan]

No behemoths in Oak Bay
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Font: * * * * Times Colonist
Published: Monday, July 31, 2006
Re: "Council needs to think bigger," July 20.

Not only is it important to consider what tourists don't want to put up with in a hotel it is equally important to ask what it is that would attract them specifically to Oak Bay and not another part of Victoria.

It makes much more sense to develop a hotel whose commercial intent is inextricably linked to the unique character of Oak Bay rather than a hotel, such as the current proposition for the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, which is far more in sync with a busier commercial part of the city.

[...]

[Jarrod]

No behemoths in Oak Bay

What do you call the condo buildings on Beach Drive? HUH?!

Oak Bay makes me sick. I'm glad I live in VICTORIA not Oak Bay.

Too much complaining where it's not supposed to be.

[VicHockeyFan]

Public weighs in on changes to landmark Oak Bay hotel
Owner presents latest fine-tuned redevelopment plan at community hearing

About 350 attended the Tuesday night public hearing at the Monterey Centre where Oak Bay Beach Hotel owner Kevin Walker presented his case for the development of his Beach Drive hotel.
Photograph by : Darren Stone, Times Colonist
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Font: * * * * Kim Westad, Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, September 13, 2006
About 350 people gathered Tuesday night as the much debated Oak Bay Beach Hotel redevelopment project went to public hearing, but no decision on the landmark's future had been made by press time.

People for and against the project, which would see the 49-room hotel replaced with 120 units, packed into the Monterey Centre.

Some of the speakers reiterated issues that have plagued the proposal from the start, including size, the effect on neighbouring views and traffic, public access to the waterfront, and what such a large development means for the future of the community.

[...]

[FunkyMunky]

I stopped in to the public hearing last night at the Monetrey Centre just to get a feeling for the general mood of the natives but it didn't turn out like I was expecting. In Oak Bay, the council meetings don't happen the way they do in Victoria and Saanich (the only public hearings I've been to previously).

I was expecting a brief presentation from the applicant since the proposal is well covered territory in this community (they held two presentations at the OBBH over the last week alone). After the initital council business, they turned the floor over to the applicant and my heart sank when he said his presentation would be an hour and a half (The hearing started at 7:30 and it was already past 8 PM). Causton said the presentation would then be followed by a break before the public could speak which was probably sometime just before 10 (Doesn't anybody on this end of town have to go to work tomorrow?). I stayed as long as I could but bailed when my leg fell asleep and before the public started to have their say.

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the display. It has the same kitschy tudor-style of the Carlton House Seniors Complex on Oak Bay Avenue (same architect); modern it ain't.

The building as seen from the water side.


The north side of the building.

[FunkyMunky]

Update: The folks at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel have sent an update to everyone on their mailing list regarding last night's public hearing. In part it reads,

For those of you who were unable to attend you would be interested to know that Council has scheduled a continuance of the Public Hearing tonight (Wednesday) at 7:30 pm at the Monterey Centre (1442 Monterey Ave).

There was a strong sense of support in the room for the Oak Bay Beach Hotel Legacy Project. In total there were 27 members of the public who made their opinions known to council. 20 people spoke in favour of the project and 7 were opposed.

[Holden West]

Wow, what a cliffhanger. Appears that it will be approved barring a last minute surprise.

I hope someone archives this so that ten years from now everyone can have a good laugh wondering what the fuss was about for such a benign little project.

[Oxford Sutherland]

That might be the best looking "new" tudor style building I've ever seen. I'm surprised, I didn't expect something as good looking as that.

Hopefully the reality follows through on the promise of the rendering.

Hopefully they use good quality materials, and don't end up ruining it by going cheap. They have the opportunity to create a new Oak Bay icon, I really hope they do it right, instead of doing it cheap.

[VicHockeyFan]

Wow, what a cliffhanger. Appears that it will be approved barring a last minute surprise.

I think opponents might still pull off a [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_surprise:43d11]September Surprise[/url:43d11]. Like finding Bin Laden holed up in an [url=http://www.oakbaybeachhotel.bc.ca/rooms.html:43d11]Oceanview Fireplace Suite[/url:43d11]

[aastra]

What's that overhang/breezeway on the right side of the pic? I don't like the looks of that.

[VicHockeyFan]

What's all the low-lying fog in the parking lot? I don't like the look of that. I can barely see the english-style phone booth.

[aastra]

I thought that was snow.

[gumgum]

Re: aastra. Must be loading. ??

[Holden West]

I don't think that's fog or snow--it's drifting condensation from the open sewage treatment ponds they'll be building nearby for all the CRD's waste water.

[Oxford Sutherland]

What's that overhang/breezeway on the right side of the pic? I don't like the looks of that.

I agree, the overhang doesn't look good. I wonder what it's for. I assume loading would be in the back of the building, isn't that where it currently is?

[Oxford Sutherland]

I don't think that's fog or snow--it's drifting condensation from the open sewage treatment ponds they'll be building nearby for all the CRD's waste water.

They're planning to build a sewage treatment facility in Oak Bay?

[Holden West]

Ooops! That was supposed to be a secret! Never mind!

[VicHockeyFan]

I think that Sattelite St. residents have voiced opposition to the trucks that now use that entry and want them to only use the front. But they could make it look nicer, surely.

[FunkyMunky]

That might be the best looking "new" tudor style building I've ever seen. I'm surprised, I didn't expect something as good looking as that....They have the opportunity to create a new Oak Bay icon, I really hope they do it right....

This is where you and I are going to disagree. Stylistically, its crap. This is 2006, not 1926. No one should be building anything that looks like Tudor. Why do people get nostalgic and try to recreate a fanciful period that simply never existed here?

What's that overhang/breezeway on the right side of the pic? I don't like the looks of that.

As I recall from the plans displayed last night, the ground floor on that south wing contains condos (they face south, or to the right). The overhang on the courtyard side must be to facilitate the discharge of tour buses. There is an eco-friendly turn-around spot between the end of that wing and the tree (extreme right of the picture) so buses don't have to turn around in the road as they currently do.

I think that Satellite St. residents have voiced opposition to the trucks that now use that entry and want them to only use the front.

There is a truck lane running along the left edge of the building (not visible in this picture). It goes down along the side of the building and then drops into a covered tunnel. Beneath the building, the tunnel widens into two bays with a 26' foot height. Once the refuse trucks have picked up or dropped off their containers, garage doors open onto the end of Satellite Street. The doors are meant to suppress the truck noise. The idea of this arrangement is to eliminate any backing up of service trucks and to reduce the truck traffic on Satellite Street by half since its a one-way route (pretty clever arrangement, if you as me).

[aastra]

In my opinion this is a step backward from the rendering we saw a few months back.

[FunkyMunky]

In my opinion this is a step backward from the rendering we saw a few months back.

Council and the neighbours have been hacking volume out of this thing for months. Other than the overhang on the south wing discussed above, the south and east wings are pretty much unchanged.

The real difference is in the north wing (left) where they have cut it back to reduce the preception of volume because this wing comes closest to the road. Notice the old entrance gets repurposed in the new image as an entrance to the coffee bar / wine tasting / liquor sales room (previously called a coffee shop but made multipupose and tiny during one of the recent purging sessions).

And what's with the old-style red London callbox in the new image? Even London doesn't have many of those anymore and I'm not sure we ever did in this town. Enough with the kitsch, already.