146 replies to this topic

[Bernard]

Since the organizers of this event intend to influence the Official Community Plan, I thought I'd post the following item here.

Is anyone planning to attend?

From Douglas Magazine:
[indent=1]Local Co-operatives Host City Hall Event to Rethink Economics

Apr 14, 2010
The event will take place at City Hall, #1 Centennial Square, Coast Salish Territories from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. The event is held during Earth Week, in recognition that environmental efforts must include a rethinking of economics.

The intent of the event is twofold: to give people useful information about how the economy needs to adapt to current ecological realities and to provide input to the City of Victoria’s current official community plan review. .

Well, I wish I could, but I am supposed to be in three different places tonight and I just found out I will not be able to work much tomorrow

[G-Man]

I am glad I can't be there...

[Bernard]

I was thinking of hosting a dinner for anyone on VV to come over and talk about the Victoria OCP. Who is interested?

[Bernard]

I am choosing a date for anyone interested to come by and talk about the OCP at my home on Friday June 4th at 7pm and going till we finish

I would like to focus on the following:
* Visions for a great Victoria
* Building a City that works for residential, commercial, industry and social sectors - you hopefully remember I have a passion for protecting industrial lands.
* Making the city financially sustainable

I am open to any other ideas people may have. I am just interested in an interesting and wide range debate.

Drop me a line if you are interested via my Blog, on here, via email (bernard at shama.ca), facebook or where ever else.

[Bernard]

I have also created a facebook event page for people to RSVP.

I really need to have some idea ahead of time how many people are showing up. I can deal with up to 50-60 people if the weather is wet, more if it is dry

[Rob Randall]

Official Community Plan consultation wrapping up

By Robert Randall • Published on Wednesday, June 2, 2010 •

The City of Victoria is nearing the end of an extensive series of community consultations for the new Official Community Plan.

The Official Community Plan, or OCP, is the master document that guides City Hall in all aspects of development, from building heights to environmental standards to economic vitality. It was last updated in 1995.

more

[Bernard]

A reminder to everyone, I am hosting an evening to talk about the OCP and for people express their ideas, thoughts and values.

Here is the facebook page for people that are interested

[Bernard]

Here is my quick write up of what we talked about on Friday evening. The meeting was well represented by VVers and Blue Bridge people.

I may add more to my post later.

[Rob Randall]

City Hall presents new plan to UDI

By Robert Randall • Published on Thursday, June 17, 2010

City Planning staff gave Victoria’s Urban Development Institute members the chance to comment on City Hall’s plan outlining Victoria’s future for housing, land use, and the economy Thursday.

The UDI membership of developers, architects and others involved in local land use listened as two concurrent plans, the Downtown Core Area Plan and the Official Community Plan making their way through the consultation process were explained by senior City staff.

[Rob Randall]

A reminder that Saturday is the final day. Please come and check it out.

Join us for our second Community Forum - Options for the Future - Friday,
June 25 and Saturday, June 26

The feedback received from the community over the past five months has
helped to develop a set of options for the future of Victoria.

This next community forum is your opportunity to provide feedback on options
for how the city moves forward in areas such as housing, land use, and the
economy. It is also an opportunity to learn more about the vision for
downtown and how it relates to the larger community plan.

Community Forum - Options for the Future

Victoria Conference Centre

Friday, June 25 1 p.m - 7 p.m.

Saturday, June 26 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

A full schedule for both days, including session topics and times, is
available at www.shapeyourfuturevictoria.ca

The registration and information table will be open throughout the day.
Individuals may drop in at anytime and view project displays, including land
use scenarios for future growth of the city. Citizens are also encouraged to
participate in sessions related to key topics in the Official Community Plan
including housing, climate change and transportation. The same material will
be presented both Friday and Saturday.

The information presented on June 25 and June 26 brings together the
feedback gathered from the community over the past five months including
input from:

* Close to 3000 people who participated in the Citizens Survey
* More than 550 people who attended the first Community Forum at Crystal
Gardens
* Input from 47 Community Circles involving over 300 people
* 21 Victoria residents who participated in Citizen Insight Councils
* 80 youth who contributed ideas and thoughts through facilitated
workshops
* Meetings with representatives from 90 organizations across the city
including community service providers, members of the business community,
policy advisors, members of planning and development community, and seniors
groups
* Workshops with staff and City advisory committees
* Presentations to over 400 people including youth, neighbourhood
associations, and business groups

Please let your friends and neighbours know that their input is needed as we
set direction for the future of the city.

Feel free to circulate and post in membership newsletters or list serves.

For more information about Victoria's Official Community Plan visit:
www.shapeyourfuturevictoria.ca, email ocp@victoria.ca, or call 250.361.0534.

I was only able to go for the final hour Friday. I wanted to be able to participate all day. Individual groups broke off for in depth discussions on various topics. Every salon in the Conference Centre had a different discussion--environment, Downtown, urban planning etc.

If you don't want to participate in the sessions you can just drop in and read the displays.

The most intriguing was the four options for putting density:

- Concentrated in Downtown (similar to the draft plan discussed elsewhere)
- More density in village centres (Cook St. Village, Hillside Mall etc.)
- Density along transit corridors (Shelbourne, Douglas etc. etc.)
- Density along the waterfront (this was the shocking one. I suspect it will be the least popular as residents will recoil thinking about mid-rise and highrise density along Dallas Road and James Bay. One participant found some merit in this saying, "I would like to move to James Bay but can't quite afford a SFD. Why do current residents get to stifle demand?)

So some good discussions are spawned. I highly recommend attending if you can.

[BlueBoy]

So which of the four growth scenarios would you choose?

http://www.shapeyour...s-for-victoria/

1. Core Area
2. Transit Routes
3. Villages
4. Green spaces and waterfront

[phx]

They should include option 5: "No growth".

[Baro]

How would no growth work? Mass executions, 1 child policy, and a total naval and air blockade of the island?

This survey is kinda ridiculous. I wanted an "all of the above" option as none of these options were in any way mutually exclusive. You can't have a dense core if you develop along transit? You can't develop near green spaces if you have a dense core? Transit focused development can't be near parks?

[aastra]

You're absolutely right. There isn't anything "alternative" about those alternative scenarios. They're all good and they should all happen together.

I find it interesting how Victoria tends to use images from other cities (Vancouver, usually) when illustrating possibilities in these sorts of documents. Just about every precedent or example that we could require is already right here in Victoria (and has been here for 100 years or more in some cases), but nobody seems to be willing to recognize the fact. It's as if we want to foster the impression that we're talking about dramatic change and extreme hypotheticals, when we're really just talking about what to do with the big surface parking lots in James Bay or Harris Green.

[Ms. B. Havin]

This survey is kinda ridiculous. I wanted an "all of the above" option as none of these options were in any way mutually exclusive. You can't have a dense core if you develop along transit? You can't develop near green spaces if you have a dense core? Transit focused development can't be near parks?

Absolutely right, Baro.

Ridiculous "choices," imo, trying to separate (to "plan") artificially what should have a chance to grow spontaneously and organically.

Sometimes the better part of a plan is knowing when to get out the way.

[phx]

How would no growth work? Mass executions, 1 child policy, and a total naval and air blockade of the island?

I'm not advocating no-growth as a good choice, but as something to put the other choices in perspective.

Many Victorians assume the city is entitled to prosper and grow, but it is not. It could easily happen that Uptown becomes the centre of business, and Tillicum/Burnside the high-density residential area. Would that relegate Victoria to the tourists and junkies?

[BlueBoy]

Did anyone go to the meetings in this round? Or the last round of public consultation a few weeks ago?

They were asking Victoria residents about some pretty key stuff: policies for housing (secondary suites, non-market housing incentives, density), ways to deal with homelessness, how the city will grow over the next 30 years and where new people and businesses will go, building heights and set backs, how to develop the Rockbay area with what sort of businesses/residential/industrial, density trading, incentives to provide funding for heritage restoration and public benefit like the harbour walkway and new parks. And transit, lots of transit (rail! cycling! buses! LRT! commuter! trams!). And those were just the 2 sessions I got to, let alone the other 9.

If you've ever criticized the city for lack of foresight, stupid zoning, or lack of public input, then these are the meetings you wanted to get involved with. It was very cool to hear other residents' detailed responses to the city's proposed priorities.

Rob Randall, you recommended going. What did you think?

[BlueBoy]

Absolutely right, Baro.

Ridiculous "choices," imo, trying to separate (to "plan") artificially what should have a chance to grow spontaneously and organically.

Sometimes the better part of a plan is knowing when to get out the way.

A lot of things grow spontaneously and organically. Hair, children, trees, cancer, and rust come to mind. Call me ridiculous for trying to control their growth, but I do like to have some say in where and how fast these things grow.

One person pointed out today how the Selkirk Trestle and the Galloping Goose sparked development in Vic West and in the Selkirk development. That wasn't unplanned and spontaneous, but an effort by the City to increase infrastructure and then a response from developers to that investment, followed by new residents willing to pay for the lovely new things they built. On purpose, with a plan. The Railyards, for example, and now Dockside Green.

I hear so many people complaining that the JSB was not cared for over the last few decades. A community plan can mandate that a city take care of and plan for the upkeep of its infrastructure--and its residents and businesses. Believe me, this OCP will have effects that you'll be writing about on this board soon enough.

[Mike K.]

One person pointed out today how the Selkirk Trestle and the Galloping Goose sparked development in Vic West and in the Selkirk development.

The trestle didn't spark development, Vic West's major industrial sites were eyed for development well before the galloping goose was a public trail.

If there was no trail there, those developments would have gone up considering their proximity to downtown.

[BlueBoy]

Well, no one thing will spark development on its own. The area will have been rezoned as well, to allow residential building, and it is charmingly close to downtown. Wasn't it all industrial? And I seem to remember the Dockside Green land had to be cleaned, as it was contaminated (brown fields). When I first moved here 6 years ago, a friend wrinkled her nose in polite disgust at my suggestion of house hunting on this side of the Gorge. Coming from Oak Bay, she said "we don't cross the water, you know." Good thing attitudes changed.

Where developments go, and how they end up looking and working, can be influenced by a City Plan. I appreciated today that a City planning staffer was talking about set backs, and the effects of large buildings on passersby; they shouldn't be blank walled monoliths. I wish he'd had more input into some choices at Uptown.