81 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Hey man, I said northeast Vic West! I want nothing to do with the west Vic West crowd.

[Caramia]

If you are dissing the West Vic West folk, you better watch out Mike, the boys from Dominion Street gonna end up paying you a visit.

[G-Man]

I thought Dominion was in Esquimalt East?

[Caramia]

Well, to be fair, it is frontier territory - that lawless border land between Esquimalt East and Vic West West. It must be hard for the kids who grow up there, their sense of identity is probably really compromised - kids from one side of the street, suspiciously eying kids from the other. Heart-rending. Really.

[m0nkyman]

I'm not sure if I know any long-time Victoria resident that hasn't lived in Esq. in some part of their life. I lived there for a year or two.

I lived in Esquimalt for four months. Then I lived on the reserve on leasehold land. Which wasn't technically in Esquimalt....

despite being within the city borders. Just to add to the confusion...

[Ms. B. Havin]

Since the Esquimalt thread is pretty active right now, I thought I'd post this here (vs under "tourism" or "economy"). Kind of a weird item, but I'm glad to have such a straightforward definition of what a tourist is now. (So, heads up: if you're heading into Esquimalt from your usual haunt of Cook Street Village, you are not a tourist... )

Friday, October 26, 2007
[url=http://www.civicinfo.bc.ca/302n.asp?newsid=2419:e9dff]Esquimalt to Help BC Double Tourism Revenues With Tourism Action Plan[/url:e9dff]
By Township of Esquimalt

Esquimalt - With a top tourism city as a neighbour, abundant parks, and a rich marine heritage, Esquimalt is preparing to play a bigger part in BC's growing tourism industry.

A first step for the municipality is the creation of a tourism action plan, overseen by Frank Limshue, Director of Development Services with the help of locally based Chemistry Consulting Group and Tartan Public Relations. A steering committee has been formed to help guide the tourism action plan team, and is made up of local tourism operators, as well as business people.

"Building our tourism capacity is a natural step for Esquimalt, as we are beginning a number of beautification projects in our municipality," says Limshue. "We already know we have one of the top restaurants in the region, that our parks are exceptional, and that infrastructure for marine and heritage tourism is in place. We just need to take stock of what else to highlight for tourists and create an action plan to put Esquimalt on the tourism map."

In economic development terms, a "tourist" is someone who comes to your area from outside a 50-kilometre radius, says Dinah White, a senior manager with Chemistry Consulting Group. "Our study and action plan will focus on identifying what exists, where there are gaps, and what needs to be done to raise awareness about what Esquimalt has to offer to tourists, many of whom are already coming to the region, but are not taking the time to explore this community, because they are not aware of what is being offered."

"And for municipalities, undertaking this type of tourism review is critical," says Frank Bourree, Principal with Chemistry Consulting, "if the province of BC is going to realize its goal of doubling tourism revenues to $18B by 2015."

"Esquimalt has all the beauty and potential of becoming a tourism destination in its own right," says Bourree. "It is a natural step for the municipality to leverage the thousands of tourists that come to Victoria every year. And, by creating its own tourism personality, Esquimalt will only add to the South Island as a tourism draw."

As part of the process, the tourism action plan team will be contacting local tourism operators and businesses to determine issues related to tourism development within the municipality. Research and analysis will take place from now until December, with a report presented to Esquimalt Council by mid-January 2008.

* [url=http://www.esquimalt.ca/Main/news_releases.html#2oct23:e9dff]View the full text of this press release[/url:e9dff]

[aastra]

It is a natural step for the municipality to leverage the thousands of tourists that come to Victoria every year

Good grief.

[VicHockeyFan]

Yes, but did you live there AND date outside your municipality?

I think aastra's question deserves more consideration.

Yes I did. I think I dated mostly Saanich girls.

[Holden West]

I dated more Saanich girls than all municipalities combined. You're bound to have good luck with a girl who lives where there is absolutely nothing to do.

[G-Man]

Yup I am two for two since moving to Vic both Saanich girls.

[Ms. B. Havin]

Sing to "Back in the USSR" (Beatles)

Oh those Claremont girls really knock me out,
They leave Vic West behind,
and 'Squimalt girls make me sing and shout,
And Oak Bay's always on my my my my my my my my mind

Ooh, show me round your snow peaked
Moss Rock way down south,
Take me to that Saanich farm,
Let me hear your CRESTline ringing out
Come and keep your bureaucrat warm
I'm back in the CRD-ALR
You don't know how lucky you are, boy...

[Caramia]

OMG! Haha you just made my morning.

[gumgum]

Five visions for Esquimalt up for review
Kim Westad, Times Colonist
Published: Monday, March 24, 2008

[amor de cosmos]

This seems to be the right thread for this:

Building height topic of Esquimalt forum
By Richard Watts, Times Colonist
March 22, 2009

High-rise towers in Esquimalt? More townhomes? Duplexes? They're all on the table Tuesday at a public forum on Esquimalt's official community plan.

Last September, the previous council delayed approval of a 17-storey condo tower on the site of the Esquimalt Legion at 622 Admirals Rd., pending a revisiting of the community plan, a loose blueprint that determines what kinds of buildings can be built where.

The project had encountered public resistance, largely because the building's height exceeded the 10-storey maximum called for in the 2006 official community plan.

Mayor Barb Desjardins said the controversy was understandable, since many of the critics had participated in the creation of the plan and felt they had a stake in it.

But Desjardins added that Esquimalt needs to increase its population density to collect more tax revenue, although that has to be balanced against the public's vision for the community. "What we felt we needed to do was get a little education going for council and for the community."

The forum will feature architects, municipal planners and professional builders discussing building height, density, the official community plan, and how things like zoning requirements can restrict or encourage community renewal.

One of the guests, Gene Miller of the Urban Design Institute in Victoria, said official community plans can contain the best and worst impulses of a community. "They represent the best collective thought of the community about what it is and where it wants to go," said Miller, adding he also finds the plans frustrating because circumstances can change quickly and "sometimes they turn out to be inflexible, rigid and unresponsive."

But Miller said he believes communities benefit enormously from regular re-examinations and discussions of their official community plans. "

The community forum is set for 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Esquimalt Municipal Hall, 1229 Esquimalt Rd.

http://www.timescolo...5998/story.html

definitely highrises. the stretch from lampson to admirals should become less of a suburban-looking strip mall with hige parking lots, etc & more like its own downtown sort of area

[Holden West]

As aastra has frequently pointed out with his Fairfield maps, you can have high density without height. What Barb and other Esquimaltians should be looking at is if they want to sculpt a skyline like Victoria did when approving the Hudson and surrounding highrises or just allow it to develop willy-nilly.

Generally, high density is accomodated by podium towers or Paris-style streetwalls. I say the latter doesnt' work in a modern context unless you have Haussmann-style power to completely transform the landscape.

I can see a solid, low rise streetwall with a few junior Juliet towers in the downtown surrounding a cluster of architecturally superior mid to highrise podium towers in the middle of whatever becomes the centre of downtown Esquimalt. But that takes vision and I doubt this meeting will acheive that.

[jklymak]

^Capitol Hill in Seattle is one of the densest, most vibrant neighbourhoods you will find anywhere. There are no buildings over 6 storeys, and it was not built as a streetwall or by a master planner. Same with much of San Francisco. I don't think Victoria will be approaching Manhattan or West Side Vancouver density anytime soon, and by advocating big towers as the solution to density you are going to spread the towers out. Every tower you build in Esquimalt or Langford is one fewer tower downtown. Every time you build a 18 story tower downtown there will be two 6 storey buildings that don't get built.

[aastra]

...Esquimalt needs to increase its population density to collect more tax revenue...

Methinks the problem with a simplistic statement like this is that it makes a 20-story proposal seem like a good thing simply because it represents an increase in density, regardless of how out-of-place the 20-story proposal might be. Just take this one spoon of awful medicine and it's all you'll have to do. Everything else will remain the same.

I'd suggest setting a target (increase density in neighbourhoods along Esquimalt Road by X per cent over 20 years) and then coming up with a vision for accomplishing it that fits Esquimalt's character as much as possible. Arbitrarily inserting a couple of very tall highrises here or there would be a big mistake. We've been the Camosack Manor route before. We should learn from our mistakes.

Be realistic. Will Esquimalt ever achieve the sort of densities we have today along Cook Street or in parts of James Bay? No chance. That would require dozens of new apartment blocks and several highrise buildings, too. But more comfortable increases should be easy to accomplish by utilizing potential development sites more efficiently. Redevelop strip malls and parking lots with urban-format lowrise buildings and allow for the occasional junior highrise on selected sites, and I think Esquimalt should be able to achieve the sort of densities that we have today in the Oaklands/Hillside neighbourhoods of Victoria (for example).

I think they should be able to raise density fairly significantly without doing anything particularly drastic.

[Holden West]

It worries me when even Councillors have trouble grasping the relationship between density and height.

Aastra is right. The first step is establishing a realistic density goal. Everything else flows from that.

[amor de cosmos]

should be interesting

http://www.esquimalt...ws05111501.aspx
http://www.esquimalt...nt-8may2015.pdf

[thundergun]

From the image on the second link, it seems like it's not the simplest piece of land to work with, but could create some interesting proposals.