5833 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

I'd like for them to build their own house, too, but we've created impediments to where people are finding it prohibitively difficult to find the land on which to build their house, in an area flush with land.

 

We have 400 square kilometers of empty wilderness within the CRD alone. I don't understand why we can't use it for more than collecting dust on logging roads (logging roads we can't access).

[Victoria Watcher]

that map above hardly shows a “full” South Island.

[Sparky]

The really sad part is that a large percentage of society thinks that the government (read you and me and the rest of the taxpayers) is responsible for solving this dilemma for them. They also think that housing is a "right" and the government should supply them with those rights. 

 

Thank Christ the bridge to the mainland never materialized.  

[Sparky]

^^ The housing is full. 

[Mike K.]

If we look at the breakdown, though, it's private industry that's building the housing. 90% of our new housing inventory (maybe more) is privately built, to be privately owned or rented.

 

Judging by how many people are moving here, high costs are not high enough to be a significant barrier. Remember, we're growing 35% faster than the CRD projected we would be.

[Rob Randall]

The only logical way I can see mass expansion is to create a new city somewhere south of Cowichan Lake, creating a tri-city region along with Victoria and Duncan. Make it a real small city with an urban core and an urban containment boundary. 

 

I'm against just expanding Sooke with car-dependent suburban sprawl, to hell with that.

Edited by Rob Randall, 14 July 2021 - 09:10 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

nobody is going to get behind the idea of a new city anywhere on the island. not happening.

[Rob Randall]

I agree.

 

I have no expertise.

[Mike K.]

The only logical way I can see mass expansion is to create a new city somewhere south of Cowichan Lake, creating a tri-city region along with Victoria and Duncan. Make it a real small city with an urban core and an urban containment boundary. 

 

I'm against just expanding Sooke with car-dependent suburban sprawl, to hell with that.

 

How about we skip the building a new city part and just spread out the employment a little so most of the population doesn't have to slog to the most remote part of the region for employment.

 

Or better yet, how about we stop fighting it, and just call Langford the new central business district since it's central to every part of the CRD, unlike downtown Victoria in its southeast congested corner.

[Victoria Watcher]

let’s wait and see if people even return to office work downtown or elsewhere.

[Sparky]

Where someone works isn't the issue. Space to build new isn't the issue. 

 

There are not enough bedrooms in the Capital Regional Area. 

 

Simple.

[Mike K.]

That's why my plan is to build more bedrooms, a little faster, and with a little less of the suburban sprawl fearmongery (we live in the least sprawled area of North America).

 

Now I joke about downtown being remote, obviously it's not for roughly 200,000 people, but it's inconvenient for the other 200,000, is what I'm saying (I'm also lumping in parts of Cowichan that depend on employment in the CRD).

[Victoria Watcher]

nobody is going to get behind the idea of a new city anywhere on the island. not happening.

 

somebody tried that once.  bamberton.  never worked.  it's now on the list of BC ghost towns:

 

https://en.wikipedia...ritish_Columbia

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 July 2021 - 09:33 AM.

[Rob Randall]

A new city is good but hard to do.

 

Sprawl is bad but easy to do.

[Mike K.]

Sprawl is where we all live, though.

 

Yesterday's sprawl is today's established neighbourhood, diversified economy and resilient community. Gordon Head was built on farmer's fields and forest. So were Fairfield, south Oak Bay, Ten Mile Point and Broadmead.

 

Speaking of building cities, Sooke was and is its own town. It was self-sustaining until the federal government killed the fishing industry, restricted the lumber and mining industries, forcing Sooke residents to look for employment in the next town over.

[Victoria Watcher]

i think a large part of broadmead was built in a forest.  not farm.

 

 

 

 

Robert Rithet, was a leading Victoria entrepreneur and also the Victoria Mayor from 1884-85. After purchasing about 1,000 acres in the area, he decided to clear some of the land and create agricultural land. The farm was named Broadmead after his beloved prizewinning racehorse and the community adopted this name, continuing the historic connection to the region. “Rithet pased away in 1919 and his heirs decided the best future for Broadmead was to develop a holistic plan for the property that preserved the area's natural landscape and character. Local developer Gordon Rolston and a group of investors bought the property in 1965 and began implementing this plan.

 

http://www.stephenfo...-broadmead.html

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 July 2021 - 10:20 AM.

[Rob Randall]

Well then, this hypothetical new sprawl should have even better walkable neighbourhoods. Or is it going to be one of those places where you have to drive the F-150 five kilometres to get a coffee.

[Rob Randall]

[Mike K.]

Sprawl is where we all live, though.

 

Yesterday's sprawl is today's established neighbourhood, diversified economy and resilient community. Gordon Head was built on farmer's fields and forest. So were Fairfield, south Oak Bay, Ten Mile Point and Broadmead.

 

 

i think a large part of broadmead was built in a forest.  not farm.

 

 

Yes, noted.

 

Everyone objecting to 'sprawl' is chucking rocks in a glass house here.

 

Sooke is older than Gordon Head. But Sooke is the problem, we keep hearing, not Gordon Head.

[Victoria Watcher]

101,500 people in saanich in 1965.  i would not have guessed it to be so high already by then.  but i guess most of gordon head was already built right around then.  and gorge tillicum was long since full.

 

did shelbourne always go right to the park?  or was that odd section with the big grass median in the middle added when the road was put through?  and the only former access was cedar hill road connecting to ash and cordova bay road?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 July 2021 - 10:41 AM.