819 replies to this topic

[aastra]

In October, 2018, astute forumers on VibrantVictoria.ca were wondering why apartment blocks still have large surface parking lots. You know, dire housing crisis and all of that?

 

Rewind back to 1973 and the CoV was asking why apartment blocks still have large surface parking lots:

 

 

Daily Colonist
February 14, 1973

Committee Recommends: Underground Parking

Builders of four-storey frame apartment buildings will have to provide... at least 50 per cent underground parking, if city council approves a recommendation by Victoria's zoning committee.

The proposal... specifies that at least 50 per cent of the parking spaces must be underground. At present, all parking may be above ground.

...the amendment was designed to put an end to black-topping half the city.

"...even those which are considered of a good design and quality, have acres of surface parking. We had to do something about that,"

Edited by aastra, 20 June 2019 - 10:30 PM.

[aastra]

I've pondered the surface parking lots of old apartment buildings more than once. This thread really is living up to its name.

 

 

August, 2016:

You know what would really be innovative? It would really be innovative if Victoria were to create incentives for the removal of surface parking. Can you imagine that? The city and municipal governments could actually encourage any and every property owner to put parking underground and build apartments above. Don't merely wait for the inevitable... Encourage it.... I'm thinking of hundreds of apartment blocks that have surface parking lots...
You know, housing crisis?

Edited by aastra, 20 June 2019 - 10:40 PM.

[aastra]

Geez, I just noticed that I mention the pool replacement project way back in one of my earliest posts in this thread (the project to replace the old Crystal Garden with the new Crystal Pool, that is).

 

 

Jan 2, 1969

"The Changing Face" (editorial)

"On a foundation of patient planning and a well sustained desire to move with the times in making Victoria an attractive place in which to live or visit, the coming year will see progress on a number of important improvements in the city."

"...nostalgia surrounds the Crystal Garden, and its removal must be regarded with reluctance..."

"...the hard fact appears to be that a great deal of money would be required to restore it to efficient condition."

"The swimming pool and recreation centre...will form a new unit of a sports and entertainment complex extending from the Memorial Arena...to Athletic Park."

[Mike K.]

Gosh. We’re no further than we were then.

[Nparker]

...We’re no further than we were then.

Or as is emblazoned on the CoV's coat of arms: Nunc quam nihil sumus praemisit ut tunc erant

[aastra]

Article in the Times-Colonist re: the current housing crisis in Nanaimo:

 

 

Times-Colonist
June 20, 2019

Nanaimo OKs 1,000 new housing units

...In Victoria, council members are mulling over a proposal to require that 20 per cent of units be “affordable” for strata developments with 60 units or more.
 

Krog, speaking for himself and not council, said: "Those kinds of solutions, which are always proposed during a time of crisis, over the longer haul, create another set of problems."

"I would want to approach it very carefully before we considered something like that. Because every time we play in the marketplace, you have to consider the longer-term consequences as well."

 

That's a really good point. One misstep and the housing crisis might end up being dragged out for decades.*

 

*it already has been dragged out for decades, as demonstrated by old news clippings in this thread

[todd]

Victoria’s most arrested man: http://archive.org/s...h/death oak bay

[aastra]

 

Nice work Aastra. That is an amazing collection. I had no idea that this was so entrenched!

 

One interesting difference between the highrise hysteria of the old days and the highrise hysteria of today: Vancouver was never mentioned back then, whereas Vancouver is constantly mentioned today. By the 1910s Vancouver was already a bigger city and was already building taller buildings, but apparently its built form was nothing to be afraid of. New York... that's where the scary tall buildings were and that's what Victoria didn't want to become. Vancouver actually wasn't mentioned much even during the highrise hysteria of the 1960s/1970s. It seems like the highrise fear **rn didn't really become Vancouver-centric until the late 1980s.

 

It's funny because obviously no place in the US or Canada needed to worry about turning into another Manhattan. And yet, for a while at least, Victorians seemed to be worried about it. Victorians will worry about anything.

[aastra]

Cruise ships:

 

 

Daily Colonist
June 12, 1973

She's a Saucy Sea-Sprite
Spirit of London Steals Hearts

It was love at first sight for hundreds of Victorians... when they got their first glimpse of a saucy new sea-sprite affectionately known as The Yacht.

The 17,000-ton cruise ship, carrying 619 passengers on a maiden voyage from San Francisco to Alaska, eased into Pier A at Ogden Point... for a seven-hour stopover, her first of eight in Victoria this summer.

California doctors... all armed with their golfing gear, immediately headed for the Royal Colwood.

...a friend was waiting to drive them to the course and they had waited a long time for the forthcoming game.

The ship's inaugural visit here was marked with the usual cruise-ship welcoming ceremony featuring the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry band from Work Point Barracks.

"The Spirit is a fun ship..." and not designed for lengthy world cruises.

"The expenses of short cruises places them in the range of working people's pocketbooks."

"We are trying to create a resurgence of the idea of cruising for a real fun holiday..."

...the whole concept of ocean travel is changing.

"In the past, ship travel was real luxury and everything was very formal..."

"...but now it is becoming much more relaxed and to have as much fun as possible aboard ship is the name of the game."

 

**********

 

Luxury condos are ruining Victoria's neighbourhoods:

 

 

Daily Colonist
April 1, 1978

Block Bros. proudly presents PARK PLACE at Windsor Park and Newport in Oak Bay

Victoria's most exclusive condominium complex

Prices from $93,000 to $143,000

 

The vehicle entrances for that building are crazy narrow: one ramp | other ramp

Edited by aastra, 05 July 2019 - 06:24 PM.

[aastra]

More pedestrian mall stuff. Maybe we've already seen this article? Apologies if that's the case. This scheme has been tossed around for so many decades and in so many variations, it all blurs together.

 

 

Daily Colonist
February 14, 1973

Seattle Consultant to Draft Mall Plan

Plans for the beautification of downtown Victoria moved a step closer to reality Tuesday...

City council's planning committee recommended to council that a Seattle consultant be hired... to prepare a feasibility study on the proposed Government-View pedestrian mall.

...the assistant traffic engineer is to visit a number of U.S. cities which have already built pedestrian malls.

It was that item in particular which was questioned...

"First, the traffic engineer gets an eyeful of malls in Europe last summer, now the assistant gets another eyeful of malls in the United States,"

The city hopes to have the mall completed by June, 1974. According to the plans, Government will be closed to car traffic from Humboldt to Yates, and View from Government to half a block beyond Douglas, but without interrupting the Douglas-View intersection.

[aastra]

Here's another exclusive and luxurious condo ruining Victoria, turning it into a playground for the rich, etc.

 

 

Daily Colonist
May 23, 1975

The Savoy

"A Touch of Class"

An Exciting New Concept in Luxurious Self-Owned Apartment Homes in a Superb Downtown Location

The Savoy, an 11-storey steel and concrete Condominium of 55 self-owned Apartment homes, adds a touch of class to the downtown area of beautiful Victoria. The building is a brilliant new design offering delightful views of the City, the Inner Harbour, Beacon Hill Park, the Straits and the Olympics.

Gracious living and a warm atmosphere await you in these lovely Apartment Homes close by the Empress, the Inner Harbour and the Park.

 

 

[aastra]

Yet another luxurious residential complex changing Victoria's character for the worse:

 

 

Daily Colonist
September 14, 1977

Stadacona Centre: It Has To Be Seen

...only Park Pacific has the experience, the know-how -- and the imagination -- to produce a complex like Stadacona Centre. It is rather like a luxurious futuristic village, designed to focus in upon itself and onto the remarkable inner court gardens.

Park Pacific has taken all the best features of the condominium concept and built them into this development. It shelters beautifully from the busy city nearby and provides thoughtfully designed residences with all sorts of quality extras.

Convenience is part of the concept, too...

There is even a little neighbourhood shopping centre downstairs, built discreetly at street level, and instantly accessible.

For those who want to relax in style, Stadacona Centre is like a big, beautiful private club, with a recreation core of luxurious facilities.

But the heart of the matter is the inner court gardens... Ringed by balconies, the gardens spread across two levels from Fort to Pandora Street, inside the complex. There is a touch of the Orient in their design -- and of Europe -- yet they are uniquely West Coast in feel...

Luxury apartment homes -- 1 and 2 bedroom

There will never be another one like it in Victoria.

 

...

Edited by aastra, 10 September 2019 - 05:37 PM.

[aastra]

Apartments are a trend in Victoria. Or maybe not.

 

 

Daily Colonist/Victoria Express
May 18, 1974

The rise, decline and fall of apartment development boom

Some day, if someone writes the definitive history of residential accommodation in Greater Victoria, an appropriate title for one chapter might be The Rise, Decline, and Fall of the Apartment.

The Rise had its modest beginnings back in the early 1950s when Victorians -- late, as usual, to catch up with a long-established North American trend -- became gradually aware of the facts of life that made the rental apartment a desirable form of shelter.

 

Through that decade the process of discovery gained momentum. People by the score, especially those whose families had grown up and the newly-retired, decided to give up the maintenance headaches and the financial burden of home ownership for the more carefree status of renting. And developers set out to accommodate them...

But the apartment really entered its heyday in the late 1960s, as construction spurted ahead to cater to a fantastic demand, created both by Victoria's growing reputation as a balmy retirement centre and the products of the post-war baby boom -- young couples seeking inexpensive rental accommodation.

Developers vied with each other to provide ever more glamorous amenities, and before long the built-in sauna, gymnasium and "swirlpool" evolved from status symbol almost to basic necessity.

And so to The Decline. The first signs of dry rot set in during the 1972 tax year, when the federal government removed its tax incentives under which apartment building owners could write off against their other income the annual depreciation costs on their apartments.

Land prices spiraling almost out of sight, sharply rising labor costs, tighter strictures imposed by municipalities in response to public pressures, higher borrowing costs, the economic uncertainties of life under a socialist government and a growing awareness of the potential profits in condominium development... all these factors steadily combined to make apartment development a less attractive proposition than it had been.

But one further deterrent still lay ahead, in the form of the NDP government's "rentalsman" and his sweeping powers to dictate -- with cabinet approval -- the maximum allowable percentage increase in rents.

...may prove to be the last straw that broke the B.C. apartment camel's sagging back.

The Fall hasn't actually occurred yet, but every indication is that it will, unless drastic remedial action is taken by all levels of government.

New apartment construction has virtually ground to halt in the Greater Victoria area, at a time when the apartment vacancy rate continues to be a miniscule .3 per cent -- the lowest rate for the area since Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation surveys started in 1969.

Already, according to the Landlord and Tenant Advisory Bureau, the problems of finding rental accommodation here are of "major proportions."

Local elected representatives... have gone on record expressing their concern over the shortage and the slump in new construction.

Says a senior official at City Hall: "It's unfortunate, but true, that developers are concentrating heavily on condominium development. And who can blame them? Anyone who wants to build an apartment under today's conditions needs his head examined."

Says an Esquimalt building official: "Right now we're getting no ruddy apartment projects whatsoever. I feel sorry for the young married people -- where are they going to live?"

Says a prominent Victoria realtor: "There's really not much profit in owning an apartment these days. Most owners aren't getting the kind of investment return they would from a term deposit at 10 per cent."

Says an Oak Bay municipal spokesman: "We've only had one rental accommodation apartment constructed in the past 18 months."

Is the tailing-off in new apartment construction irreversible, or can developers be induced to meet the continuing demand for this type of accommodation -- which in the city of Victoria already houses close to 50 per cent of the population?

 

So in the early 1950s Victoria was a latecomer to the rental trend, but by the early 1970s (barely a generation later) around 50% of the population was renting? Renting has always been big in Victoria as compared to most other Canadian cities but for some reason Victorians still like to pretend otherwise. Maybe because they think it seems too urban to have such an emphasis on rental apartments?

Edited by aastra, 11 September 2019 - 09:41 AM.

[aastra]

Continuing the May 18, 1974 article:

 

 

Daily Colonist/The Express
May 18, 1974

The rise, decline and fall of apartment development boom

Pollen echoes the recent call... to reintroduce the capital cost allowance as an incentive to development. Accelerated tax write-offs and a government-assured adequate supply of service land, the mayor says, would "free up the dynamic characters in the community to build apartment buildings."

But Herb Brown, president of the Victoria Real Estate Board, discounts the significance of the eliminated federal tax incentives as a development deterrent. More directly to blame, he believes, are such factors as the escalating cost of land in good residential areas, the difficulty of assembling sizable parcels and the "no-growth attitude of councils" as reflected in their zoning restrictions.

"The solution, or part of it, lies in making things easier for the developer," Brown states flatly.

Asked if municipal policies on apartment zoning are not a response to prevailing public attitudes toward such development, and fears that it might spread in uncontrolled fashion, Brown replies: "Is it the majority or an organized minority setting the climate?"

As for rent controls, Brown claims the trend toward condominium construction can only be reversed if the developer can see a guaranteed profit in the venture. "If he is going to be caught up in rent controls which are not going to allow him a reasonable return on his investment he'll want no part of it."

Several municipal officials involved in planning and housing believe the only effective solution must come from one, or both, of the senior levels of government.

"If they, through their fiscal and other policies, are largely to blame for discouraging this kind of development, it's up to them to step in and fill the vacuum," one official said.

(A B.C. government-sponsored program to encourage private developers to build 500 new rental homes in the Victoria area, announced recently by Housing Minister Lorne Nicolson, could be seen as a step -- some say a very small step -- in that direction.)
 

Edited by aastra, 06 July 2019 - 01:55 PM.

[aastra]

Continuing the May 18, 1974 article:

 

 

Daily Colonist/The Express
May 18, 1974

The rise, decline and fall of apartment development boom

...Victoria Ald. Sam Bawlf goes along with that view...

Victoria's rental accommodation and other housing problems would be most efficiently tackled by a housing development corporation, he maintains. Such a body, funded by the senior governments and using city initiative and expertise, could push through a comprehensive redevelopment plan for a large chunk of the city lying generally to the east of the central area, between Blanshard and Cook.

This area is specifically designated in the city's Central Area Study... as ripe for apartment development cheek-by-jowl to downtown.

But while City Hall is anxious to provide high-density residential enclaves adjacent to the commercial heart of the city, it is realistic enough to recognize that this can only be achieved in a mixed-development concept which also embraces retail, office and tourist accommodation uses.

...developers prepared to work out such integrated development schemes are offered a density "bonus" by being permitted to build up to to four times as much floor space as total site area.

The objective of such zoning strategy is fine, but in this case is there any guarantee that the residential component in the mixed-use plan would be rental and not ownership suites?

In theory, yes, for under the Strata Title Act a municipality has the absoolute discretion to approve or reject any strata plan application, regardless... And no explanation for refusal need be given.

But such a policy, applied either selectively or under a blanket moratorium, might prove upalatable at the municipal level, implying as it does a stranglehold on free enterprise prerogative.

The only substantial check under the proposed system would be to disallow the conversion of apartments to condominium if the apartment vacancy rate locally hasn't been that high in years.

But how effective a control would that be? Although a report prepared for the intermunicipal committee estimates that some 700 apartment units have already been converted to strata title, the signs are that the initial flurry of applications to convert has tapered off considerably.

As a Saanich housing official told The Express: "We have already made the restrictions so tough on conversions that there's practically nothing coming through."

The real cause for concern is not the rate of conversionns but the trend toward more and more new condominium construction, he added.

Edited by aastra, 06 July 2019 - 01:55 PM.

[aastra]

Continuing the May 18, 1974 article:

 

 

Daily Colonist/The Express
May 18, 1974

The rise, decline and fall of apartment development boom

In agonizing over current problems and speculating on future prospects for the apartment in Greater Victoria, it's easy to overlook the massive impact this type of development has already had on the area, and especially the city itself.

With the exception of the automobile, perhaps no other single factor in the post-war evolution of the city has had a greater effect on its physical appearance, its population, its total environment, its very substance.

No precise tally is available, but current estimates place the total number of apartments in the four core municipalities at nearly 25,000.

This unit total is broken up as follows: Victoria, 18,250; Saanich, 3,500; Oak Bay, 1,200; Esquimalt, 2,000.

Prior to 1952 there were only some 1,000 apartment units in the entire metropolitan area, the vast majority of them smaller buildings -- often larger, older homes that had been converted -- accommodating between six and 19 units.

In his Victoria apartment study, published in the Western Geographical Series, University of Victoria geographer Peter Murphy notes that the "dramatic" increase in apartment growth over the 20 years up to 1971 involved roughly a doubling in apartment numbers every four years.

Through this arithmetic progression, he says, almost 50 per cent of the 1971 apartment population appeared in the four years between 1968 and 1971.

During that 20-year period, apartment buildings grew steadily larger. Those under 20 units in size declined to 19 per cent of the total, says Murphy, while the proportion of medium-sized buildings (20 to 49 units) rose from 15 to 55 per cent.

The highrise and larger apartment buildings of 50-plus units didn't make their debut until the early 1960s, but within 10 years they accounted for 26 per cent of all new apartment buildings.

...the development concentrated around the city centre, major throughfares leading to it (notably the Fort-Cadboro Bay and Pandora-Oak Bay routes to the east and Esquimalt Road to the west) and areas of scenic or recreational value such as the periphery of Beacon Hill Park, Dallas Road and the Oak Bay waterfront.

In Saanich, the Cedar Hill Cross Road-Shelbourne area became a focus for apartment development and in Victoria, James Bay was singled out as the prime area "suitable" for such development -- and zoned accordingly.

What Mayor Pollen has since termed "the rape of James Bay" had begun; the extensive displacement of aging single-family homes with four-storey frame apartments and highrise towers.

Initially, the public view toward the trend seemed one of philosophical resignation, but as apartments continued to creep in exorably across the city's landscape there emerged feelings of doubt, concern and, eventually, open hostility.

What would high-density living cause in terms of traffic congestion, noise, fire risk, the right of the citizen to enjoy his quote of sunshine? Would apartment buildings form a continuous waterfront wall to block out the view of the sea and the Olympics? Would we end up like the West End of Vancouver?

 

(aastra says: Not sure what to make of that apartment research data. Chinatown itself had a sizable population at one point in Victoria's history, but we're saying there were only a thousand apartment units in all of Victoria in 1952? We can't pin the blame on the urban renewal wipeouts of the 1960s because they hadn't happened yet! I suspect that apartment count might have been excluding apartments of certain categorizations, especially ones in downtown buildings and old hotels. FYI: there's a 1963 article that refers back to Victoria's apartment craze... of 1913!)

 

(aastra also says: 25,000 apartments in Victoria in 1974? I'm confused. Don't the rental market reports say there are about 25,000 apartments today, almost 50 years later? Have we really done such a crappy job of adding new rental apartments, despite the endless hand-wringing over the years and decades? Incentives for creating/fast-tracking more rental apartments should have been job #1 for all of the intervening decades. And here it is the year 2019 and encouraging new rental apartments is STILL not really on the table as an option!)

 

 

table from CMHC 2018 rental market report for Victoria CMA

Edited by aastra, 07 July 2019 - 04:47 PM.

[aastra]

Apartments in 1913:

 

 

Daily Colonist
January 3, 1913

Victoria's Building Activity Doubled

Victoria's great growth in a material sense has been demonstrated in a remarkable way during the year 1912 and in no manner has it been better indicated than in the amount of building which has taken place. An increase of 100 per cent over the total of the preceding year is a showing which but few cities in the Dominion can make. The increase for Greater Victoria is even larger, the building activity in the adjoining municipalities having been equally marked.

In every line the building activity has been pronounced. Magnificent new hotels, modern apartment blocks, new churches and handsome business premises have been everywhere added to the city's list of fine structures, millions being expended in their erection.

The feature of this year's returns, however, and one which probably indicates more than any other the growth of the city, is the very great increase in the number of dwellings erected...

For churches approximately $200,000 was spent; $300,000 for apartment houses; $50,000 for factories; $60,000 for warehouses; $77,000 for garages, public and private; $530,000 for schools, while for office structures of the most modern kind nearly $3,000,000 was expended.

Edited by aastra, 08 July 2019 - 09:23 AM.

[Nparker]

From my Facebook feed today: https://youtu.be/NwREABOLzZc

Apparently back in 1936 our climate was "almost tropical" with perpetual sunshine.

[DavidC]

From my Facebook feed today: https://youtu.be/NwREABOLzZc
Apparently back in 1936 our climate was "almost tropical" with perpetual sunshine.

Wow, endless sunshine and 12 months of summer!
Best to keep that video under wraps, lest it attract all sorts of n’er-do-wells and undesirables, you know, like more Albertans. 🙃

Edited by DavidC, 07 July 2019 - 10:32 AM.

[aastra]

The harbour aerial at 50 seconds in reminds me of an old apartment ad I saw (can't remember what neighbourhood it was in, darn it). Anyway, one of the features of the apartment was that it would enable you to get away from the smoke.

 

CORRECTION: It was an ad for the new "Oakhurst" subdivision, not an apartment building.

 

 

Daily Colonist
April 18, 1912
 

Oakhurst the beautiful. The balcony of Victoria. Away from the fog and smoke.

 

Oakhurst is only two miles from the city hall and commanding a view of the mountains and straits...

 

OAKHURST and the Uplands is the cream of it all.

 

Edited by aastra, 07 July 2019 - 12:50 PM.