3672 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

I guess there’s a method to the madness somewhere in there, as in you don’t necessarily want to spend a million bucks on blacktopping a road when a major development is just around the corner.

Cook Street will close this weekend between Southgate and Park in the Village for road paving. It’s an awful stretch right now.

[lanforod]

Saanich' roads are far better, never mind ignoring certain streets due to upcoming projects. By no means are they perfect, but compared to CoV, a lot better.

CoV failing big time on basic maintenance there.

[Mike K.]

Granted, Saanich has way, way less construction activity.

[lanforod]

True. It also has far, far more roads, no?  And don't most construction projects have to redo the roads around their project, at completion at least?  It's not like the major construction companies have their yards in the CoV either.

[Mike K.]

Nope, that’s not a requirement, but sometimes it happens or it’s done in cooperation with a municipality. Developers pay plenty of DCCs for that sort of thing.

Saanich has a lot of car traffic. Trucks destroy roads, and when projects are getting built, roads get chewed up. Just watch what will happen in the University Heights area as the 1,000 units get underway on McKenzie between Cedar Hill and Shelbourne.

[lanforod]

I suspect there’s already been 1000 units completed in that area in the last 10 years. The road has been done several times. Either way, Saanich is on top of it.

[IPH]

If you need to rezone or get a development permit for your project in the COV you have to repave the portion of road in front of your project from lot line to lot line out to the center line of the road and replace all the curb and gutter, sidewalk and Blvd from lot line to lot line.  You are not directly required to repave any roads beyond that but anyone getting a Building permit also has to pay development cost charges (DCCs) to fund the repair/renewal/or replacement of city infrastructure beyond those boundaries. 

 

In most cases the largest chunk of DCCs are suppose to be used for Transportation infrastructure but the City has clearly not been allocating that to repaving roads over the last 10 years.  

[Nparker]

...the City has clearly not been allocating that to repaving roads over the last 10 years.  

This is what happens when dogma trumps practicality.

[Mike K.]

Oh wild, I didn’t realize you had to re-pave to the centre of the road. I’ve never seen that before. Is it enforced? Or does the developer have the option of paying into a fund as another DCC line item, so the City can draw on those monies when they repave a whole block?

We’ll see what Bosa does with Dockside. That road has been chewed up good.

[IPH]

There may be a bit of flexibility if the City plans to pave the whole road in the next year or two but I am not aware of any projects where this was done.

 

The repaving requirement is a relatively new policy that was put in place a few years ago. Around 2019 or so I believe?   If Dockside Green is still working off an older development permit from before that, they may not have to repave their frontage or not to the center line of the road. 

[Mike K.]

Aha! That explains it. You’re such a wealth of knowledge, IPH, thank you for continuing to offer your insight.

[IPH]

No problem. I'm sorting through potential costs for a project I'm looking at and the Engineering department is insisting it be shown on the plans that we will replace the sidewalk, curb & gutter, Blvd landscaping and repave the road.  So dug up the actual bylaw to make sure they had the authority to require it.  The bylaw is a consolidation of a number of bylaws that was approved in Sept of 2019.

 

VICTORIA SUBDIVISION AND DEVELOPMENT SERVICING BYLAW NO. 12-042

 

Draft 2 (victoria.ca)

 

The requirement to rebuild the road is contained in Section(s) 10 (2) and 17 (2).

[Mike K.]

Very good, thank you.

I can confirm Bosa has repaved the stretch of roadway in front of the three new towers on Tyee, both lanes.