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The Haro
Uses: condo, commercial
Address: 5120-5144 Cordova Bay Road
Municipality: Saanich
Region: Urban core
Storeys: 4
Condo units: (1BR, 2BR, sub-penthouse, penthouse)
Sales status: sold out / resales only
The Haro is a mixed-used residential and retail community situated along the 5100-block of Cordova Bay Road in... (view full profile)
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[Saanich] 5120-5144 Cordova Bay Road | Condos; commercial | 4, 4 and 4-storeys | Under construction


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143 replies to this topic

#41 grantpalin

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Posted 11 April 2017 - 01:02 PM

The one at Shelbourne and McKenzie and the tiny lot at Uptown are also long-timers.

The fence has been gone for some time at the Shelbourne/Mckenzie location, making me wonder if there will be something happening there sometime soon.



#42 3isenough

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Posted 11 April 2017 - 05:31 PM

The pollution under the gas station in Cordova Bay is much worse than just a normal remediation.


Which gas station site are you referring to; the old Pay Less or Esso? The Pay Less site has been gone for probably 25-30 years I'm guessing and the Esso station probably 20'ish years.

#43 weisguy86

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Posted 11 April 2017 - 08:53 PM

Which gas station site are you referring to; the old Pay Less or Esso? The Pay Less site has been gone for probably 25-30 years I'm guessing and the Esso station probably 20'ish years.

 

Actually the Esso only closed about 10 years ago.



#44 3isenough

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Posted 11 April 2017 - 09:32 PM

Actually the Esso only closed about 10 years ago.


Crazy, I could have sworn it was longer than that. I lived in CB in the early 90s and remember it being there and thought maybe it was shut down not long after I moved away. I moved back into the area 7 years ago.

Quick Google search and Payless was still there in 1990, looking to possibly open a convenience store (it was a really small station, 2 pumps I believe?). That surely would have ruffled some Cordova Bay feathers; slurpees and penny candy.

#45 Sparky

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Posted 11 April 2017 - 09:34 PM

If you don't think it is time for some Cordova Bay gas station lore just start booing or something but here goes.

 

I the 60's there were 3 garages. The Seaview Plaza Chevron was located at the North East corner of the shopping centre and they specialized in working on import and sports cars. The Cordova Bay Garage was located across Dumac between the road and the little General Store. It was a Shell station and later a Payless. When it was a Shell station it was owned by Garnett Reviere who lived 2 doors down from the corner of Parker and across the street from the Texaco station which morphed into the Esso. The Texaco station was owned by Lyle Steer (AKA Liquid Lyle).

 

The Chevron was the first to close in the mid 60's and the Esso was the last to go about 10 years ago as mentioned above. Rumour has it that the sandy loam makeup of the soil conditions has made for the perfect storm of firstly absorbing any impurities that may have found their way into the ground and then holding onto those impurities for dear life (kinda like a sponge).


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#46 Cassidy

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Posted 12 April 2017 - 08:03 AM

What exactly does leaving a gas station lot sit empty for ten or 15 years do?

 

I don't recall seeing any major excavating work take place at the old Esso site, such as they did in Rock Bay.

Do they remove the old soil (or sandy loam), or does leaving it sit empty accomplish something of which I'm completely in the dark?

 

(another somewhat large gas station lot that's sat empty for 20+ years is the one at the corner of Cedar Hill X Road and Blenkinsop)



#47 thundergun

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Posted 12 April 2017 - 08:09 AM

What exactly does leaving a gas station lot sit empty for ten or 15 years do?

 

I'd love to hear the reasoning behind this. And are there other methods to address these issues, like digging up contaminated soil and moving it elsewhere so development can happen sooner? You have to think some of these sites are worth a pretty penny in today's crazed market. If the contamination issue could be solved with money, I'd expect we would have seen that by now, right?



#48 Jackerbie

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Posted 12 April 2017 - 08:12 AM

For all your gas station lore needs: http://vibrantvictor...ts-they-become/


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#49 Cassidy

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Posted 12 April 2017 - 10:19 AM

Thanks for that link - full of good info, but it still sort of leaves the question open as to exactly what the lot sitting empty accomplishes over 10 or 15 years.

For example, presuming the site is contaminated, does leaving it sit there empty wash the pollutants away with naturally falling rain? ... to where do the pollutants "wash away" to?

 

Wouldn't the groundwater clear up regardless of whether the site is empty or has a building on it?

 

Or is there some sort of naturally occurring breakdown of gas and oil that takes place, and some sort of additional legal requirement to continue to test the open land to confirm that breakdown is taking place?

 

In my experience gas and oil don't break down at all, regardless of how much time has passed.

When they finally did develop the old gas station site at Herald and Government, the smell of gas and oil overpowered the entire block for the month or two that the site was being excavated for the new condos. Only when they began to pour the concrete foundations and parkade floor did the oil and gas reek abate. 

But the soil that generated that smell is all still sitting there, underneath the concrete foundations and floor. They took lots of soil away, but it still stunk to high heaven the day they poured the foundations.

 

I relate the above having walked by that site everyday for years, starting with the tear-down of the gas station, the remediation process, and the construction of the condos. (BTW - despite the exterior looking the contrary ... it's a completely wood framed building from top to bottom, and thus you'll hear your neighbors footsteps and "banging about" through every floor and every wall).



#50 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 12 April 2017 - 10:24 AM

Ya, you'd think capping it with concrete would be fine.  

 

Dunno.  Do we have any environmental technologists on this forum?


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#51 aastra

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Posted 12 April 2017 - 10:39 AM

No civilization in history has ever considered Chief Hydrological Engineer to be a calling.



#52 coastaldrew

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Posted 10 September 2017 - 07:49 AM

I admittedly have not read ALL the posts in this thread but I wanted to add something as a former resident.  We lived on the beach - nicest in Vic at low tide for sure (hidden gem alert).  Which is also on CB Rd.  Its busy.  Not the whole neighbourhood mind you, but CB Rd is very very busy at certain times of the day.  It a geography issue in my mind.  I hated driving up and on that ridge every day and avoided it whenever possible. Plus everyone who has local knowledge takes that route if they are coming from E Saanich to C Saanich - over vice versa.  There is no solution to that.  Its a 2 lane road that is just very busy and will continue to get busier.  That is what the locals hate.  The density in Gordon Head and Saanichton is as much to blame as the density in CB.  Its not really 'fixable' without 'traffic calming' measures. In my opinion the community desperately needs some walkable retail alternatives to Matticks so people will get out of their cars and enjoy that lovely area.

 

And I do not want to start a flame war here but the actual problem - in my opinion - with the whole city traffic issue has nothing to do with density.  The tech and programming for our traffic lights in the worst I have seen in my life.  I have traveled extensively.  We don't have a volume problem.  We need to 'relieve' everyone in charge of traffic flow in the entire CRD and start again.  I love the bike alternative but the city is growing up and they need to start looking at smarter lights.  The locals know the routes that avoid the detestable non-sensical lights (you know the ones that pile 100 cars in one direction while no one crosses in the other) and many of those 'best' routes go through quiet family neighbourhoods.  Fix the lights, and you fix the problems. 


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#53 sebberry

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Posted 10 September 2017 - 08:29 AM

Welcome to the forum, coastaldrew


Victoria current weather by neighbourhood: Victoria school-based weather station network

Victoria webcams: Big Wave Dave Webcams

 


#54 MarkoJ

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Posted 10 September 2017 - 12:14 PM

A few condo buildings are not going to add congestion to Cordova Bay; looks at how dead it is in the Songhees neighbourhood. 

 

As for traffic I built a home two years ago in Saanichton and I regularly take Blenkinsop to Cordova Bay Road and join the highway at Sayward.  Same coming into town....if I see a lot of traffic congestion on my navi screen on the highway I turn off at Sayward.  So I don't live or work near Cordova Bay but I regularly use it and will continue to use it irrelevant of condo development or not.


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#55 johnk

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Posted 18 October 2017 - 11:42 AM

And so it remains a drive-through place with no core where people can meet and share a chat over coffee.
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#56 Nparker

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Posted 18 October 2017 - 11:47 AM

And so it remains a drive-through place with no core...

On this much I agree.



#57 tjv

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Posted 19 October 2017 - 06:58 AM

Another good example is the Songhees.....no traffic at that light depsite a lot of condos.

I know your comment is regarding the traffic light, but the Songhees is an absolute disaster otherwise.  Compare that to the Expo 86 lands or the Marathon Lands in Vancouver.   Two home runs in Vancouver, and yet in Victoria we get basically a garage dump.



#58 Mike K.

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Posted 19 October 2017 - 07:04 AM

It's no so bad. It's just missing a commercial element, which will come with the Roundhouse, and eventually the stale looking buildings will get upgraded or replaced. Some of them are not all that big and the way things are going could one day be bought up, torn down and re-built like what we see in Vancouver.


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#59 Bingo

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Posted 19 October 2017 - 12:18 PM

And so it remains a drive-through place with no core where people can meet and share a chat over coffee.

 

Sleepy little sea-side communities do much better with ice cream stands. 



#60 Jackerbie

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Posted 20 October 2017 - 02:35 PM

 

Cordova Bay Plaza is nearly empty now that main tenant Tru Value Foods has closed, but replacement plans for the shopping centre have prompted a long list of concerns from the Cordova Bay Association for Community Affairs.

 

In a letter to the Saanich planning department, the group rejects the project, describing it as too urban and out of scale and character for what should be a community focal point in the beachside area.

 

“It doesn’t have a village appeal,” said association president Larry Gontovnick. The group contends the project looks above grade at Cordova Bay Road, making four storeys seem more like five, has inadequate public meeting space and blank exterior walls, and overpowers existing nearby housing.

 

“The relationship of the proposed buildings to the neighbouring properties and to our main street, Cordova Bay Road, is troubling,” the letter said.

- See more at: http://www.timescolo...h.yAn2fDvD.dpuf

 

 

The plaza should have an easier path and I would like to see it move ahead.

 

Don't be so sure about that...



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