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[Bob Fugger]

On Thursday evening, I attended an informal meet 'n' greet with Cadillac Homes and Tri-Eagle Development at the Gordon Head Recreation Centre about a proposed development behind UVic.  Kasapi Construction has been quietly disposing of their numerous landholdings now that the old man is at death's door.  The dispositions are welcome, as they are terrible, irresponsible and generally shitty landowners.

 

Cadillac & Tri-Eagle are proposing to take a very long and very narrow lot at 4082 Dawnview Crescent that is currently zoned RS-6 - and proposing to subdivide and rezone into three RS-1 1,700 sq ft SFDs, each including >300 sq ft secondary suites.  The homes have a decently wide frontage; however, the developers will require a significant 8m variance of the minimum lot depth on each lot.  According to the developers, they were encouraged by Saanich planning staff to densify thusly.  The designs of the homes were nice enough; although, I personally dislike Zebra Designs, as I find their interiors odd.

 

The handful of neighbours that showed up were very unimpressed with the proposal at the start.  However, they began to mollify once the it was explained that the secondary suites will be subject to s.219 covenants that will restrict the rentability of the secondary suites for anyone other than owner-occupiers (of the main unit).  While most of the neighbours felt that it was too dense, the developers suggested that subdividing into two lots (e.g., 2x RS-4) would mean that real estate investors would likely snap up the homes and rent them out to UVic students by the room, with campus being basically right there.  With the owner-occupier requirement, it rules out real estate investors.  Or so say the developers.

 

The developers also committed to assisting existing neighbours with the parking issue on Dawnview Crescent, by lobbying Saanich to give up some of their chunky 7m boulevard for parking scallops (this is how the developer referred to them - not sure what they are actually called.  Here are some in front of Yates Street frontage of The Atrium).

 

At the end of the evening, it seems that neighbours couldn't get their heads around the three subdivided lots.  I'll keep you guys posted as this moves ahead.