I was there. The room was 90% senior citizens who blathered on and on about how there is too much construction in Victoria and new towers block their views from the condo they bought last year. The chairman of the meeting let people yammer for as long as they wanted about anything they wanted, which was mostly just boomer complaints about how terrible it is that Victoria is not in the 1960s anymore. I bet half of the room won't live long enough to see the full project completed, and yet those same folks are the ones with the strongest and most ridiculous complaints.
I was there too, and your depiction of the meeting is ... interesting. "90% senior citizens" = only 10% of the room was under the age of 65, and that definitely wasn't true. "The chairman of the meeting let people yammer for as long as they wanted": under the City's rules for a CALUC meeting, speakers are allowed to comment, not just ask questions. As for the "ridiculous complaints", here are the comments, questions and replies I wrote down:
— who polices and sets the rules for the 1/2 acre of public green space? (Starlight will work with the City to come up with a governance model for it)
— the straight walls of glass on perimeters of the six-storey podiums need some variation (Franc D'Ambrosio says the drawings are just "schematics" and the design guidelines will be key)
— the neighbourhood relies on Market on Yates, London Drugs and other businesses (Starlight says the existing businesses will be able to move to other phases of the project with minimal disruption)
— what OCP amendments does the developer need? (Starlight is seeking 6:1 density, higher than the 5.5:1 in the OCP, but is looking at including an affordable housing component)
— the plan is for townhouses along View, so why is a tower on View also? (Franc replied that shadow studies dictated the placement of the five towers)
— residents of 990 View, above Frontrunners, are going to get evicted, what's the plan? (Starlight will offer space in its other Victoria units or discuss compensation)
— resident of Regent Towers, the two existing towers in between the proposal, says he likes what he sees but the architecture is all "boxes" right up to the edge of the sidewalk
— all entrances for underground parking and services will be on View Street, can it handle the traffic? (Starlight said it will do a study)
— no one has mentioned that we are on unceded Coast Salish lands, what demographic are you looking for in rentals? (Starlight said they couldn't say yet, but the project will make a "significant difference" to the vacancy rate)
— how can you ensure the public space won't become a tent city? (Starlight says it has obligations to tenants to provide security, and retail will front the public areas in a way to provide "eyes on the street")
— what is the size of the building proposed for east of View Towers, and won't that shadow the green space? (nobody knew in the room but it's 15 storeys: https://victoria.cit...37-view-street/)
— resident of Regent Towers says 60 neighbours met with Starlight the night before, and were impressed by their public engagement
— the green space is a "huge bonus" we haven't seen from other new developments
— the corner of View and Vancouver is a swamp, how will you build there? (Starlight says it will excavate all of it down to the bedrock for underground parking)
I had to leave at 8:00 so that's all I got. Maybe the tone deteriorated after that, I don't know. I got the impression that the majority of the room liked the project but had sensible concerns and wanted more details. As Franc himself might say, perspective is everything.