STAY CONNECTED TO VIBRANTVICTORIA
WHAT'S HAPPENING ON CITIFIED VICTORIA
DRA letter:
https://npna.ca/wp-c...ouncil.docx.pdf
highights:
We support North Park Neighbourhood Association’s (“NPNA”) letter in response to that email and NPNA’s analysis that the 900 block of Pandora is not a suitable location for a community centre and did not meet the needs of North Park residents. We add our voice to that letter and agree that, for similar reasons, the location did not meet the needs of Downtown residents. Like NPNA we maintain that a community centre, located and developed to meet the needs of our residents, should remain a priority for Council. Despite Council’s direction that we are no longer to be involved in the development of the 926/930 Pandora site, the critical need for a Downtown community centre, and the corresponding financial resources, remains the same as before that change of direction. By initially proposing the 930 Pandora project as a recreation and meeting space for Downtown residents, Council clearly recognized and acknowledged the significant gap faced by Downtown-Harris Green residents in terms of access to public recreation and program facilities. Indeed, a Downtown community centre is, by any equity measure, long overdue. This gap will continue to widen as the thousands of units currently under development in our neighbourhood are completed and occupied, with no City-sponsored space for those residents to be welcomed or engage with others and build a sense of community – all this despite contributing significant new dollars to the City’s assessment and tax base.
Our neighbourhood is absorbing the majority of Victoria’s new residential development, and providing the assessment dollars that goes with that, yet we are not being provided with any of the community amenities that should go with that development. Without a community centre our association struggles to provide a visible and physical presence in our neighbourhood and to build a strong and resilient community. Additionally, we lack the appropriate financial resources to adequately support staff and programming to meet those needs. In its preliminary proposal for an increase to our funding for 2022, Council has recognized the equity gap experienced by neighbourhood associations like the DRA that do not have community centres. Continuing to operate without dedicated meeting and program space continues to present a significant barrier to our ability to build a strong and resilient neighbourhood or to welcome the expected new residents.
We strongly urge Council to approve the proposed increase in funding to the DRA in the 2022 budget to enable us to build capacity, strengthen our organization and reach out more effectively to Downtown-Harris Green residents.
Providing funding at the same or similar level as associations with community centres will enable us to rent administrative and program space, engage in community consultation and assist in identifying real estate appropriate for a community centre in our neighbourhood.
NPNA letter:
https://npna.ca/wp-c...andora.-1-1.pdf
highlights:
We support Council's direction to make use of this space for a use other than a neighbourhood community centre and child care for North Park and Downtown. The NPNA board does not feel that a “community use space, a gymnasium, a community kitchen, childcare"- which normally constitute a community centre - is suited to this location given the confluence of issues that has been caused by a concentration of support and services in this area.
The NPNA has made repeated requests to treat the 900 Block of Pandora as a special improvement area, and to undertake the thorough, long term planning process necessary to both support the individuals who spend time on the Pandora, and to transform it from a place of last resort to a dignified space.
We do want to applaud the provincial government's ambitious leadership to address the housing crisis. However, we also believe that there is an overconcentration of supportive housing in this area, and we’re not alone in this belief. As we requested in a letter to BC Housing (via MLA Lore’s office) in July 2021, we would like the province and BC Housing to acknowledge that the 930 Pandora, 938 Mason Street, and 953/959 Balmoral property are all located in a compact three block area, and that these developments need to be discussed together, with an understanding of how they relate to each other. We also request that BC Housing - together with the City - develop a density metric that they feel is acceptable for each neighbourhood, and the proportion of supportive housing and associated supports and services - and share this with the public.
^ lots of fireworks in that one, worth a read.
Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 December 2021 - 04:49 PM.
