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Cadboro Bay Village plan


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#21 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 28 February 2024 - 06:10 AM

A new Saanich official community plan that lays the foundation for 18-storey residential towers along the McKenzie corridor near Gordon Head Road, among other changes, will head to a public hearing this spring.

 

Council voted unanimously Monday to send for public comment the tweaked version of its new community plan, which also incorporates new provincial legislation increasing allowable building heights around transit hubs and allowing single-family lots to be replaced by denser housing forms such as houseplexes of three to six units, townhomes or small apartment buildings.

 

Village plans for Cordova Bay and Cadboro Bay are also part of the revised OCP.

 

Amendments made Monday night to the document, which was given first reading on December, would mean three properties owned by the Capital Regional Housing Corporation at 1821 McKenzie Ave., 1827 McKenzie Ave. and 3936 Gordon Head Rd. could one day support up to 18 storeys of not-for-profit housing. Currently those sites are zoned for up to six storeys.

 

Mayor Dean Murdock said allowing for 18 storeys means the district will be prepared for future needs.

 

“Why would we miss the potential opportunity based on a gut instinct about how tall they should be?” he said, noting limiting the potential to 12 storeys, as some councillors had wished, would “effectively be closing the door on more affordable housing.”

 

“This is a long-term document — the last version of the OCP was largely unchanged for 15 years. I think McKenzie will look very different 15 years from now.”

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...ckenzie-8367026


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 February 2024 - 06:10 AM.


#22 Mike K.

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Posted 28 February 2024 - 06:37 AM

How many 18 storey towers do we see out there? Zero.

It’s not economical to build to that height.

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#23 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 28 February 2024 - 06:53 AM

Does seek odd. But they are targeting those properties where the land is already in the hands of the housing providers. At “free” land price any build is economical.
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#24 Mike K.

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Posted 28 February 2024 - 07:01 AM

Not so much a general rule any more. It’s all a factor of density now. The land is a small part of the overall cost and lots of approved projects can’t move forward at the density they have secured (ie the land cost is no longer relevant).

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#25 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 28 February 2024 - 07:03 AM

These are government funded though. It says “not for profit” housing. No limit to government money!
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#26 aastra

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Posted 28 February 2024 - 12:14 PM

Exactly. If it costs an unjustifiable fortune then mission accomplished.


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#27 aastra

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Posted 28 February 2024 - 12:33 PM

 

...three properties owned by the Capital Regional Housing Corporation at 1821 McKenzie Ave., 1827 McKenzie Ave. and 3936 Gordon Head Rd. could one day support up to 18 storeys of not-for-profit housing

...limiting the potential to 12 storeys, as some councillors had wished, would “effectively be closing the door on more affordable housing.”

 

It's all a test of the reader's memory and basic understanding of things. To summarize, your noble governments and politicians resisted attractive lowrise and midrise buildings for decades, because even the implication of a bit of density was a bad thing. Thus, an ever-worsening housing situation was the result, ever-worsening for decades. But now your noble governments and politicians have seen the light (a different light) and they're suddenly keen on highrise towers in the suburban neighbourhoods... as long as those highrise towers are pretty much guaranteed to be unattractive, and probably widescrapers, too.

 

Put it another way: the modern anti-development hysteria was fueled by fears of these kinds of projects in these kinds of places, and the anti-development attitude produced all manner of "housing crisis" woes. But in the year 2024 these kinds of projects in these kinds of places are now being offered up as the solution to those very same "housing crisis" woes. Either way, we ended up in the same situation, but we took the most arduous and expensive route to get there.

It's another one of those circumstances where a cynical person might observe how conveniently it all played out for certain parties.



#28 aastra

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Posted 28 February 2024 - 12:52 PM

Politics in 1984: "we care too much about the community to allow something like this"

Politics in 2024: "we care too much about the community to prevent something like this"


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