Perhaps it is not so much a "bad thing", as it is unrealistic. Cities change and grow. That is just a fact.
I believe what might be even more unrealistic is to expect that such densification would ever be welcome in these older established Victoria neighborhoods to begin with.
Residents of Fairfield, Gonzales, Rockland and James Bay can easily look at Google Maps to see that the entire North End of town is a bunch of dumpy old single story warehouses with huge surface parking lots ... ripe for development.
A quick look at what they're doing at the old Hudsons Bay demonstrates how receptive and effective development of the North end of town actually is.
Why would residents of these single family home neighborhoods ever bless tearing their blocks apart when they can see a far better location to develop, even closer to the downtown core?
That large scale apartment and condo developments won't ever be welcomed by residents in the single family home areas of Victoria is a given (if you've lived here long enough - you already know that).
The North end of the COV awaits development ideas ... indeed it could not only solve the massive affordable housing crisis in the CRD, it could also be quite spectacular.
Forget about Fairfield and James Bay ... they're non-starters in terms of large scale development (and I currently own a home in Saanich, so I've no horse in this particular race).