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By tomcroft, February 20, 2012 5:50 pm

Check our Friday, February 17th edition of the Oak Bay News for the most recent Oak Bay Connector. Published by the Community Association of Oak Bay and available online.

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By tomcroft, February 11, 2012 5:16 pm

A big thank you to all participants in the first Oak Bay Community Services Expo. This event hosted by Denise Savoie with the support of your Community Association connected many organizations. The attendance was overwhelming. People met and spoke with representatives of many federal, provincial, local, private and public organizations. The overall response heard was how great it was to meet “face to face” with experts.

The Community Association of Oak Bay appreciates the participation of Denise Savoie, Ida Chong, Carole James and Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen and Council. It couldn’t have been done in such a short time frame without Donna Forbes and Sarah Nantel from Denise’s office who made it all possible!

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By tomcroft, February 11, 2012 9:30 am

Diagram of the proposed Garry Oaks Village shows the shifting of the building to the centre of the current Oak Bay Lodge site, along with the position of the current building.
Courtesy Cotter Artchitects/Baptist Housing

By Ryan Flaherty – Oak Bay News
Published: February 07, 2012 4:00 PM
Updated: February 08, 2012 9:39 AM

After a three-month break, round two is officially underway.

Oak Bay council got its first look Monday at the revamped proposal from Baptist Housing for a new facility to replace Oak Bay Lodge. The new design addresses many of the concerns raised during the original variance application last fall.

Baptist Housing CEO Howard Johnson was on hand to give an overview of the changes. He was also there to assure all concerned that this time, the consultation step is being handled properly.

“We think this is a much better process this time around,” Johnson told the News Tuesday.

In addition to concerns raised in the fall over the height, access points and overall impact of the original design, there were also complaints that the entire application had been rushed and that council was forced too quickly into making a decision. This time, however, an independent planning consultant is being hired to guide the municipality through the process.

“This gives them a tremendous value in terms of understanding, from a technical point of view, that everything seems to be appropriate from a planning perspective,” said Johnson.

He pointed out that Oak Bay doesn’t have the same size planning department as larger communities such as Victoria and Saanich.

Johnson added that Baptist Housing will pay for the consultant, but that they will report to council. “They very much need to be independent of us and be able to give council unbiased advice.”

There are several significant differences in the new design. The biggest sees two sections of the 320-bed facility lowered to five storeys from six. To make that happen, some services, including the kitchen and a proposed adult daycare, have been relocated into the basement of the central section, which remains at six storeys.

The Cotter Architects design, dubbed Garry Oaks Village, also repositions the buildings so that less of the facility faces Cadboro Bay Road and neighbouring houses on Hampshire Avenue. It’s also more centred on the site to allow for preservation of all but three existing Garry oaks.

Other changes include reducing the site’s access points from two to one by eliminating a proposed Cranmore Road entrance/exit, increasing the number of parking spaces by two to 109 (one for every three beds) and moving the service entrance to a spot where it will have less impact on neighbours.

“We feel this has, from a community point of view, created a very good compromise,” Johnson said.

Though the consultant has yet to be hired – that will happen in the next couple of weeks – Baptist Housing already hosted an open house last Wednesday (Feb. 1) which was attended by close to 50 community members.

At least one neighbour is much more satisfied with the way things are going this time.

“Each neighbour has to speak for themselves, but I think they’ve tried to address most of the issues,” said John Rankin, whose Hampshire Road home faces the Oak Bay Lodge property. “The key concern I had was the process. I’ve always said that if the process is good, I will not object.”

Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen said he expects things “will be a lot smoother” the second time around.

“One of the things that we learned last time is that creating an artificial deadline for this important process is not a very good idea,” he said. “We’ll certainly move the process along expeditiously, but not so fast that people won’t have a chance to participate.”

Council expects to choose the consultant at its Feb. 13 meeting, and determine a timeline for the consultation process over the coming weeks.

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By tomcroft, February 6, 2012 6:42 pm

Your Community Association would like to invite you, your friends, family and neighbours to the Monterey Centre on Saturday, February 11 from 1 to 4pm for the first Community Services Expo, hosted by Victoria MP, Denise Savoie.
This free Expo will connect people with many community services offered throughout Oak Bay and Greater Victoria. Workshops and displays on how to steer through a wide variety of programs, Federal, Provincial, non-profits and local will be available. Folks will have an opportunity to speak face to face to experts in many disciplines – including – Bowker Creek Initiative, Canada Revenue Agency, Mary Manning Centre, UVic Continuing Studies and Oak Bay Green Committee – and many more.
Please drop by for further information on a wide variety of community organizations.

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By tomcroft, January 30, 2012 4:12 pm

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Oak Bay Council has recently formed two new advisory Committees and changed the mandate for a third, and is seeking interested volunteers for these three committees. Click here to link to an advertisement for volunteers, and click the appropriate links below to obtain specific frameworks for the Committees noted in the advertisement:

Environmental Advisory Committee

Active Transportation Advisory Committee

Community Initiatives Committee

Go to www.oakbay.bc.ca for details

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By tomcroft, January 30, 2012 9:25 am

Greetings cyclists and pedestrians of Oak Bay!

Last Monday evening, Oak Bay Council approved the mandates of 4 citizen advisory committees. The municipality will shortly be advertising for residents to participate in these committees.

One of these advisory committees, the Active Transportation Advisory Committee, has a mandate to make recommendations to Council on infrastructure improvements that will improve walking, cycling, and accessibility for those using mobility aids (e.g. wheelchairs, scooters, etc.) or pushing baby prams.
As background material, please refer to the Oak Bay Active Transportation Strategy prepared for Council in September 2011.

Please consider participating on this committee! It’s desirable for the committee composition to be of persons with varied backgrounds, of both genders, and ideally some broad age representation. I am particularly urging female walkers/cyclists to make a contribution.

More information will be published shortly by the municipality in the Oak Bay News and on the municipal website, so watch for it coming soon. It will include instructions on to apply to be on the committee.

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By tomcroft, January 28, 2012 9:21 am

This URL will link you to the full report on the Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities (CARSA).

Better Neighbours:
A plan for improved CARSA project consultation efforts by UVic.

http://www.uvic.ca/resources/carsa.php

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By tomcroft, January 22, 2012 10:16 am

Ralph Archibald, our Birding guy, is away at the end of January, so there will not be a Bird Walk.

We are planning a Public Meeting with presenter Grant Keddie, Curator, Archaeology, Royal BC Museum. It will be on Thursday evening, March 8, at 7 pm at Windsor Park Pavilion.

Please check our blog for more info on what is happening: friendsofuplandspark.wordpress.com

Mark Earth Day, Sunday April 22 on your calendar for the Uplands Park Celebration picnic with music, nature walks and family fun.

Anyone interested in joining ivy removal days, please email me at mlidkea@shaw.ca.

Yours naturally,
Margaret Lidkea and Kathleen Matthews

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By tomcroft, January 19, 2012 2:39 pm

The CRD has advised that if your regular pick up for recyclables was missed on January 18th because of snow conditions it will be picked up at the next cycle in two weeks.

If you prefer you can take it to the Municipal Yard for recycling.

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By tomcroft, January 16, 2012 8:43 am

By Staff Writer – Oak Bay News
Published: January 12, 2012 2:00 PM
Updated: January 12, 2012 2:11 PM

Oak Bay residents are now paying more for water and sewer services.

The average homeowner will pay about $518 for both services this year, up $16 from 2011. Municipal treasurer Patricia Walker said the increases are necessary to offset last year’s drop in revenue caused by a large reduction in water use.

Mayor Nils Jensen said the decline is part of “a trend in the region for people to use less water.”

Residents are watering their lawns less and replacing 20-litres-per-flush toilets with six-litre models, he said. The low-flush toilets alone represent a 40,000- to 80,000-litre water saving annually for a family of four.

The rate increase, to $1.961 per unit (100 cubic feet, or 2,845 litres), was approved during a special council meeting last week. The new sewer fee charge is $1.0189 per unit of water used.

editor@oakbaynews.com