FINALRound2Boards.pdf

As a reminder the Open Houses are scheduled as follows:
1. Saturday, April 28 – St. Aidan’s United Church. Noon – 3 p.m.
2. Monday, April 30 – Mount Doug Secondary School. 5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
3. Tuesday, May 1 – UVic Student Union Building. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
4. Wednesday, May 2 – Cadboro Bay United Church. 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.

•80% of us live in urban centers
•90% of our time is spent indoors
•5% of our time is spent in cars
•5% of our time is spent outdoors
•100% of our time is spent living in natural eco-systems

Dr. Hancock encourages us to “grow people, build community and protect nature.” He believes that governance is central to what we do (relates to community health, planning and development). When thinking about community, he stresses the importance of “capital,” meaning that we should grow human, social, natural and economic capital simultaneously. He talked about the significance of the following goals, using the quote that “A goal is a timeless statement of aspiration”:

•community involvement
•political commitment
•intersectoral partnerships
•healthy public policy

A final quote from his presentation states: “When inequality becomes too great, the idea of community becomes impossible.”

by Councillor Cairine Green

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.

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

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

There is simply not enough information available from the Vancouver Island Health Authority and the Baptist Housing Society to decide on such an important project, councillors said. And they are also concerned it may not be the right site for a facility of its size.

Mayor-elect Nils Jensen and councillor Tara Ney voted against it, as did Hazel Braithwaite, the defeated mayoral candidate.

Councillor John Herbert voted in favour, as did retiring mayor Christopher Causton.

A full report on their reasons will be posted later today.

About 250 people attended a special meeting at the Monterey Centre Monday night. They had 4.5 hours of questions for VIHA, Baptist Housing and Oak Bay council. At the end, many told council they couldn’t imagine how council, in all good conscience, could make a decision given the lack of detailed information and lack of community consultation.

The proposed development would see the current building at 2251 Cadboro Bay Rd. replaced with an $80-million, six-storey, 320-bed facility.

The joint project between the Baptist Housing Society and the Vancouver Island Health Authority would provide a home for Greater Victoria seniors with dementia who require complex care.

The project needs variances from the municipality to allow a two-storey increase in height to built to six storeys, and a reduction of required parking from 320 to 107 spots.

The meeting Monday night was held because so many people wanted to speak at a meeting scheduled last week.

A repeated concern was that VIHA was bullying the current council and threatening to put the project in another municipality if approval isn’t given this week.

In a letter to council, the authority said they need council to approve the necessary variances on the project so they can meet their December funding deadline.

Heather Vincent, who lives on Cranmore Road, said a new building for seniors is needed and wanted in the community, something many at the meeting reiterated.

“Our concern is due process or lack of it. … Please listen to us tonight and allow for more due process and community input.”

Many speakers emphasized they are not against such a facility, but they want details from VIHA.

“I think that VIHA’s threat to take its ball and bat and go home is just a bullying tactic,” said Mike Hayes. “We have been told by Baptist Housing and VIHA in the past that they do not have other zoned land. The zoning on the lodge site is vitally important to this whole debate. That is council’s strongest card and it should be played.”

The proposal has also brought up a split on council.

Mayor-elect Nils Jensen and councillor Tara Ney tried at the start of the meeting to have discussion by council and a decision on the project adjourned so the new council could deal with it. The new council, which will have three new councillors, is to be sworn in Dec. 5.

Jensen said the project is too big and important to the community for it to be rushed through to decision. Council were only shown a model of the proposed project a week ago, he said, and the community has not had enough time to have their many questions answered.

Mayor Christopher Causton, defeated mayoral candidate Hazel Braithwaite and John Herbert voted against that though, so the meeting carried on.

kwestad@timescolonist.com

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

Drop in from 4:00-8:00 PM

Presentations will be held at 5:00 and 7:00 PM

Mackinnon Building, Apparatus Gym, University of Victoria

For more information, please email planning@uvic.ca

The Oak Bay Emergency Program and the District of Oak Bay would like to invite you to a presentation by the Master in Disaster and Emergency Management (MADEM) students from Royal Roads University. We have been privileged to partner again with Royal Roads in the above project. It is very exciting for our community!

A team of 10 students have worked tirelessly over the past 2 1/2 weeks, meeting with staff, Council, community members and emergency management staff and volunteers, as well as reviewing documents, plans and community initiatives. They have worked to identify our community’s strengths, gaps and strategies to address those gaps which will help us to move towards applying to receive a United Nations designation as being a Disaster Resilient “Role Model” for other cities worldwide.

The Oak Bay RRU team will present their final report on how Oak Bay can move forward to become designated internationally as a Disaster Resilient “Role Model” City. Their assessment is based on a 10-point Checklist identified by the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters. The UN initiative on Disaster Resilient Communities is called ” Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready”.

“The best way to get to know a neighbourhood, is to walk it.”
- Jane Jacobs

The weekend of May 7th and 8th, there will be a number of Jane’s Walks throughout the region. You’ll get a little exercise, fresh air, and learn some things you likely never knew about the history of your neighbourhood, or even some of the issues facing it today.

If you’re looking for one nearby, check out the Shelbourne Valley Jane’s Walk.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011
7:00 PM in the Garry Oak Room, Monterey Recreation Centre at 1442 Monterey Avenue

Oak Bay Municipal Council invites residents to a Town Hall meeting to discuss in an open forum any items of interest. Everyone is welcome to attend.
For more information contact the Oak Bay Municipal Hall at 250-598-3311.