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By michellekirby, February 26, 2011 5:26 pm

Written with contributions from Natalie Bandringa, Bowker Creek Initiative Coordinator

The Bowker Creek Initiative along with the respective municipalities that the Bowker Creek runs through, have been working for several years on developing The Bowker Creek Blueprint, A 100-year Action Plan to restore the Bowker Creek watershed.

You can have a look at the the final version of the 100-year Action Plan here.

The Bowker Creek Blueprint is an opportunistic plan that suggests ways the creek can be better managed to reduce flooding and create a community amenity of a natural creek, greenways for walking/biking, etc.

Bowker Creek Initiative will be making a short presentation about the Blueprint and seeking endorsement from the Municipality Oak Bay Council on February 28th.

Under the Blueprint the current major projects that BCI is focusing on in Oak Bay are:

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By michellekirby, January 3, 2011 10:58 pm

The Community Association of Oak Bay hosted an Active Transportation Forum on November 25th, 2010. At that time, a report card was written on our current status with regard to active transportation options in Oak Bay, and we think you might be interested in our community’s progress, as compared to those around us.

Report Card 2010

CURRENT STATUS:

Does our community have walkable and multi-use pathways?

North-south routes in Oak Bay are few, with limited crosswalks, and no official community plans for improvement;

Municipality of Oak Bay actions November 2009 to 2010:

Budgets and expenditures, Oak Bay municipality:

OBTAINING EXTERNAL FUNDING:

Oak Bay municipality made two grant application proposals to the Province of BC and the Government of Canada for transportation infrastructure in last 5 years:

Source: Municipal Clerk and Province of BC Local Motion Website

OTHER MUNICIPALITIES:

Effective Steps by Other Municipalities:
1. Do the Planning
2. Adopt the Policies
3. Submit the Proposals
4. Receive the Funding
5. Build the Connections to local and regional networks

2010 AND BEYOND
INITIATIVES OF OTHER MUNICIPALITIES

A summary of the activities, initiatives and results of other municipalities in Greater Victoria are highlighted below:

Central Saanich – 2010:
Population 16,000
$575,000 Local Motion Grant
Bicycle lanes on both sides of East Saanich Road and separate walking path near Peninsula Recreation Centre
Largest roadway improvement in recent years
Completed September, 2010
Population 16,000
East Saanich Road – 2.7 km from Island View Road to Cultia Ave
Total Cost is $7.0 million
Build Canada Fund pays $4.66 million
2.7 kilometre roadway will provide separate bike lanes, and separate walking trail
Includes sidewalks and bus stops
Completion scheduled for March 2012

View Royal – 2010:
Population: 9000
CRD Travel Choices 2007 – 2011
Island Highway – Admirals to Colwood Interchange – $15.0 million
E&N Rail Trail Project – 11.0 Million
2 photos showing major benefits for all roadway users
View Royal Official Community Plan
Adopted revised OCP on April 1st, 2010
Roads designated a “community resource” for benefit of all users
Neighborhood-wide planning – not each problem in isolation
Pedestrian access and movement to be enhanced
Quantifiable, measurable goals set
10 Year Cycling Action Plan endorsed
Links with neighboring municipalities and
Part of regional network
Bicycle parking, showers, lockers, change rooms.

Saanich – 2010
Population: 109,000
Multiple Use Trail / Roadway
Completed 2010
San Juan Greenway
East to West Connector Route
UVIC to Tyndall Soccer Fields
Shelbourne Street to Lochside Trail
Safe and convenient for pedestrians, students, teams and cyclists
Local Motion Billboard – Total Cost $1.1 million

Langford – 2010
Official Opening of Goldstream Village
Pedestrian and Cycling Friendly
Using Traffic Circle as Key Feature
Reduces overall accidents and reduces pollution
Improves safety for cyclists and pedestrians
Langford received ICBC Grant for $78,000 to pay for new Traffic Circle with Fountain
(Source: Claire Eraut – Oak Bay Resident, Former Deputy Superintendent of Motor Vehicles 1994 – 1998)
No curbs which allows more movement and improved pedestrian safety, Light up crosswalk included in project

Victoria – One Block Away from Oak Bay
Small traffic circles used to reduce speed and avoid accidents
Allenby and Dean intersection
Bike route to Camosun College
Park with children’s play area
Bay Street cross-town route upgrades to Royal Jubilee Hospital

CRD Finishes 5 Year Investment Plan in 2011

Rails to Trails Project: $11.0 million
CRD Ped Cycling Master Plan: $150,000
Esquimalt Craigflower Rd: $8.0 million
View Royal & Island Hwy: $15.0 million

PROVINCIAL FUNDING CURRENTLY AVAILABLE:

Bike BC Cycling Infrastructures Partnerships Program (CIPP)

This cost-shared program to funds new cycling paths and multiple use trails, with a goal to reducing traffic congestion and green house gas emissions. The program has $31 million over three years. Deadline for applications: Sept. 1st, 2010 for this year.

CIPP Funding – North Vancouver

CIPP Funding – City of Kelowna:

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By michellekirby, November 16, 2010 9:59 pm

Challenges for pedestrians on Foul Bay Road

On Thursday, November 25, the Community Association of Oak Bay
will host Oak Bay’ s second annual Active Transportation Forum. The three-hour forum,
titled “ Connecting regionally, connecting locally” , will be open to the public. Councillor Pam
Copley will provide opening and closing remarks.

The Forum will explore two projects with special interest for Oak Bay citizens.
Redeveloping Oak Bay High School with a budget of $54 million provides great
opportunities for civic space, public walkways, and cycle paths. With a presentation from
Mr. Rod Windjack of CEI Architecture, the forum looks at upgrading local corridors such as
Elgin Street, Hampshire Street, and Bowker Creek walkways. Such improvements will allow
citizens of all ages to connect safely to the new Neighbourhood Learning Centre, the new
Performing Arts Theatre, and to the Oak Bay Recreation Centre.

By the end of December, 2010, the Capital Regional District will release its draft Pedestrian
and Cycling Regional Master Plan which covers all 13 municipalities. After approval by
the CRD Board, this master plan launches five years (2011 – 2016) of multi-million dollar
investments in active transportation. With presentations from CRD representatives, and
citizen advisors, the Forum looks at the Oak Bay streets identified as regional priorities, and
will hear citizen’s comments on pedestrian and cycling routes, sidewalks and roadways.

The forum will examine how the municipalities of Langford, View Royal and Central Saanich
changed their transportation policies, spending, priorities, and creatively built new sidewalks,
bike lanes and improved roadways.

This public event will be held on Thursday, November 25, 2010, starting at 6:30 pm for
an open house, with a discussion panel 7-9 pm, and focus groups on specific topics at 9
pm, at the Windsor Park Pavilion, Sports Rooms 1 and 2.

Please RSVP to Michelle Hilts mhilts@shaw.ca to reserve a seat. (Space is limited)

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By michellekirby, November 8, 2010 9:31 pm

Sustainable U has just launched a new fall program called the Transportation Tune Up that we thought you would be interested in.

The CRD is recruiting 700 citizens who are passionate about transportation issues to help us spread the word on smart travel. Attend one of the free 2 hour workshops that are being held across the region and get equipped with the tools, knowledge and incentives to pass along information to colleagues, family, roommates and friends.

The workshop covers walking, riding, driving and taking transit. Ultimately the Tune Up is about encouraging citizens to re-think about their habits on the road to create a safer, greener and healthier region.

Don’t have time to come to a workshop? No problem. Pledge to take action and be entered to win fabulous prizes like bike gear, running shoes, car share credits and more!

Want us to come to you? If you have a meeting, event or session with at least 10 people and you can spare us 30 minutes to talk about smart travel, we can come to you with a mini-version of our workshop. We provide you with the treats, tools and incentives to spread the word. Contact Nikki Elliot at nelliott@crd.bc.ca to schedule a visit.

Tune up your travel and take action on climate change.

Proudly supported by the Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition, Capital Bike and Walk and Bike To Work Victoria.

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By michellekirby, October 12, 2010 9:04 pm

The rebuild of Oak Bay High School next year will give us an energy efficient, earthquake-safe, beautiful new building, but we have the opportunity for even more! With strong community support, we could also gain desperately needed capital funding for child care spaces, while also ensuring we don’t lose our theatre with the demolition of the old school.

If you support the application for a Neighbourhood Learning Centre to be apart of the new Oak Bay High, then please write a letter/email of support to our MLA, Ida Chong to let her know just how much the community is behind this application.

To help you, we’ve written the following template letter. Please copy and paste it into an email, and customize it how you wish.

To: ida.chong.mla@leg.bc.ca

CC: lcurtis@oakbay.ca, rwindjack@ceiarchitecture.com, michelle@michellekirby.ca, premier@gov.bc.ca,

Dear Minister Chong,

Oak Bay has an incredible opportunity to see additional funding added to the overall redevelopment package of our new high school next year. Neighbourhood Learning Centre funds can add up to 15% to the budget of the project, which could mean up to $5 Million towards building the new Oak Bay High, while fulfilling the need for some capital projects in our community.

I think we need these funds to go towards:

1. A 450 seat theatre, to replace the one that will be torn down with the old school,
2. Age appropriate, earthquake safe daycare, before and after school care spaces, and a new teen centre,
3. A community kitchen to provide an affordable space for families and community to gather and share a potluck, or have canning parties, learn about food security issues, and take cooking classes,
4. Community access to multipurpose rooms for affordable meeting spaces.

Please support this exciting opportunity for Oak Bay High School and our community.

Sincerely,

–
Name
Address

Comments (2)

By michellekirby, September 27, 2010 11:19 pm

The original Oak Bay High School in 1915.

Well, with a University, a College, and a plethora of grade schools within our borders, we’d certainly like to think we’re a neighbourhood of learning!

The Oak Bay High School redevelopment design is underway, and so too is the application for additional community space adjoining and within the new school. What will that space entail? We don’t know, but the design team would sure like to hear what you think.

Without your input and strong community support, we may miss out on the chance at additional funding from the Ministry of Education. The Neighbourhood Learning Centre idea is that a community has access to a school after school hours, so the space gets used as much as possible, and the community has access to space for recreation, leisure, learning, and community building activities.

In Oak Bay’s case, the new school funding formula doesn’t include a theatre, so we’ll lose our 450 seat theatre when the old school is demolished. Obviously, we’d all like to see the students and community get back what they have now in the school. Ensuring that a theatre and dance studio are included in the new building has so far been the highest priority established by the community consultation process. It’s the priorities for the rest of the additional space that we need to determine as a community.

Will it be space for a community kitchen, child care, a teen centre, a larger library branch to serve both the needs of the high school and the community (our branch has been identified as due for replacement within ten years)? There are many options available, and we need to make some very big decisions for the future of the community.

Our library branch will need replacement in 10 years.

Please take the time over the next week to visit one of the Open Houses, to learn about the project, and share your vision for Oak Bay’s future.

Saturday, October 2, 2010 10am–Noon Windsor Park Pavilion
Sunday, October 3, 2010 1–3pm Monterey Recreation Centre
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 7–9pm Oak Bay Recreation Centre
Thursday, October 7, 2010 7-9pm Oak Bay Recreation Centre

More information on Neighbourhood Learning Centres can be found at: www.neighbourhoodlearningcentres.gov.bc.ca

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By michellekirby, May 24, 2010 6:23 pm

Submitted by Lesley Ewing, Safer Cycling Oak Bay

Earlier this year, the Municipality solicited volunteers to form the Alternative Transportation Sub-Committee of the Community Initiatives Committee. We’re pleased to hear that a selection process was completed in March and the following citizens have been selected to serve on the sub-committee:

Corey Burger
Neil Jackson
Gary Law
Victor Lotto
Steven Toleiki

Councilor John Herbert serves as Chair, and other council members include Hazel Braithwaite, Nils Jenson, and Mayor Chris Causton.

There are no formal terms of reference for the Community Initiatives Committee or the proposed sub-committee. However, the group will be tasked with focusing on alternative transportation priorities and proposed improvements for Oak Bay Village, including issues such as sidewalk widening, parking, potential cycling lanes and beautification, and making recommendations to Oak Bay Municipal Council in this regard.

Sub-committee members Burger, Jackson, Law, Lotto and Toleiki are invited to introduce themselves to the citizens of Oak Bay by contacting the Community Association of Oak Bay by emailing the Oak Bay Connector. We can publish your email here, as a means of sharing your voice with the community.

We look forward to recommendations and a defined implementation schedule that will help keep our community members safe and mobile, as well as generate improvements to link with those made by adjacent municipalities.

Comments (3)

By michellekirby, April 28, 2010 10:59 pm

Just as today’s front page Oak Bay News article highlights, the Oak Bay High School Redevelopment Project needs community participation! As we’ve said before, this opportunity won’t come again, nor do we want to miss it!

In the next phase of CAOB’s efforts to involve the community in this exciting once-in-100-years-project, we brought the Oak Bay High School Project to the Willows PAC meeting tonight. We were very happy to see 40 parents come out to learn about the project.

We invited Oak Bay Parks and Recreation Director Lorna Curtis, School District 61 Trustee Michael McEvoy, Oak Bay High Principal Dave Thomson and VP Garrett Brisdon to the meeting to share progress updates on the project with the parents of future Oak Bay High School students.

The excitement is certainly continuing to build and spread throughout the community, as we see both the political will and action on the part of our elected representatives, and the staff of both the Oak Bay Municipality and the School District, working collaboratively to get the ball rolling on a Neighbourhoods of Learning Grant Application.

The concept of a Community School was raised early in the consultation phase of the project, and this has transformed somewhat with the Ministry of Education promoting and funding Neighbourhood Learning Centres.

The Municipality is applying to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) for $30,000 to fund hiring a Community Planner that will consult with the community and build the grant application for the Neighbourhood Learning Centre to be included in the final plans of the new school. We will know by June 30, 2010, if they were successful in getting the $30,000 to get a professional consultant to write the grant application.

The plan is that this consultant will plan and host several meetings in September to hear from the Community. I hope you will find time in that generally ridiculously busy month to attend the meetings, write emails/letters to the Oak Bay Council, and share your priorities for the Neighbourhoods of Learning funds.

In the meantime, please stay informed on the project, by visiting us here at caob.ca, and the Oak Bay High School Redevelopment blog as well.

Comments (1)

By michellekirby, April 11, 2010 5:45 pm

Contributed by Jill Croft

The Community Association of Oak Bay, CAOB, celebrated World Health Day in Saanich today with the Shelbourne Corridor Bike Ride.

Sunday, April 11th was perfect for a leisurely cycle from Oak Bay Rec through Uplands and Uvic to Gordon Head Rec. Two dozen bikers were escorted through our municipality by cycling Policeman, Chris Gaudy, giving all riders a sense of safety along the route.

As we rode closer to Gordon Head Rec bikers of all ages joined the throng of hundreds of two wheeled recreational riders assembled in the park. What a colourful sight to see families gathered, chatting and admiring each other’s cycling gear. At 11:15 the more than 300 bikers peddled along Feltham, down Shelbourne Street, crossing McKenzie ending up at Cedar Hill Mall, without having to stop for a red light along the route. What a quiet revolution, cycling, bells ringing and a sense of liberation while traveling one of the most heavily car used routes in Victoria!

This was a significant way to proclaim Victorians love of cycling is here!

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By michellekirby, March 26, 2010 2:57 pm

Submitted by René de Vos, on behalf of Noreen Taylor (depot coordinator) and the Oak Bay Green Committee

Once a month over three years now, community volunteers have been sorting and bagging plastics, Styrofoam and other materials for recycling at the tennis court parking lot at Carnarvon Park.

Why are they spending their Saturday mornings at this?

The overall objective is to divert more material than is currently collected in your blue boxes from the Hartland Landfill to recycling sources. The initiative was begun in October 2006 by the Oak Bay Green Committee in partnership with Pacific Mobile Depots, and sanctioned by the municipality of Oak Bay.

Well over 200 householders bring their recyclable plastic waste to the depot each month. A couple of dozen volunteers sort and bag an average of 135 large (26’ x 48”) bags which are hauled away by PMD.

Householders pay to PMD have this material recycled but the Oak Bay Green Committee receives 20 % of the receipts, and has in turn donated $2,500 to the municipal Tree Donation Program and spent over $1,000 for community environmental education (student bursaries and public seminars).

What’s the future for this project?

Oak Bay Green Committee has always believed that the blue box program should be expanded so that these materials can be collected at the curb. Oak Bay Green Committee has recently written to Council to reiterate this view. The Capital Regional District is now in the process of getting “Requests for Proposals” from its contractors to add polycoated cartons, film (“soft”) plastics and polysterene (Styrofoam) to the program, in anticipation of the end of current contracts in 2012.

This is a drawn out process, but at some point the expanded RFPs will be discussed with municipal councils. Councilor Tara Ney is Oak Bay’s representative on the CRD’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee and as such is a key connector to this issue.

If you support this direction taken by the CRD, and wish Oak Bay Council to endorse this direction when the RFPs are reviewed and decisions are made, let your elected representatives know where you stand.

In the meantime, clean, sort, and bring all those “other” plastics to the recycling depot on the fourth Saturday of the month from 9:00 to 11:30.