JBNA: Land Use & Planning

An on-going Beacon feature on land use & planning - to alert, inform, and prompt community action - and to celebrate success!

Temporary Customs Structure, Victoria Harbour

Ryan Burke, President, Blackball Transportation, and Tom Oran, Terminal Manager for Clipper Navigation Limited, presented the plans for erecting a small building at the west end of the Belleville Street Terminal site to temporarily house the administrative offices of the United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) in Victoria. The offices are currently housed in the Provincial Capital Commission building (previously the CPR Terminal) at 468 Belleville Street. This building is scheduled to undergo extensive structural renovation and earthquake reinforcement, requiring relocation of tenants by November 1, 2010.  

The one-story, pre-fabricated building proposed for the water-side edge of the Clipper dock will be located behind an existing security fence, and appropriately landscaped.  Without the timely relocation of these offices, all current vessel operations between Victoria/Sidney and Port Angeles, Seattle, Bellingham and Friday Harbour will cease.

Development Proposal: 118 Ladysmith

Architects Barry Cosgrove and Doug Walter presented a proposal to replace the old flour mill at 118 Ladysmith Street with a three-story four-plex condominium building.  A zoning change from R2 to RK is required to build the four-plex.  

Each of the four units (approximately 1,500 sq. ft.) would have two bedrooms on the upper floor, a separate external entrance, an attached garage, a small private garden, and comply with green building (silver level) standards. The main floor would contain the living room, dining room and kitchen, while two of the units would have an additional room on the lower entrance level.  All units would be suitable for families, but without wheelchair access. Set-backs would increase relative to the existing flour mill, except at the rear of the property.  

Developer, Fraser McColl responded to questions from the community.

- Care will be taken during demolition of the building to minimize impact on the neighbourhood, preserving wildlife while exterminating pests.  Demolition is likely to occur in fall 2010, with construction starting during the winter.  No blasting is required since the current flour mill has no basement.      

- Selling prices/unit cannot yet be determined because construction costs are in flux.  Affordability will be enhanced because land costs will be shared over a four-plex rather than a duplex.

- A green roof considered for the project was ultimately rejected because of the greater building height and reduced privacy for neighbours.  

The proposal received mixed reviews (as is usual) with several speakers in favour of the building proposal, its design and its 'smart density', while others worried about increased density.                        

Official Community Plan (OCP) & Downtown Core Area Plan (DCAP)

Chris Gower and Robert Batallas of the City of Victoria Planning department gave a presentation of the urban design elements within the OCP and the main themes of the draft DCAP.  The presentation on urban design elements borrowed directly from the work (The Image of the City) of urban geographer, Kevin Lynch, using the concepts of gateways, paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks.  The presentation indicated that Victoria's history and geography has led to a rather tortured street grid pattern, and to considerable diversity and character of streetscapes and housing styles.            

One purpose of an OCP is to provide for a harmonious arrangement of land uses. In reality, we have to deal with the City as-built‚ and improve on its functioning. In Victoria that includes the "industrial area" of Ogden Point in the midst of a residential area.  The negative impact of Ogden Point activities beyond the site boundary include noise pollution from the Helijet Port, air pollution from docked ships, heavy traffic volumes, noise and pollution from vehicles servicing the site, pedestrian safety and vehicle conflicts along heavily used routes, etc.

One way of dealing with negative impacts is through zoning.  Two types of zoning in particular are useful 'Direct Control District Zoning and/or Performance Zoning' both of which include specific performance measures designed to minimize the external impacts of otherwise incompatible land uses. It has not been determined if the OCP will include policy statements regarding the use of tools such as Performance Zoning to address the external impacts of Ogden Point.

Light rail is not being considered for moving people to and from Ogden Point. Light rail, as opposed to rapid transit buses, is unlikely to be used on the major transit corridors between Downtown and the Western Communities, Swartz Bay/Airport/Sidney or University/Camosun/Jubilee Hospital.  Light rail is unlikely to be used through a residential area which (from a geographic perspective) is at the end of the transit line.

Gower and Batallas then provided an overview of the draft DCAP, which will replace the existing Downtown and Harris Green plans, indicating that January, 2011 was the target for Council approval of the plan.  

The presentation stressed the cross-town concept, using Douglas St. and Yates St. as the spine corridors for both transportation and development.  The presentation also stressed the amphitheatre concept, with the centre of the amphitheatre being the historic old-town commercial district and the inner harbour.  

The presentation went on to consider aspects of economic vitality, the redesign of Belleville St. and Government St. as pedestrian orientated esplanades, the completion of the harbour pathway through the Wharf St. parking lots, transportation issues including modes of transport, heritage building preservation, the bonus density system, and design and height guidelines for new buildings by location.  

Little was said about the interface between DCAP and James Bay, or about the impact on James Bay as the DCAP is implemented.  Comments and input from the previous public sessions and the expert consultation papers did not appear to have been incorporated into the presentation. There was no opportunity for discussion or input concerning the presentation of the Downtown plan and its impact on James Bay. People in attendance who live within or directly adjacent to the James Bay/downtown boundary lines that have been drawn did not have the opportunity to explore the City's intentions. The presentation was of buildings and streets, but made little reference to the residents and their interaction with the City.

Questions to the City Planners were influenced by the lack of response by the various orders of government, GVHA and the cruise ship industry to the Chief Medical Health Officer Stanwick's health assessment report, which was released by Vancouver Island Health Authority on June 11, 2010.  Dr. Stanwick asked that "the cruise ship industry and associated agencies not wait until new fuel quality regulations come into effect in 2012 to reduce SO2 emission levels." 

Although JBNA has received letters from GVHA, the Mayor and the Provincial Environment Minister, there has been no indication of action taken by any of them on Dr. Stanwick's key recommendations:

   (a) alerting the community, and especially persons with respiratory problems, of high sulphur dioxide emissions when cruise ships are in port;

   (b) adoption of lease language by GVHA to require low sulphur fuel use (maximum 1%) by cruise ships while approaching, berthing and departing Victoria Harbour; and  

   (c) continued monitoring of cruise ship emissions at Ogden Point.

Greater Victoria Harbour Authority (GVHA) - Updates

- On Friday August 20th the GVHA announced that Paul Servos had resigned his position as Chief Executive Officer.

- Sonterra Ross, GVHA's Manager of Finance and Property, will be Acting CEO, overseeing the organization while the Board undertakes an executive search.

- Don Prittie's term as Board chair concludes at the AGM in October, 2010, although his term as a community director does not end until December. Retired CFB Esquimalt Base Commander Mike Williamson is the current Vice Chair.

- The GVHA has applied for a one-year extension to the Master Planning Process for Odgen Point. They anticipate combining the Master Plan and the rezoning process to make up for any lost time.

- The GVHA is looking for volunteers from the community to work with GVHA management as Community Advisors.

Pollution Report

Check out a pollution report on Seattle-to-Alaska cruiseships as reported in Washington State Puget Sound newspapers, the Spokesman Review of Spokane and the Edmonds News, produced in collaboration with InvestigateWest, a non-profit investigative news organization based in Seattle.

The story reports:

In a single day, the federal Environmental Protection Agency estimates, passengers aboard a typical cruise ship will generate: 21,000 gallons of sewage, one ton of garbage, 170,000 gallons of wastewater from sinks, showers and laundry, more than 25 pounds of batteries, fluorescent lights, medical wastes and expired chemicals, up to 6,400 gallons of oily bilge water from engines, 4 plastic bottles per passenger - about 8,500 bottles per day.

A 3,000-passenger ship generates the air pollution equivalent of more than 12,000 cars.

Rather than meet the difficult standards for discharging waste in Washington's waters, most ships don't apply and simply discharge in Canadian waters.

About half the cruise ships that visit Alaska choose to discharge only outside of Alaskan waters because either their advanced wastewater systems aren't operational or they want to avoid the sampling requirements, extra paperwork or potential fines for violations of the tougher rules adopted in 2000 and recently updated.

A lot of them burn what's called bunker-C and it's so dirty and it's so black ... they have to heat it until they can get it to the point where they can move it around the pipes. It's like tar.

Join us in September and see if you agree with the changes to service that BC Transit has proposed for the Region, Victoria and for James Bay.  Presentations will be made by Erinn Pinkerton - Rapid Transit and James Wadsworth - BC Transit Master Plan. 

Apparently community buses are under consideration.

- A development proposal for 21 Pilot Street is also tentatively on the September agenda.

JBNA September General Meeting - September 8, 7 pm.  James Bay New Horizons