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  • NL - Is Oak Bay Protecting Our natural Assets?
Final Reminder for Thursday's Secondary Suite Survey & Community Information Letter from Oak Bay Resident

To Oak Bay Watch: Monday May 31, 2021



 "An increase in suites will as noted bring an increase in motor vehicles. As families with teenagers get older, they will want their own vehicle. On my street we already have 3 new vehicles belonging to high schoolers.

I drove along Musgrave the other night between Estevan and the park. The street was lined with bumper-to-bumper parked cars and although the Estevan Mall creates traffic, this was at 9 pm on a Sunday night!

Oak Bay had to close the Esplanade to traffic for a few weeks due to the number of vehicles parking on both sides of the road. St Anne’s now has bumper-to-bumper parking while they also have garages. Our streets are narrow, cars parked on both sides create one lane roadways and a dangerous situation for cyclists.

When we moved into our home 26 years ago our next-door neighbour had a suite. Access was through the garage door but more often than not the college age tenants would walk up my driveway and bang on the basement window of the suite for someone to open it. At 2 in the morning, it’s not pleasant!

My wife and I worked hard to be able to buy in OB and although we would love to live in the Uplands we can not afford it - unless of course we created a bunch of suites. Not going to happen! A suite will earn a homeowner a good tax-free income.  The homeowner will still pay the same property taxes yet avail of all the benefits. I am totally against suites for so many more reasons."
 
Oak Bay Resident