OBW Newsletter: January 25th, 2015
The Bad News for Oak Bay Residents is:
It is apparent that Council is not paying any attention to the Residential Infill Strategy (RIS) Plan Process they approved on June 22, 2015. This Process was to develop a Residential Infill Strategy that included input from the Oak Bay Community and was acceptable to them. However from Council’s recent actions and priorities, it is not clear if they ever intended to follow their Plan.
Initially the announced RIS Plan Process had 5 phases that included:
These proposed actions were followed up with this process statement:
“Input from our residents will be key to shaping this important strategy”
However on Monday January 23, 2017, Council decided to take another direction based on Advisory Planning Commission recommendations to regulate existing secondary suites and stratify legal non-conforming duplexes. As the Commission have never gathered any demographic information or studied the impacts and disadvantages of either of these examples, it is unlikely they would recommend forging ahead with them before Council completes the housing strategy that would include all this necessary information. Most important (ly), before considering implementation, much research would be required.
A report from the Chief Administration Officer presented at Council on January 23rd, 2017 states:
“In the Spring of 2016 Council embarked on a process to engage the community on the potential development of a Residential Infill Strategy. The purpose of the strategy was to look at new housing options and forms and in some cases to establish regulations for sectors of the existing housing stock”.
This is misleading information as no such “embarking on community consultation” occurred before two well attended, open house, Residential Infill Strategy sessions on September 10th, 2016 at the University of Victoria(UVIC). Council billed these sessions as, “Starting the infill conversation”. This was six months after the Spring of 2016 and is only one small part of the Infill Planning Process community consultation that was scheduled to begin fourteen months earlier . At the two UVIC sessions the infill consultant provided only designs of possible laneway housing and garden suites. Almost all speakers from the audience explained their concerns about the impacts of infill development. Many requested information about how Council would satisfy their Official Community Plan and Survey commitment to explain how infill impacts would not affect existing residents.
As a result of the overwhelming resident concerns expressed at the UVIC sessions, Council announced an Infill Plan Process “re-set”. However no details or specifics were provided.
It appears now the Council is re-setting their Plan Process to fast-track infill development without first meeting their approved Commitment to develop, with the Community, an Overview Strategy Plan that would include the impact information. Council members for several years now have provided only benefit information routinely ignoring the many infill impacts and disadvantages. The same applies to recognizing only pro-infill input from respondents.
Council has ignored:
At Council on Monday, January 23, 2017, Councilors Braithwaite, Murdoch and Zhelka voted for completing an overall Housing Strategy for Oak Bay. This would be before pursuing legalizing basement suites and allowing stratification of duplexes. Councilor Murdoch said it was important to first establish the "How To”, for example the "Where, What, How many, etc?” before making any development decision.
This however did not impress four councillors, including the usual three block-votes. Their concern was that infill legislation would not be in place before the end of their term. It seemed their important objective was to accomplish their development goals before they either left or were voted out of office. These four, who included a realtor, cast their votes (4 to 3) to go ahead with the infill development aspects. This was after a recent resident survey with the majority of residents concerned about over-developing and densifying the Community. The fact that other communities are struggling to control the negative impacts of infill prompted the serious concerns that a similar fate will most likely befall Oak Bay.
There is something radically amiss at Oak Bay Municipal Hall!
The Bad News for Oak Bay Residents is:
It is apparent that Council is not paying any attention to the Residential Infill Strategy (RIS) Plan Process they approved on June 22, 2015. This Process was to develop a Residential Infill Strategy that included input from the Oak Bay Community and was acceptable to them. However from Council’s recent actions and priorities, it is not clear if they ever intended to follow their Plan.
Initially the announced RIS Plan Process had 5 phases that included:
- Collecting data
- Background documentation
- Hiring a consultant
- Holding consultation workshops for the development community
- Identifying concept & design principles
- Identifying neighbourhood characteristics
- Many opportunities for community consultation including,
- Vetting by the residents' Advisory Planning Commission throughout
These proposed actions were followed up with this process statement:
“Input from our residents will be key to shaping this important strategy”
However on Monday January 23, 2017, Council decided to take another direction based on Advisory Planning Commission recommendations to regulate existing secondary suites and stratify legal non-conforming duplexes. As the Commission have never gathered any demographic information or studied the impacts and disadvantages of either of these examples, it is unlikely they would recommend forging ahead with them before Council completes the housing strategy that would include all this necessary information. Most important (ly), before considering implementation, much research would be required.
A report from the Chief Administration Officer presented at Council on January 23rd, 2017 states:
“In the Spring of 2016 Council embarked on a process to engage the community on the potential development of a Residential Infill Strategy. The purpose of the strategy was to look at new housing options and forms and in some cases to establish regulations for sectors of the existing housing stock”.
This is misleading information as no such “embarking on community consultation” occurred before two well attended, open house, Residential Infill Strategy sessions on September 10th, 2016 at the University of Victoria(UVIC). Council billed these sessions as, “Starting the infill conversation”. This was six months after the Spring of 2016 and is only one small part of the Infill Planning Process community consultation that was scheduled to begin fourteen months earlier . At the two UVIC sessions the infill consultant provided only designs of possible laneway housing and garden suites. Almost all speakers from the audience explained their concerns about the impacts of infill development. Many requested information about how Council would satisfy their Official Community Plan and Survey commitment to explain how infill impacts would not affect existing residents.
As a result of the overwhelming resident concerns expressed at the UVIC sessions, Council announced an Infill Plan Process “re-set”. However no details or specifics were provided.
It appears now the Council is re-setting their Plan Process to fast-track infill development without first meeting their approved Commitment to develop, with the Community, an Overview Strategy Plan that would include the impact information. Council members for several years now have provided only benefit information routinely ignoring the many infill impacts and disadvantages. The same applies to recognizing only pro-infill input from respondents.
Council has ignored:
- The hundreds of pages of responses, submitted by residents attending the UVIC meetings, who are opposed to this form of over-development,
- The many Oak Bay News letters explaining the many infill impacts, and
- All the letters and submissions to Council expressing these over-development concerns.
At Council on Monday, January 23, 2017, Councilors Braithwaite, Murdoch and Zhelka voted for completing an overall Housing Strategy for Oak Bay. This would be before pursuing legalizing basement suites and allowing stratification of duplexes. Councilor Murdoch said it was important to first establish the "How To”, for example the "Where, What, How many, etc?” before making any development decision.
This however did not impress four councillors, including the usual three block-votes. Their concern was that infill legislation would not be in place before the end of their term. It seemed their important objective was to accomplish their development goals before they either left or were voted out of office. These four, who included a realtor, cast their votes (4 to 3) to go ahead with the infill development aspects. This was after a recent resident survey with the majority of residents concerned about over-developing and densifying the Community. The fact that other communities are struggling to control the negative impacts of infill prompted the serious concerns that a similar fate will most likely befall Oak Bay.
There is something radically amiss at Oak Bay Municipal Hall!