Victoria Vision

Is a Golf Course the Highest and Best use?

2012-02-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

Saanich is consulting with the public on what should happen with the Cedar Hill Golf Course. I am not sure the right question is being asked. Is a golf course the best use for this land? At the moment we have the following golf courses in this region other than Cedar Hill: Victoria Golf Club in south Oak Bay Uplands Golf Club in north Oak Bay Gorge Vale Golf Club in Esquimalt Prospect Lake

Social Media and Local Politicians

2012-02-10T19:49:00.000-08:00

During the elections in the fall I took a couple of looks at which candidates were using Twitter and how much. In general usage was very low by the various candidates. Now it is couple of months after the election I am curious to see which councilors are making use of Twitter. Here is my ranking of the sitting councilors based on the number to tweets since November 7th, which is when I last

Logistics of Amalgamation

2012-02-10T16:09:00.000-08:00

Adam Stirling asked me to come on his program and talk a bit about the mechanics of what it would take to move forward with amalgamation in this region. Based on that conversation, here are some details people need to think about and consider about amalgamation. The law in BC will not allow the provincial government to force an amalgamation - sec 279 of the Community Charter No forced

Northern Junk Proposal - the best development project in Victoria in years

2012-02-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

Proposed Northern Junk Development Reliance Properties in Vancouver is proposing what I think is one of the most interesting and appropriate developments I have seen in the last eight years in this city. There has been an on going discussion about this development on Vibrant Victoria since the summer of 2010. In that threat, Jon Stovell the president of Reliance has posted a lot of images

CRD 2011 Census Numbers

2012-02-08T15:52:00.000-08:00

I am not including the Gulf Islands or Port Renfrew in this Saanich 109,752 108,265 +1.4% Victoria 80,017 78,057 +2.5% Langford 29,228 22,459 +30.1% Oak Bay 18,015 17,908 +0.6% Esquimalt 16,209 16,840 -3.7% Colwood 16,093 14,687 +9.6% Central Saanich 15,936 15,745 +1.2% Sooke 11,435 9,699 +17.9% Sidney 11,178 11,315 -

150 years ago today, the execution of Charley in Victoria

2012-02-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Here is the text from the second page of the Daily Colonist of Saturday February 8th 1862: THE DOOMED MAN - "Charley" the Cowichan Indian convicted of the murder of Thomas Holmes, will be hanged at daylight this morning, in front of the Police Barracks. We visited him yesterday, and found him in good health and spirits and very communicative. He says that he saw "Tom" kill the man , and

A Quick History of the Oak Bay Incorporation

2012-02-08T13:03:00.000-08:00

I think it was a huge mistake for the City of Victoria not to agree to expand and take in Oak Bay in the early 1900s, but they City said no to the residents of Oak Bay. This is something we all will have to live with. The residents of Oak Bay formed the Oak Bay Improvement Association and decided to go it alone. The process from the first signature on the petition to Oak Bay being officially

The Conversation Last Night about Amalgamation

2012-02-08T10:57:00.000-08:00

Last night at SJ Willis there were about 150 people that showed up to take part in a conversation about amalgamation in this region. The TC article said 200 people, but I counted and only come to 150. There were 16 tables set up for 8 people each but then had to be able to accommodate 9-10 people because of the crowd there. Matt Wright will have full details of all the notes taken up at

Conversation about Local Governance/Amalgamation

2012-02-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

This evening there is a meeting for people in this region to come together and have a conversation about local governance and amalgamation called the Greater Victoria Amalgamation Conversation. Time 7:00pm Location: SJ Willis School 923 Topaz Ave I am very thankful that new Victoria City Councilor Shellie Gudegeon is taking such a lead on this. She is working together with Mat Wright, Rod

Joint Taskforce on LRT Funding

2012-02-01T16:11:00.000-08:00

BC Transit and the CRD have created a joint taskforce looking into options for local funding for the proposed LRT. I wrote about this several weeks ago when it first went public with the website. Today the Times Colonist had an article about the process of consultation so far, and it does not sound good. In the last two weeks, or slightly more, only 80 people have responded on the website

Craigflower Bridge - Some Consultation with the School District

2012-02-01T14:32:00.000-08:00

As a parent of kids that go to school in the catchment area of the Craigflower Bridge I get a notice about a meeting for consultation about the bridge yesterday. Issue 1 - a right of way across part of the land of the Craigflower School Issue 2 - how will kids get across without a bridge? I am rather shocked there has been serious discussion or consideration of how to get kids across while the

How did we end up with 13 municipalities anyway?

2012-01-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

Why do communities incorporate? Over the years there were different reasons of why, but the underlying interest always goes back to local people wanting some local control over their community. The first to incorporate was Victoria in 1862. This was first and only incorporation passed through the legislature of Vancouver Island. The legislature of BC before union with Vancouver Island in

Some movement on amalgamation

2012-01-27T12:52:00.000-08:00

This came out yesterday Media Advisory For Immediate release A Conversation about Amalgamation The Greater Victoria community are invited to attend and participate in a public meeting on local and regional governance. When: Tuesday February 7th, Where: S. J. Willis School, 923 Topaz Ave, Victoria BC Time: 7pm to 9pm Free entry Speakers will provide short presentations on the history of Greater

The local News Group newspapers

2012-01-27T10:17:00.000-08:00

In this region we have the Times-Colonist as a daily but we also have our community newspapers. All of our local newspapers are owned by the Black Press. We have: Saanich News Victoria News Goldstream Gazette Peninsula News Review Oak Bay News Sooke News Mirror Monday Magazine Just outside of the CRD we have the following Gulf Islands Driftwood Cowichan News Leader Pictorial Lake Cowichan

Today's storm

2012-01-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

We went out to storm watch for a bit. Max was excited at first to be going to the "beach" but when we got there, that was the end of his interest. The winds were gusting to over 100 kilometers per hour. Sheila got out to look at the parking lot at the Oak Bay Marina and was utterly soaked by a huge wave. The water in the parking lot was about 20 cm deep I would have more

Craigflower and Tillicum corner and recent changes

2012-01-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

There have been a couple of smaller developments near the corner of Tillicum and Craigflower. It strikes me that there is the potential for a village centre to come about in this area.The two newest developments are certainly a step up in quality for the area. The one is a four story condo development on Tillicum called Gorge Hill. Since my kids go to Esquimalt High and I do a lot of shopping

Snow Removal

2012-01-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

Given that we only have snow at most a couple of times a year and it is one of those budget items that can vary dramatically from year to year, would it not make some sense for all 13 municipalities to sit down and coordinate how the deal with the snow? I make note this very specifically because I live on the border of two municipalities but I see no coordination between Saanich and Victoria on

LRT Funding

2012-01-17T11:06:00.000-08:00

There is a process of public consultation around how the LRT might be funded. People need to think about this clearly and what this whole process means. What it clearly means: Building the LRT will not increase transit use enough to cover the increased costs of operating the system. There is something wrong if you increase your capacity but get no cost savings from it. Seeking to get more

Craigflower Bridge - June start date

2012-01-16T19:23:00.000-08:00

Not quite how the bridge will look The design has been chosen and it is a combination of some of the stuff in the picture and the 5 span curved bridge - the curve allowing a large platform for the public on the eastern side. The picture comes from Herold Engineering of Nanaimo via the Goldstream Gazzette. View Royal approved the design, Saanich gives their nod on January 23rd. The Saanich

City of Victoria Jan 19th Council Meeting

2012-01-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

The agenda is out for the next City of Victoria council meeting. Interesting issues I see coming up: 712 Queens Avenue - transition of that Travellers Inn from a hotel into a place with 36 residential units, council needs to approve the reduction in the required number of parking spaces from 47 to 20 - staff is recommending approval. 858 Yates Street - Sugar Nightclub. Because the nightclub

How fast news came in 1862 and how it changed by 1866

2012-01-16T10:52:00.000-08:00

A major event for anyone in the British Empire in 1862 was the death of the Prince Consort, Albert. Queen Victoria's husband died on December 14th 1861 and the news arrived in Victoria on January 13th 1862. One month for major news to come from London to Victoria. Most news from elsewhere actually took much longer. The British Colonist's regular letter from a London correspondent could be

Sandown Racetrack Site

2012-01-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

North Saanich council met and considered new information from the staff. I had commented on the project earlier about my concerns of too much risk being transferred to North Saanich and this risk should remain with the current landowner. I am now looking at the report tabled at the January 9th the Committee of the Whole meeting. The report estimates the cost to North Saanich to meet the costs

Assessments

2012-01-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

I am once again offering my services for anyone interested in trying to understand their property assessment. I can give you advice on if your valuation is reasonable and if it is not, what you need to do successfully appeal your assessment. My experience comes from sitting on the Property Assessment Review Panel for Lillooet and Victoria in past years. It also comes from years of

Just some weather thoughts, mainly how to plan when to plant my garden

2012-01-09T16:27:00.000-08:00

I love the UVic weather network. In my neighbourhood I have six and half years of data now and I can see how much it differs from the Environment Canada data for Victoria. There are many micro-climates in the region here and if you were to crunch the numbers for your neighbourhood you might find it is different. In my neighbourhood I get about 67 centimeters of precipitation a year, this is

150 years ago all of Colwood was for rent

2012-01-05T17:55:00.000-08:00

I was reading the British Colonist for January 6th 1862 and saw an ad on the front page offering the Colwood farm for rent. The Colwood farm was a 600 to 620 acre property running from Esquimalt Harbour to Langford Lake. It was created in 1851 by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, a subsidiary of the HBC. The farm was managed by Captain Edward Langford who named if after his home in