Victoria councillors postponed a decision Thursday on whether to send a controversial condo development in Cook Street Village to public hearing, opting to first have the advisory design panel take a look at it.
Developer Leonard Cole wants to build a five-storey development that includes 60 residential units over five businesses on the ground floor at Cook Street and Oliphant Avenue.
The development would replace two small apartment buildings that have a total of nine units, a duplex and a single-family house.
The city’s new Official Community Plan designates Cook Street Village as a large urban centre where heights of up to six storeys are to be considered.
But councillors were clearly uncertain about the prospect of rezoning the site for such a large building, which would also have the effect of extending commercial development past Oliphant toward Beacon Hill Park.
Coun. Chris Coleman, council liaison for the Fairfield Gonzales area, recommended it go to public hearing. “We have received lots of emails, tweets, phone calls, invitations to coffee to discuss the positives and the negatives of this application,” Coleman said, adding that almost everyone says they understand the site needs to be redeveloped in some form.
“The question for us is: Has it reached the threshold that allows it to go to public hearing? If it does, it will be a hot public hearing,” he said. “We have a passionate series of voices in the community, some of whom support this and some of whom don’t.”
After considerable debate, Coun. Jeremy Loveday suggested sending the application to the advisory design panel to look at issues such as the pedestrian experience on Cook Street and the transition from the park to Cook Street Village.
At least two councillors argued substantive issues with the development — such as the building’s general shape and size and height — are beyond the design changes that could be recommended by the panel.
“The amount of concern that has been demonstrated by the community is certainly more than I need, even if it was just my own concerns, to be very cautious in considering moving this forward,” Coun. Pam Madoff said.
She said that by mandate the advisory design panel, which is meant to advise the planning and land use committee on the design merits of plans, has a very narrow focus. Members of the panel have training in areas such as architecture, landscape architecture and urban design.
“It’s not to denigrate the role of the design panel in terms of fine-tuning things,” Madoff said.
“When working on details, I think we get some extraordinary valuable advice. I think it’s extremely unfair to send them an issue that really has its roots in land use and not design itself.”
Coun. Geoff Young said having the design panel look at the proposal “sends the message that we like this and with these changes it can go ahead,” adding that is not the case.
“I believe changes that are a little more fundamental in terms of the overall massing and size of the project — which will go to the zoning in terms of height and density — will be required to make it work.”
Mayor Lisa Helps wanted to see the design panel’s recommendations.
“I’m curious. We have a design panel. It’s full of competent folks,” Helps said.
“I say let’s send it there and see what comes back to us.”
