A decision on the fate of the massive reinvention of Victoria’s Harris Green neighbourhood is expected next week after city council, faced with dozens of people wanting to have their say on the project, adjourned its public hearing until Monday evening.
Speakers filled the council chambers Thursday night and lit up phone lines to weigh in on a project that could forever alter the landscape just east of the downtown core.
Thursday’s 4½-hour public hearing was adjourned until Monday at 6:30 p.m. when council will watch 43 pre-recorded video submissions and deliberate on the proposal.
Council will have plenty to consider after a night that featured impassioned pleas to have the massive project and its 1,500 residential rental units approved, while many objected to the development’s size and scope, with proposed towers of up to 32 storeys.
The project intends to reimagine two blocks of the Harris Green neighbourhood along the 1000 and 900 blocks of Yates and View streets between Cook and Quadra streets.
The development, proposed by Starlight Developments, requires rezoning and an amendment to the city’s Official Community Plan.
The project envisions tearing down all of the existing commercial buildings, over a number of phases, to make way for a project that will include residential towers with an estimated 1,500 rental suites, more than 100,000 square feet of commercial buildings, and green space.
Some residents who spoke Thursday insisted the number of housing units included in the proposal warranted approval given the housing shortage.
“The reason we need to do this is because until we address the deficit of housing decades of restrictive policies have brought us, and until we build enough housing to keep up with our growing population, then all actions we take to protect the people being crushed by the cost of housing in Victoria will amount to nothing more than spitting in the wind,” said Jim Mayer.
“There is no such thing as a perfect project. But when the final phase of this project finishes, we will have 1,500 new homes in a walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly section of the city.”
Others who live in the area, such as condo owners at Regents Park, which will be surrounded by the significantly taller towers proposed in the project, said the area is already exhausted by five years of non-stop building and now they face the spectre of another 10-year build out.
“You’re going to be destroying our lifestyle,” said area resident Jim Lepard, who noted the housing shortage is an immediate problem that will not be solved by a project whose first phase would not be complete for another 3½ years.
He suggested the project should reduce its height, which might be able to get it completed sooner with lower development costs. “If they were to reduce it down to 10 storeys, I wouldn’t be objecting to this.”
Other objectors cited the size and scope of the project, the height of the towers and the eight to 10 years of continuous construction that can be expected as reasons to turn it down.
They said it will add to traffic congestion, will do no favours for the environment as it is not slated to be heated by electricity, and will do nothing for affordability, with only 80 units of the entire project set aside as affordable.
Those advocating for the project pointed to the rental stock it would add to a market crying out for it, as well as the economic impact it would have and the jobs it would create.
There were several students highlighting just how difficult it is to find housing in the city, and other young people argued it’s the kind of housing that could allow them to stay in Victoria or would help reduce the environmental impact of having to commute into the city for work.
Others pointed out purpose-built rentals like those proposed are some of the most secure types of housing as tenants know they won’t face renoviction.
Jeff Bray, executive director of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, said the project would revitalize the area by adding new residents.
The proposal has split the city in the same way it split the previous council, which voted just before the fall election to send it to a public hearing for the newly elected council to tackle.
The project could be a real test to see just how far the new council will go to approve new housing in the city in the midst of a housing shortage.
The new council has already indicated it is willing to approve new housing units to deal with the shortage, despite some projects falling short on amenities such as parking or design guidelines.
The first phase, at 1045 Yates St., which used to house an auto dealership, would see a mixed-use project including purpose-built rental residential towers of 21 and 20 storeys. The 900 block of Yates would include three towers ranging in height between 28 and 32 storeys.
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