Victoria will have to either change or ignore one of its own bylaws in order to open the door to an apartment and commercial complex to be built on the old St. Andrews School site on Pandora Avenue.
Councillors on the city’s planning and zoning committee would like to see some sort of development on the property but they don’t want to turn tiny, residential Mason Street into a driveway for hundreds of cars and trucks in the process.
“I think we have a problem here because whatever is built on this site … we’re going to have this problem. So no matter what is built there, with the current Highway Access bylaw all the traffic will come and go from Mason,” said Coun. Lisa Helps, a member of the planning and land use committee.
“I see our only option, if we don’t like that is to amend the Highway Access bylaw,” Helps said.
Vancouver-based Blue Sky Properties wants to build more than 200 units — bachelors, one- and two-bedrooms — in a six-storey wood frame building over ground-floor retail and office space on the site at 1002-1008, 1012 Pandora Ave. at Vancouver Street.
Two weeks ago, the planning committee postponed discussion of the application pending reconsideration by the developer of a number of elements which included building size on Mason Street, the possibility of a mid-block walkway and proposed access from Mason Street.
But city staff say the developer had earlier looked at other access to the property, from Vancouver or Pandora, but is prohibited from doing so by the city’s Highways Access bylaw.
To minimize conflicts between vehicles entering or exiting a development and other road users including cars, pedestrians and cyclists, the bylaw requires developments on corner lots to locate their vehicle access on the street that has been designated to handle the lowest traffic volume.
In this case, it would be Mason.
City planning staff say access off Vancouver Street — which is identified as a bikeway and a greenway — is not a good idea because it would add more potential conflict points in a short length of road.
Committee members said they couldn’t support access off Mason and have recommended council consider amending the bylaw to allow all new development sites to have vehicle access from any road.
Meanwhile, the committee asked for a report on the possibility of a site-specific exemption for the Pandora property.
Committee chairwoman Coun. Marianne Alto said a review of the bylaw represents a lot of work.
“I don’t want the bigger body of work to stop this application, if this application meets all the other thresholds,” Alto said.
