A plan for additional housing on a high-profile Oak Bay site home to an 1898 house is heading to a public hearing.
A majority of council decided this week that the latest proposal from owner Mike Miller for his properties between York Place and Prospect Place had enough merit to go to public hearing.
No decision has been made on the proposal itself. After the public hearing, council will vote on whether to approve the heritage revitalization application from Miller.
The site falls within the Prospect Heritage Conservation Area, largely made up of single-family homes near Oak Bay Avenue.
A key issue is the future of the now rundown Annandale House, designed by John G. Tiarks, a partner of architect Francis Rattenbury. Also called Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper House, it was completed in 1898.
Originally a single-family house, Annandale was converted to a duplex in 1958 and given heritage designation in 1997.
An earlier development plan called for removal of the west wing of Annandale. That proposal has been dropped, Miller said Friday.
Annandale currently faces Prospect Place offering a view of Mount Baker. The new plan would see the house lifted and turned to front on York Place. A new foundation and building envelope would be installed, Miller said.
The new street frontage would fit in with the other houses in the neighbourhood, Rus Collins, owner of Zebra Group, told council. An interpretive plaque would be installed at the house.
The site currently holds two lots that would be reorganized into four lots.
One lot would hold Annandale, which would become a fourplex. Another would hold a new duplex designed in a heritage style. Each unit in the duplex would have a rental suite offered at below-market rent secured by a covenant.
An existing garage with floor-to-ceiling windows would be developed as a single-family house.
A fourth lot is home to Miller’s new 5,700-square-foot family house, which includes a suite on Prospect Place.
Miller’s work on the site hit the headlines in 2019 when workers cut into the original rock wall, to the chagrin of neighbours. The district imposed a temporary protection order. Today the wall runs along York Place and Prospect Place.
The new proposal also includes English-cottage-garden-style plantings as well as revitalized Garry oak meadows. Some trees would be removed but more than 140 new trees would be planted, Collins said.
Clusters of Garry oaks would be planted as well as compatible native woodland species, he said.
Staff said the new proposal would also require less blasting than previous plans.
Coun. Lesley Watson praised the plan, saying it responded to council’s requests following previous presentations. Proposals for the site were presented last year and again in April of this year, but each foundered at the council table as councillors sought changes.
Miller has tried to come up with sympathetic solutions for a complex site, Watson said.
“It has a very old decrepit building that has value and we want to retain it in the community.”
The solution presented “does a wonderful job of taking a precious piece of property and then making it usable in a 21st century context,” Watson said.
Coun. Cairine Green noted development plans for the site have been contentious in the neighbourhood, adding: “I’m really hoping that people will take a look at this proposal.
“I don’t think we’re going to get one that is much better than this. It provides density, it provides housing options, it provides rental, it provides ownership.”
Only Coun. Hazel Braithwaite voted against sending the plan to public hearing, saying she was opposed to turning the house on the lot.
