A controversial plan to reimagine two blocks of the Harris Green neighbourhood along Yates Street will head to a public hearing at Victoria’s city hall Thursday evening.
The massive development, which will require rezoning and an amendment to the city’s Official Community Plan, would see Toronto-based Starlight Developments transform the Harris Green neighbourhood along the 1000 and 900 blocks of Yates and View streets between Cook and Quadra streets.
The plan is to tear 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.
The proposal 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 will test how far the new council will go to approve housing construction in the city in the midst of a housing crisis.
The council has already indicated it is willing to approve housing units that fall short on amenities like parking or don’t meet design guidelines to deal with the crisis.
The Starlight proposal was too big and the height of some of the towers too much for some members of the previous council, while other councillors agreed to take it to public hearing because it offered so many housing options.
Starlight has tweaked the proposal since it was first proposed in 2019 by improving a mini plaza at Cook and Yates streets, increasing setbacks to protect trees, adjusting the tenant assistance plan to provide right of first refusal at the eligible tenants’ previous rent rate, as well as covering all moving expenses and offering to provide 80 units of affordable housing in the first phase of development, rather than spreading it across all phases.
Council’s misgivings about the project reflected those expressed by some downtown residents.
In a submission to council earlier this year, the Victoria Downtown Residents Association asked that the project not be approved in one application due to a lack of “meaningful” public consultation and the impact it would have on the immediate neighbourhood.
It also pointed to a lack of included amenities for the neighbourhood, which has been exhausted by development in the last five years – including the addition of 3,000 new units of housing, with another 3,800 under construction or in development.
Starlight has countered that the project will ensure there is an anchor grocery tenant on site — it has a lease commitment to relocate Market on Yates in the first phase and continue to work with other commercial tenants like London Drugs to provide new space for them.
It also notes it will include a 77-space daycare for the community in the first phase, while construction will result in the creation of 800 jobs.
The first phase of the project will see a mixed-use project, including purpose-built rental residential towers of 21 and 20 storeys, at 1045 Yates St., which used to house an auto dealership.
The 900 block of Yates would include three towers ranging from 28 to 32 storeys.
The public hearing begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
