Countin’ flowers
Tourism Victoria unearths annual Flower Count plans Page A3
NEWS: City wants expanded amalgamation study /A4 COMMUNITY: Township celebrates Esquimalt Rd. /A13 SPORTS: Hot Cougars head to VIJHL playoffs /A18
VICTORIANEWS Wednesday, February 18, 2015
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Anti-violence message MLAs listen as Paul Lacerte (right), founder of the moose hide campaign, joins a drum circle at the B.C. legislature. Aboriginal men gathered at the B.C. legislature Feb. 12 to urge personal responsibility to reduce violence against aboriginal women and children. For more on this event, please turn to page 4.
Councillors eye more focus on neighbourhood plans Andrea Peacock Victoria News
Conflicts between residents and developers in Cook Street Village could be reduced if the city were to develop a specific local area plan, say two Victoria city councillors. “The problem that I’m seeing in all of our neighbourhood villages and along our transportation corridors, is that we have the overarching principle of the official community plan. . . but we have yet to do the local area planning that provides the specific vision for what’s appropriate in these villages,” said Coun. Pamela Madoff. “We need to put more resources into the
planning department and really focus on those villages.” As previously reported in the News, some residents are currently at odds with a developer in Cook Street Village who is proposing a five-storey mixed-used building. Such conflicts come about because of the lack of a clear vision for the village, said Coun. Chris Coleman. “The OCP says you want to build up density, and therefore some greater height in those village core areas,” said Coleman. “I think the cause of concern for some people in the neighbourhood is you need a second lens, which is a local area plan, and that hasn’t been focused on for Cook Street Vil-
lage.” Although the city’s Official Community Plan states there will be 8,000 more residents in villages such as Cook Street Village by 2041, it does not show how to accommodate for those people and what that looks like, said Madoff, adding a local area plan would be particularly beneficial to developers. “When I ask [developers] what is it [they] need to be successful, they say predictability,” said Madoff. “You could spend a lot of time coming in with a proposal, going back and forth and back and forth if there’s neighbourhood issues, whereas if we get the local area plan
done, it shows what’s supported there, and you can go through the process so much more quickly. “If we don’t get on top of it, we’re just going to have controversy around every time one of these applications comes through. That doesn’t bode well for the community or the development community.” andrea.peacock@vicnews.com
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