LAND USE AND DEVELOPMENT
See also our Information for Developers which outlines various issues that may arise for any new development project in our area.
Development in Saanich neighbourhoods takes place in the context of municipal and regional policies. The adoption of the Regional Growth Strategy in 2003 designed to protect agricultural and rural areas, led to the need to increase density in existing neighbourhoods. MVCCA both understands and supports urban densification. We understand also that densification can happen in a beneficial way or it can destroy a community.
While the District of Saanich supports the development of “complete communities”, it sometimes forgets that the communities in which the projects are being built are already complete. MVCCA has a role to help Saanich to remember this and to ensure the needs of resident tax payers are given the full consideration they deserve.
The Colquitz part of the MVCCA is a suburban landscape, rolling down to the Colquitz River. It has not seen development itself, but has been impacted by development at the nearby Tillicum centre. The "Mount View" part of the community, however, has seen constant major development.
ln 2007, when the Mt. View Colquitz Community Association was first
incorporated as a society, the neighbourhood that stretched from
Douglas at Saanich Road north up Carey to McKenzie Avenue and west to the Island Highway was very different than it is now. Large pieces of undeveloped land existed, including a transitional school district property that graced the neighbourhood with stands of trees, large fields for ball games and dog walking, rocky outcrops affording views of the Olympics, and, on a clear day, Mt. Baker. Most of these properties, while designated for some form of high density development in the Local Area Plans, had yet to be rezoned.
The rezoning and repurposing of these lands were ushered through the Saanich Municipal planning process piecemeal, with the result that residents were not able to adequately consider the cumulative impact of the developments. At meeting after meeting, we asked for an Action Plan for our neighbourhood. While one was planned, it never materialized, despite our entreaties. Now viewscapes are gone, grassy hillsides have been converted to hardsurface cliffs, and habitat for the admittedly plentiful Killdeer dug up, built up and paved.
Some very positive results of these developments has been the installation of crosswalks all the way down Carey Road, road redesigns at Ralph and Carey, and a "complete street" modification to Tillicum Road that includes sidewalks, bike lanes and street trees between Carey and the Trans Canada Highway.
Saanich is recognizing its need to rethink the current out of date local area plans for all Saanich neighbourhoods, including those of the Saanich Core local area plan and Carey local area plan, in which the MVCCA neighbourhoods are featured. Hopefully, there will be an end to piecemeal planning in our area. An initial meeting was held on November 27, 2013 between the Saanich Planning Department and representatives of all community associations to consider the design of the local area plan process. As a result of these meetings a much needed study of the Saanich Core: Uptown - Douglas Corridor has begun.
Development in Saanich neighbourhoods takes place in the context of municipal and regional policies. The adoption of the Regional Growth Strategy in 2003 designed to protect agricultural and rural areas, led to the need to increase density in existing neighbourhoods. MVCCA both understands and supports urban densification. We understand also that densification can happen in a beneficial way or it can destroy a community.
While the District of Saanich supports the development of “complete communities”, it sometimes forgets that the communities in which the projects are being built are already complete. MVCCA has a role to help Saanich to remember this and to ensure the needs of resident tax payers are given the full consideration they deserve.
The Colquitz part of the MVCCA is a suburban landscape, rolling down to the Colquitz River. It has not seen development itself, but has been impacted by development at the nearby Tillicum centre. The "Mount View" part of the community, however, has seen constant major development.
ln 2007, when the Mt. View Colquitz Community Association was first
incorporated as a society, the neighbourhood that stretched from
Douglas at Saanich Road north up Carey to McKenzie Avenue and west to the Island Highway was very different than it is now. Large pieces of undeveloped land existed, including a transitional school district property that graced the neighbourhood with stands of trees, large fields for ball games and dog walking, rocky outcrops affording views of the Olympics, and, on a clear day, Mt. Baker. Most of these properties, while designated for some form of high density development in the Local Area Plans, had yet to be rezoned.
The rezoning and repurposing of these lands were ushered through the Saanich Municipal planning process piecemeal, with the result that residents were not able to adequately consider the cumulative impact of the developments. At meeting after meeting, we asked for an Action Plan for our neighbourhood. While one was planned, it never materialized, despite our entreaties. Now viewscapes are gone, grassy hillsides have been converted to hardsurface cliffs, and habitat for the admittedly plentiful Killdeer dug up, built up and paved.
Some very positive results of these developments has been the installation of crosswalks all the way down Carey Road, road redesigns at Ralph and Carey, and a "complete street" modification to Tillicum Road that includes sidewalks, bike lanes and street trees between Carey and the Trans Canada Highway.
Saanich is recognizing its need to rethink the current out of date local area plans for all Saanich neighbourhoods, including those of the Saanich Core local area plan and Carey local area plan, in which the MVCCA neighbourhoods are featured. Hopefully, there will be an end to piecemeal planning in our area. An initial meeting was held on November 27, 2013 between the Saanich Planning Department and representatives of all community associations to consider the design of the local area plan process. As a result of these meetings a much needed study of the Saanich Core: Uptown - Douglas Corridor has begun.
