Committee of the Whole

Good afternoon, everybody.

Welcome to the committee of the whole meeting.

You'll see it's that you got a different, you don't have the usual handsome face up here because we're doing a rotating chair now, and uh my name starts last name starts to be, so apparently I'm the first one.

And uh Councillor Qualwich will be doing the chairing the next committee of the whole meeting.

And it's also my honor to say that we're on the traditional non-ceded lands of the Squam Molten Swanghees.

And uh also I just want to remind uh people not only is the format different, but uh when I run a meeting, I try to keep a tight uh uh list of speakers.

So please uh you know if you speak spoken twice, please let everyone else have a chance to speak, and I'll try not to uh use the gavel too much tonight.

So can I get a motion to approve the agenda, please?

Still moved.

Councillor Lemmon.

Second by Councillor Rogers.

All those in favor?

Approved.

Yes.

Can I get that motion to uh adopt the minutes of the 21 January meeting?

Second.

Council Rogers and Council McKenzie.

All those in favor.

Mayor Tobias, did you have a report or not?

No.

Just uh one uh point.

We did uh have a local First Nations gonna um join us this evening.

Unfortunately, they've uh recently been uh just released out of the hospital, so we're just rescheduling that now for later on that month.

We do not have it on the agenda for petitions and delegations, but uh, I do see that Mike Riley is here from West Shore Rotary, and I did say I'd give him an opportunity to speak for a couple minutes, and he may want to come back later uh about a project that the West Shore Rotary is working on.

But Mike, did you want to come up to the mic and uh push the button there and and uh have a chat with us?

Great, thank you very much, uh Councillor Brown, uh your worship and council members.

Uh for those of you who don't know me, I'm Mike Riley.

I'm the past uh president of the West Shore Rotary, as well as the past chair of the uh West Shore Chamber of Commerce.

And uh the purpose of my time here today is just to introduce you to the concept of an outdoor pool project that the West Shore Rotary wants to take on in the West Shore.

Uh, of course, it's very timely in the news with the decision on the Crystal Pool, and we all know that the uh we our our West Shore community is woefully uh underrepresented in a lot of recreational facilities.

So I'll be making a requ request to come back with a more formal presentation.

But our plan is to build an outdoor pool in the West Shore.

Think of the Kitts Pool in Vancouver, which will be uh a public access for all the residents.

Uh we've approached Cullwood about a year ago with an approval in principle uh that Cullwood is sort of the logical place for it to be, but we're undertaking an effort now to inform all five districts of our efforts to gain uh support so that uh everyone is working together towards this.

Um, the main question usually is uh what is this going to be an impact to the taxpayer?

And one of the things that gives Rotary such a great strength is that we have a large network of an ability to raise money.

So the goal is to build an outdoor facility that is uh competition worthy, uh entirely funded by fundraising by Rotary and other service clubs, as well as the the um um private uh investment.

But that's for the capital.

We're if we're looking at a facility to be about 15 million dollars, it would take about five years for construction.

It would be great if we could leverage it with an indoor pool, which the West Shore Parks and Recs knows they need to do as well.

Uh, and then side along with that is an endowment which would then pay for the ongoing cost and maintenance.

So the goal is to not have this be a tax burden for any of the districts.

Um, you know, it would be great if there would be some participation and and uh and cost sharing for some of the grant applications that would be required as well.

Um, but to to build build a facility that would be world class here in the West Shore that would be for all West Shore residents as well as the rest of the CRD, we know they'd be coming coming out.

So my next uh application with myself and uh and the other committee chair, Linda Mackey, would be to give you a more formal presentation to then gauge you know what would be View Royal's interest in in knowing that this is here, hopefully uh a willing partner in something that will be for the benefit of all of us.

Thank you, Councilor Brown.

Thank you, Mike.

Any questions?

Uh Council um Lemmon, go ahead.

Mike, when you referenced the comparison to Kitts Pool, I wondered if if we're talking about a waterfront salt water facility.

Um thank you very much, Councilor Lemon.

Those are some of the great questions that I that I receive every time this hits the ma the uh the news, such as how big will the change rooms be?

And yeah, um, I think I think the Kitts Pool, certainly with with Cullwood being the site, uh having something that would be beachfront would be challenging uh the exposure would be probably too high to make it comfortable I'd be great if it could be water view but probably not water adjacent salt water versus freshwater depending on the sophistication of the of the plant there again that would be up for the engineering when we get into the into another level down.

That's great.

Didn't mean to get into the you know the the marsh but I love imagining.

Any other questions?

I just have a quick one 25 meter or 50 meter?

50.

Yeah, thank you.

Eight lanes.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Yeah.

Look forward to your uh more formal presentation.

Thank you.

Uh public uh participation.

Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to speak?

No, Carl, do we have any one online?

Uh Chair Brown, we have uh no one in the form system at this time.

Okay.

And I don't believe there's any business arising from previous minutes.

Uh now we're on to item eight of staff reports.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh Jeff Chow, Senior Planner.

Um, this uh first uh item on the agenda is for a development variance permit at one hospital way, and it's for the uh electrical center at Victoria General Hospital.

And the proposal is to construct an electrical energy center.

Uh a number of uh variances would be are requested as part of the proposal uh that relate to the sighting of the building, the height of the building, um, and also uh parkings parking and uh fence site.

Oh, okay, thank you.

Um this uh project is construct a building as um uh in the on the left hand side of the the uh photo that you'll see a large circle that shows the proposed building site.

That's currently a treed area.

Uh the building would be a one-story building and um uh would would house electrical equipment that would facilitate future electrification of the entire uh hospital campus.

And so it would include electrical equipment and also a bay with uh with generators in it.

Five up to five bays.

Other aspects of the proposal include adding kind of a transformer uh space at the main hospital building and re-jigging some of the parking around.

Uh but the result with this project is by upgrading the electrical uh equipment uh here and um it would free up some space on the rest of the site and but it was also allowed the project to use clean energy, which is in keeping with commitments to the Climate Accountability Act and the Clean Provincial Clean BC Program.

A number of variances are requested, and they are for a number of items that I'll go through individually.

And the building would be the variances are to the front uh to the flanking lot line set back from six meters to five meters, and uh what's considered the rear lot line set back from 7.5 to 3.5.

Um the rear line set back is actually to um another part of the hospital site that's located in the district of Saanich.

So it is so technically it is a lot line.

Um that particular location on on will also host a uh a driveway that would come from um Island Highway, sorry hospital way to uh to service this site.

Um part of the time that's taken for this proposal to come to community hole is because that that um although the hospital was removed from the ALR decades ago, um they had to get special permission to put this driveway on on the on the uh on the sandwich portion of the site.

Uh the other variance is for building height and uh although there's a one-story building it is it is um it is 9.5 meters where nine meters is is uh the maximum permitted and that's to accommodate the uh the electrical equipment and also provide um you know uh a kind of a roof that provides some architectural interest to the to the building uh the variance to uh the variance is requested to reduce the number of required parking spaces from 5,408 to 1,273, which sounds like a lot, but that has to do with the history of the site.

So when the hospital was first constructed, uh, or actually until 2014, the required parking for the hospital is based on one space per every three beds.

Uh, with the current zoning bylaw, the requirement is one space for 10 square meters of gross floor area.

Um, so this kind of accounts for the um what's what's constructed already, including um uh so in this case, but in actuality there are 1,267 parking spaces on the site.

Um, for this electrical energy center, because it's 418 square meters, uh, the required parking is 42 spaces.

Um the site work that's being proposed to rejig some of the parking uh elsewhere on the lot would create six additional parking spaces to bring the number from 1267 to 1273.

Um this variance actually can be supported because the anticipated staffing level for this electrical energy is would be less than one person.

It's designed for it's it's not a it's not a staff building.

Somebody would just be going in to do maintenance work or or cleaning.

So for those reasons, the uh variants can be supported.

Uh the final variance is for fence height, and that has to do with um uh security fencing at around, you know, typically you want that around equipment, especially if a building is not uh not staffed regularly.

And this is to accommodate kind of a uh kind of a picket type gate, as you can sort of see in uh in the illustration there.

It's basically just a metal gate that has um additional um um um features on top of the gate that that prevent people from climbing over the site um the the main building itself uh the generator area does have a wall that kind of screens the majority of the uh the generators uh that is part of the building uh this is a fence that's at the rear of the building and the fence is actually mostly in on the sandwich side of the property uh so the variance applies to two segments of um of fence that extend from the building as as seen in the diagram in the circles uh this is a treat area, so there are some treed impact tree impacts.

90 protected trees are proposed to be removed.

The tree protection bylaw will require a two for one replacement, which is 180 trees.

Staff in working with the proposal, staff kind of worked with the append to get an understanding of why this location was chosen.

And basically it has to do with the hospital's master plan, which talks about preserving the major areas on either side of the hospital for future expansion, which kind of limits the uh the building location to be within um kind of the this part of the site.

And uh in terms of locating the building in this location versus within a parking area, if you locate it within a parking area, that displays parking within uh occupy this um this site so either way trees will will have to be it's unfortunate but the trees will have to be removed the benefit of this is you have a building that's um got electrical equipment generators that's a little bit further away from the main hospital itself it's operational it is easier for access and maintenance and it provides kind of a building that kind of a newer building at the entrance to the uh at the main entrance into the hospital so the recommendation is for the uh committee to forward to council for consideration after uh after uh the required notice and to uh to support the uh the requested variances uh if there's any questions i'd be uh happy to answer them try and answer some council any questions council rogers go ahead thanks uh uh thanks uh thank Jeff um the um uh um number parking stalls i in on page uh four of uh seven page report they talked about a net new or net gain of 35 parking stalls um yeah i could that might have been in older proposal where yeah so i think the actual number is actually going to be uh six sorry the actual the actual variance is is is for six additional parking spaces i okay thank you.

And um and i gather the um the other message is that there's no loss of parking for um visitor parking.

Yeah, that's that remains the same area.

There would be a net increase.

Yeah.

There are other initiatives to um to provide some additional parking spaces because of um uh accessibility requirements for for staff.

Um but those would be kind of within, yeah, those are not part of this project, so they're actually not counted.

There are some additional parking spaces for staff being proposed.

Thank you.

Um and I'm wondering um the you have a total count of I think 125 trees that uh were in innovative uh inventoried and and uh sounds like a significant number will be coming out.

I'm curious, um uh certainly the uh the staff, hospital staff visitors make use of the forested lands um uh in behind, even if it's not parkland.

Um I'm wondering um has there any been a discussion with uh um the hospital and and um the appropriate authorities if they would be uh willing to dedicate some uh trees, some forest land uh to uh for the betterment of uh the visitors and staff that are there.

Um that is a question that that would have to be put to the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

Um I can say that when the Eagle Creek Village Shopping Center was developed, there was Eagle Creek Village, Eagle Creek Park was provided as as um as a site where anybody could use, and but certainly for on-site, I'm sure they have to balance hospital uses versus versus uh therapeutic park type uses.

But Eagle Creek is, you know, the park is so far away.

Yes, I I I appreciate that.

Here you get an opportunity for immediate uh uh benefits to the to the residents and um to the you know patients and uh and staff.

Anyway, they we should uh explore that in a in a cooperative fashion, I would hope.

Thank you.

Counselor Lemon.

Thank you.

Um Councillor Rogers basically asked the questions I was gonna ask about parking.

Jeff, but uh so we we're we're gonna gain six for the visitors parking, and there's gonna be 42 new ones for staff parking.

Um chair, I think I think um I would have to verify what those numbers were.

I think I was looking at some older plans.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, I don't know.

I I guess you know, it's I guess I I don't debate the necessity of this at all and the variances, but anybody who's ever gone to to the hospital for a test or to visit someone knows it's like stop, you know, the stalking exercise like Mayfair Mall on Christmas Eve, and it's so frustrating.

Is it even remotely possible, although, you know, I I expect it's not for this to be moved back on this site to free up parking space.

I I understand that that would impinge on Sanich, but they use the hospital too.

Um yeah, through the chair, I think in in talking with staff again, it's like it's kind of like basically just moving things around because there's only so much parking and this building needs this much space.

So and then you also want to preserve as many trees as possible.

So it's it's I think trying to add additional parking space um would be something that we have it would have to be probably a VHI initiative to do that.

Something people would want.

Yeah, okay.

That's that was my question.

I I don't know that it can go anywhere, but that was my question.

I just wanted to move staff's recommendation.

Councillor Madsen.

Sir Seconder.

Second.

Uh well motivation actually to make an amendment.

And that would be item number six that um town negotiate with um applicant to create parkland the equivalent of 180 trees.

So that's you see that's the number of trees that they have to um um if I'm not mistaken staff you can assist me but um 180 trees is what they need to um uh plant and and for the trees that are going to be coming down and uh the benefit of of that this is on ALR land by the way and um so um I think it'd be reasonable to ask uh for their consideration that they would uh create a uh a park space um for staff and residents adjacent to this project.

My motion is there a second there for discussion.

Is there a secondary?

I'll second for the year.

Go ahead, more lead.

Yeah.

Like I say, um it's really wonderful that we have the Eagle View Park um uh across the street, but um um I'll re I'll repeat myself.

Uh the staff and residents do make use of the um uh the tree space.

Um you know I'm sure a lot of them think of think of it as park anyway, and um I think there's a significant therapeutic value with having um uh parkland uh in in the hospital area close by um to um and I do see some some green space between the buildings, but um they still have to make up mature number of trees that are be gonna be coming out and um uh this would be uh an amazing win win.

So my point.

Mayor Tobias.

Yeah, I just had uh question um kind of in support of the amendment, but um Jeff, where are the trees gonna be planted?

Are they gonna be planted on site?

Uh through the chair, um that uh item has not been uh discussed for sure, but uh certainly uh there are limitations on the site in terms of my understanding is there's limitations on the site where um because the hospital future plans are not finalized, um trying to I think it would be difficult to get a commitment at this point.

And uh just a follow-up question.

It has the District of Sanit's portion of the VG8 campus um just to the north, and I'm on slide eight.

Um isn't that privately held land?

Or is that what where is the actual line that the hospital owns that they can build on?

Uh through the chair, the hospital has the correct me if I'm rush, is uh goes all the way to Watkiss Way.

Yeah.

It's the other, it's the other per part across the street, um where it says where the wording service driveway, uh, that particular piece is is privately owned.

But this um the entire area of the the land between the building and Watkiss Way is um is Vija.

Okay, so all the way to Watkiss Way from the current border that we're seeing in the orange is controlled by the hospital.

Um are there other areas that could be used that isn't going aren't going to down 180 trees?

Or or um sorry, 90 trees yeah i don't i don't know the answer to that yeah counselor madsen counselor mckenzie well you know given that there's going to be expanding the hospital be expanded over the next 20 to 30 years or or whatever us trying to ask them for a piece of park that may eventually become part of hospital doesn't make a lot of sense and there's lots of trees there in that forested area you know it's probably a 60 80 million dollar project and we're we're we're gonna be going back and asking for some trees on some space that they will eventually need.

I I just can't support them amendment.

Councilor McKenzie.

Before I ask staff for their opinion on this, um my thinking is whether we can it's in my head it's like a covenant where it they could keep a park.

It's not so much for me about the trees or adding the um the replacement trees.

It's making sure that in the future it's not completely developed and uh because I would like to keep green space there.

So I wonder if staff have um a suggestion on how we could achieve that.

Uh through the chair, um thank you for your question, Counselor McKenzie.

Um council, it's important to for council to note that this is a development variance permit application, it's not a rezoning.

So we there are very sort of limited tools in terms of what you know council can ask for because it's not a rezoning application.

So we would have to go back to Ireland Health to see if this is something that they would be interested in doing as a request.

And we could report back to council on that at um the um option for public comment.

Counselor Qualwicher.

Thank you, Chair.

And just a small point of order.

I think probably Councillor Matson and myself could have gone first on this one, but hey, next time uh for for the person who made the motion, the seconder.

Um, but I will say this I think the primary function of a hospital uh is to provide health care for Canadians and in this uh in this case, people in the CRD.

Uh, I really truly believe with long-term visioning uh growth in the region that every inch of this property will probably be taken up by infrastructure at some point.

And I really don't think this is necessarily the site for us to influence or exert uh you know our our environmental concerns.

Uh this is an area that will be developed.

Uh we are being thoughtful.

We have built a park across the street.

Uh, we are building a park at Game Road.

Uh, and there are very, very many or many walkable parks in the neighborhood.

So uh that coupled with the increase of revenue to the town of View Royal, this is a quite an easy decision, to be honest with you.

And I really think we should move this forward.

Um Steph, what revenue do we get from uh from this um hospital site?

I don't think we have that information tonight, but I wouldn't imagine there's much.

I'm betting we get no revenue.

Right.

Okay.

No revenue.

So the uh the the the benefit is to the to the both the residents and the tenants, and for when you see the expanse, not every it's like every every applicant, every development.

We should take down every tree so we can make every space available for every building.

I mean, the same logic applies here as the value of housing and the value of hospital.

So it's uh and never mind the intrinsic value and the if you like the heat dome value of having trees uh still protected in this uh important amenity.

Thank you.

Councillor Qualwage?

Sorry, yeah, let me just clarify that.

I mean, I guess we're looking at significant construction in our town uh associated with uh people spending large amounts of money for long periods of time uh over a period of time, bringing more money into V-Royal.

I think there's maybe some sewer money, but um that and hosting the premium hospital for the island.

I'll just make a quick comment.

The overall parking is a concern to me.

I've I mean I'm gonna support the motion, but uh uh why they wouldn't go for tiered parking like they do in Jubilee is beyond me because it makes more sense taking up less uh ground space, surface space.

So uh I don't know why that's hasn't come forward because it's it works for the Jubilee and uh why wouldn't it work for VGH?

Call the question on Councilor Rogers' uh amendment.

Uh do you want to read it out again or are you okay?

Okay, all those all those in favor?

Opposed?

Uh motions defeated.

Now on the main motion to for staff's recommendation, uh all those in favor?

Any opposed?

Passed unanimously.

Through the chair.

The purpose of this report report and presentation is to introduce the development variance permit application 2024-04.

To reduce the rear yard setback from six meters to 3.03 meters to construct a deck.

As a result of this complaint, the town's bylaw building official, excuse me, went to review the site and decided to put up a work without permit and an unsafe to occupy notice on the property and provide written notice to the um the property owner that they had 30 days to essentially remove the unauthorized construction and bring back um the property to its original condition.

Um instead, the property owner decided that they would um look into whether they can make the deck safe and submit a development variance permit in order to see if council would allow them to keep the structure.

So the subject property is zoned R1B for detached residential medium lot, which requires a minimum setback of six meters from the rear property line.

The applicant is reducing, would like to reduce that setback, um, and staff are able to support it for the following reasons.

Um the deck can be brought into compliance with the 2024 BC building code and the Towns Building by Law should Council decide to approve the variants.

The proposed deck would bring the lot coverage to 21.2%, which would comply with the 40% maximum permitted underneath the zoning and would bring the lot surface coverage or sorry, the impermeable surface coverage to 40.1 out of the 60% that is permitted for the site.

And the proposed deck would not interfere with the two covenants that are registered on tile for the property.

So as a result, our recommendation is that council after notice consider the following motion.

Any questions from council?

Councillor Rogers and Councillor McKenzie and Mayor Tobias.

Yeah, thank you, Dee.

It was very helpful that you provided on page three an aerial photograph of the site.

Because the applicant uh seems to suggest that they had already had a deck.

And looking at this, it seemed more like a patio rather than a deck.

Can you uh help me on that?

Of course.

So currently um there is a partially covered patio which existed in the northeastern corner of the house.

So right where the proposed deck is, um, there's essentially like a small portion that is underneath the roof.

So you can't actually see it from the aerial photos.

Um and then below that, there was the concrete patio, um, which has been existing for a long time.

Yeah, yeah, I'd certainly check in the CRD maps and going back to 2013, yes, there always was a patio, but the applicant seems to suggest that there was a deck beforehand, but it isn't.

That's more of a patio.

The concern also, you know, what you say uh that there's no community impact, no anticipated impacts, but um looking at the house right behind um this deck is uh that that house is really close.

And I'm just um wondering before I would be interested or supporting any kind of move towards this, is to hear from that that resident.

I have no idea what kind of fence they have in between.

Um are there other photos that council would be able to look at, and uh, we would invite these people to respond.

So through the chair the neighbors would have an opportunity to provide comment through the notification period which is typically after council receives the application and decides they'd like to move forward with that.

So at that time should the neighbor have any comments they'd have the opportunity to provide those comments to the town for the review and consideration before they make their decision.

Additionally um if if you'd like to see the deck itself in its partially covered form it's in the attachment of the report Councillor McKenzie.

I had a similar comment to Councilor Rogers.

I suspect that perhaps the person who made the complaint might be the neighbor.

So um I I agree I think it is uh pretty close and it might be quite intrusive on that that neighboring house so but we will wait to hear at the next council when this comes mayor to buyas thank you Mr.

Chair uh just an observation looking at how close uh 410 and 2354 are to the property line it doesn't seem like even those houses are a six meter setback from the property line.

Am I saying that right?

Thank you for bringing up that slide.

So we're arguing about kind of six meters here, but those are I I'm not sure what they are, but they definitely aren't six meters if that's a comparison.

So just an observation when we're talking about this in context, um those houses they're closer than the setbacks or most others, I guess they're recent built.

Pardon me?

Yeah.

Councilor Matson?

Uh I guess my comment to staff would be when you bring an issue like this to us, it'd be good if we heard call got comments from the residents adjacent in advance because from my perspective if the residents don't want it, can't support it, then I would be against it.

But if they're okay with it then I would support it.

So it's really critical that we get this information you know because today you're gonna have to redo this all over again for us.

So through the chair it is um the local government act which basically provides the notification period so you have to accept the application and then as a result we do our notification which results in the comments coming in from the neighboring before you make your decision.

Sir that may be true but historically what staff have just asked is you know what are your comments from your neighbors because we always hear what the neighbors stab as soon as we get something.

So I just for ease of in the future.

I mean the the local government act may say one thing, but uh it would just would have made it much easier for us.

Do you want to move the staff recommendation or or motion to table if you if so desired.

Go ahead.

I I wish to clarify that this is um before you just for information um and that it will be coming back already.

So that this is that uh notice will be given and that at that time when it comes back the motion that will be be before you at that time is that um you consider authorization of the DVP at that time.

So this is before you for information, and that we go ahead then and give the notice, provide the notice, invite the public to provide their feedback and comments.

And so this is why it's before you.

Thank you for that clarification.

Someone want to move the staff recommendation.

From what I just heard staff say is that the motion proper motion from counter committee should be that we receive this for information and it's going to come back to us later on.

Set a motion.

Councillor Matson moving.

Second.

Council Rogers, uh Jerry, uh Levin's second.

Oh, comment.

In terms of reason, yeah, I support the motion.

In terms of receiving additional information, I would also ask that the applicant who said I previously had a deck in my rear yard, okay.

If he's I'd like to see for him to provide photographs of that deck.

You know, if he's just a if it's a paddle, but he's inferring that uh a deck similar to what um is being constructed, he's already had.

I want to see photographs of that if that's the case.

So staff can help me on that.

To clarify the structure that you see in um the image on the screen here where it so it says the proposed new deck, that is the footprint of the proposed new deck.

The existing deck, the one that they had previously, is in the footprint of the home.

So all of that is new.

I'm still confused.

If he said he previously had a deck and he had to demolish the existing structure to begin construction of this deck, then he should be able to have photographs of the existing deck.

It's it's covered completely.

Correct?

Uh oh I should oh god, pardon me.

I misunderstood.

Thank you.

Okay, call a question to uh a motion to receive.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

Non-opposed, pass unanimously.

Carry on.

Doing good.

So the purpose of this report and presentation is to present to the council and the committee with a proposed project scope on the review of the home occupation regulations for the zoning bylaw and business licensing.

So the town's strategic plan contains the following strategic priorities shown on the screen.

So strategic strategic priority B, goal three, business retention and attraction, and strategic priority D, goal two, diversification revenue base.

Both of which home occupation kind of falls underneath.

So with respect to strategic priority B, goal three, three C, there is a limited context provided to staff on what type of zoning review council is looking for.

Furthermore, further guidance is required on the project scope prior to staff commencing an in-depth review of the home occupation zoning regulations and business licensing to ensure the review meets the intent of the strategic priority.

So staff have proposed the following to provide further clarity on the strategic priorities, and so we are proposing essentially the review of the current definition of home occupation within the zoning bylaw, a review of section 4.2, which is the home occupation section of the zoning bylaw, to determine if the home occupation regulations are in alignment with other municipalities within the Greater Victoria area while fostering a business friendly community, and determine if there are any additional amendments required related to home occupations elsewhere than the zoning bylaw, and to address the following items within the business licensing and regulations bylaw to align the definition of home occupation and um home occupation and to remove the home craft definition.

Um some engagement may also be required as part of this procedure, um, but that will be discovered at a later date, most likely.

And then we have our recommendation, which is the same.

Counselor Madsen, go ahead.

Yeah, now uh I I read with concern that consider expanded home occupancy definition.

For example, there's a person who lives behind me.

He has a roofing business, and he owns a couple of houses on the street behind me.

So he rents out this place, but he stores all his roofing material in the back of his yard.

And so, which seems to me a total infraction in terms of what our bylaw allows.

And so, besides being an eyesore for the neighbors, we've got noise of people coming to collect things, you know, during the kit day.

And at one point in time, he used to be making, you know, metal flashing and be working in his yard.

So when you're doing this review, I strongly, I feel very strongly that we ensure that we have some protection for the homeowners because, and in fact, maybe we should put in a complaint about this current business, but um my perspective, for example, running a roofing company out out of your backyard and house in a place that you don't even live in because you've rented it out, doesn't have fit our current categories or current development requirements.

And it's something I think we need to be really cautious of in terms of any look at expansion of the definition.

Council Rogers.

Yeah, Council Matson's got a good point.

This is home occupation.

But if the owner doesn't occupy, how is he able to have uh permit and how are we permitting a business when he does not occupy the dwelling?

So, you know, Council Mathson is really good.

It's a very good approach, and and I think something that um you know, one of the one of the keys cornerstones of of this bylaw was do no harm, do not disturb.

And uh, and I that's part of the bylaw down further down, but uh we want to be able to maintain the ambience.

And what concerns me now that we have Bill 44 coming along, um, what kind of home occupations can we allow, not in just a single family dwelling, but now there's four and six units on that property, and what what occupations are are the responsible to uh you know that other municipalities have considered.

And I may not want to, and I don't think that V World would want to align with the other municipalities where they haven't placed the priority on home occupation, peace and quiet, do not disturb, and don't break the law.

You know, so you know it's it's it's Council Matson pointing out, you know, if we can't uh enforce the law as it is, why make it easier?

And I understand what we're saying here to uh in and foster better business friendly, but there still needs to be a community-friendly business as well.

And that's the balance that I'm hoping that this review will foster support and uh so we can get buy-in by our community and residents.

Councilor Matson.

Two other quick examples, which council or the town actually approved.

One of them was an escort agency across from our former uh plan um parks manager.

And when they approved it, it was well, it's it's all done within the house.

And he's George said, Well, yeah, that's true, it's all done within the house, but at 2 3 in the morning, when the the girls would come down and get their money and be screaming or tired, you know, they'd be on drugs or people be they'd be driving in there.

So, I mean it was a horrible thing, but staff approved it.

Staff the day approved it because it sort of met some sort of definition according to our bylaw.

And so you need to be concerned about what actually can be allowed under our bylaw.

I know Paul's smiling because he I think you lived across from the two, didn't you?

Yeah, I spent many a night listening to George.

It was pretty interesting.

Interesting home occupation, yes.

So, and another home occupations we we approved was um basically it's like a mini laundromat where there where they cleaned they they took in laundry and cleaned it.

Um but I gather they took it in from some nursing homes and and it was all covered in crap and the neighbors were complaining because anyways it of the smell but again it was a home occupancy per thing that that was approved.

So we really need to be considerate of the adjacent neighbors who could be in a single you know a family neighborhood you in terms of what we put in because even under what we our current bylaw we've allowed some really horrible things to go in in the past.

Yeah council rogers go ahead just to comment you I I'm sure staff is taking this all on board and what we see um when it comes where it will you know consider these points and you know we we do in you know Georgia's neighborhood perhaps b neighbor being the exception um we have a reputation to have pulled as Canada's best place for entrepreneurs mayor toias I was gonna bring that up, but thanks for beating me to the punch, uh, Counselor lemon.

Um, I and I I definitely hear you, Counselor Mattson, and the examples that you brought up, as well as your current one.

And I think that's probably one more of enforcement and complaint than it is an exception to the rule.

However, there is a whole other class, and I guess I've got two problems with the proposal.

One is can we think of something better than home occupation?

It doesn't say business to me at home.

It doesn't say I'm I'm struggling to understand what home occupation really means.

So maybe just this clear, plain language if that's possible, Stephanie.

So replace the term home occupation with home business.

That that would probably work for me because occupation is kind of nebulous, but really what you're saying is kind of work from home or a home-based business.

That would make it clear, I think, for everybody, especially when we're looking at the name of the bylaw.

Second one is there's different classes of it.

To get to counselor Lemon's point, it could be some dude with a laptop, and that's his business.

There's no cars that come in the driveway.

He could be having a multi-billion dollar business running from his home, uh, as probably some people started that are advising the American president right now.

Uh so a lucrative business uh without anybody ever visiting virtually or physically.

Um so I think seeing different classes of this, like this is work from home, no visitors, no extra parking requirements to somebody's cutting hair at home, to somebody storing heavy equipment or whatever.

I think there we should chunk it up.

We can't just blanket it anymore with technology and living up to our entrepreneurial uh pedigree.

Chairman.

Um I I think breaking it up into classes might help us out a little bit.

Thank you, Mr.

Counselor McKenzie.

So I'm looking at the recommendation, and I think this is an opportunity to raise these concerns.

And it is the recommendation is to do a review.

So that's both positive and and negatives.

Um I was wondering from staff, what is the proposed uh process for doing that review?

Is it something that will come to us?

Is it something that we can ask the public about as part of our OCP engagement?

Uh just wondering what the yep, the plan is for that review, or was it something that staff was just going to take away and then propose?

Through the chair, uh, thank you, Councilor Mackenzie, for that question.

So, this work will be done in-house.

Um, our community planner will be leading this project.

Uh, and we will be you know following uh council's um instructions in terms of that project scope, uh, given that there was very limited um guidance in the strategic plan in terms of how to approach this project.

So that's why we're back here today, so we have a clear a clear direction forward.

Um we will be reviewing it's it's a zoning bylaw, so we're looking at the zoning regulations, and uh so it's more it's more diving into the regulations, not so much policy out of the OCP.

And the plan is for staff to do a review and then come back to council.

Should council wish to undertake some engagement, then and staff think that's a you know, staff if staff come back to say, oh, you know what?

We we should probably do some engagement on this, then we will bring that forward just depending on the scope of changes based on on um after our our our comprehensive review of the regulations.

Uh there may be um a budget that council may have to um come forward with just because obviously engagement it does cost some money, and so we would have to look at that as well.

But currently this work is being taken undertaken in-house.

Uh I want to pick up on uh Meritobias.

Council's wishes, someone move, John.

You're gonna move just making a comment go ahead.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Meritabi has made a good point about uh haircutting.

You know, it's a pretty benign um circumstance, but if you have a lot of turnover, and one of the uh benefits, I think noticing some of the other municipalities have a ton of street parking.

They have formal streets with curb and gutter and sidewalk, and what we don't.

And so um while we want to align with other municipalities, it would be nice.

Um, we also have to recognize our own limitations on our um country lanes, difficult streets, hard to park, uh, and all the stuff that comes with it.

Again, bringing back into 44, where if you have a building with four hair cutters in one building, where are they all going to be parking their clients?

So client parking, everything has to be with within reason um so that we're uh still respecting the ambience of the community.

Thank you.

Counselor Matson, go ahead.

And Councilor Rogers brought up something I was just gonna bring up.

I guess there should be a limitation as to how many people can be working in in a in a home.

Like you I think if you have four people coming in to cut hair, it's no longer a home business, it's something else.

So that should be looked at too.

Just a quick follow-up, Mayor Tobias's uh statement on heavy equipment.

If it's an escort agent agency, who's gonna determine if there's heavy equipment on the premise.

What's your wishes?

One of the pass the recommendations?

Moved by Councillor Rogers, seconded by Councillor Lemon.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

Passed unanimously.

Through the chair, I um I do not have a formal presentation on this uh report.

Uh the recommendation is to receive the purpose of um of the report is to inform council of the project scope for the mixed use and mixed employment feasibility analysis that will be undertaken as part of phase one of the official community plan review.

And the back in last October, when council approved the project scope, this was a part of that scope.

And um our consultants, um, urban systems will be undertaking a uh feasibility analysis to explore opportunities for mixed-use villages and corridors with a particular focus on exploring the viability of mixed-use employment along the Western Gateway Corridor, which is uh Island Highway between Six Mile Road and to the Calwood border, and this memo will supplement the work that was done back in 2021 in the land economic study.

And this work is necessary to ensure that council, staff, and the public are fully informed on the viability of development, specifically to understand the uses, heights, and densities required to attract development along the Western Gateway Corridor.

And that is my presentation.

Council McKenzie, then Mayor Tabuck.

Do we know?

I believe Callwood has started to do this kind of work, and because it's such an invisible line, like it's essentially the same environment there.

You know, they have the same things to consider.

Is it possible that we either take what they've done or work with them to come up with the study for the whole strip?

Uh through the chair, um, our um the development services team has been uh communicating with the um planner for Callwood who's been uh working on that project.

And so uh we have the reports and we will be working closely with them and uh we won't be doing a joint review.

Uh Callwood's review is quite far further along, um, but we will be looking at their their plans um and as part of this exploratory work mayor to playas thank you mr chair um counselor mckenzie i do have a copy of their latest loc it's called a local area plan um uh particularly around uh uh the the corner what's the corner there called corners callwood corners yeah right around that area there and it is significant like uh towers and and whatnot, but I can afford that.

I know that won't be the basis.

So, Leanne, to break this down a little bit, this will be this initiative is town or municipal wide, but with a special focus, kind of like but not calling it a local area plan for um the the part in View Royal of the Collwood Strip.

Am I reading that correct?

It's not a local area plan, it's just basically doing uh the uh is it's looking at the land economics essentially.

So um if you know there's a desire, and we heard it last week that uh we have more mixed use development in the town.

So if the town wants more mixed use development, what type of densities, heights and densities will be required to make that viable, and then where do you want those heights and densities to be located in the town?

So um we require this information in order to properly inform our land use scenarios and also to communicate to the public as well.

So they're aware of you know, you want this development, this is how you're gonna make it work.

Now, where do you want it in the town?

Thank you.

Just a follow-up question if I can, Mr.

Chair, and that's just um is this gonna go a little bit a bit beyond um the traditional bottom floor commercial and then residential?

To what height is there going to be some opportunity to investigate what it might look like, commercial on the bottom, office, then residential?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Through the mayor, yes, we will be looking at different um um test scenarios.

So looking at uh ground floor commercial with residential above.

We'll be looking at like ground floor commercial with office.

We're looking at light industrial uses with office above and um even perhaps residential above that.

So we're going to be looking at a variety of different land use scenarios and um to uh to in you know to inform council and and the public in terms of what what do they want to see Councilor Larman do you have a question?

Just an observation.

In in the report um it was written during the beginning days of the pandemic.

And I got I kind of got stuck on 2.2.2.2.

And that's the impact of e-commerce.

And which of course was, you know, just everything was ramping up for e-commerce.

And I'm just thinking, and it may not impact this at all.

I understand that, but I it it got me thinking that if by Canadian the by-Canadian movement um continues to take hold, people will hopefully be leaving Amazon and enjoying the in-person experience of retail shopping.

Director Dennis, go ahead.

Yes, thanks, Councilor Lemon, for your question.

Thank you, Chair Brown.

So one important piece of this is that the urban systems will be updating the demographic and market data because since the obviously as you noted the the land economic study was completed during the pandemic and there has been some changes regionally since then.

So and um and that technical data has changed.

And so this a memo that we will be receiving will acknowledge those uh changes and as well as identify some of the um issues that were not foreseeing in the 2021 land economic study.

I think it's someone to make the motion to go ahead, Council Roger.

Yeah, thank you.

I agree, Steph.

This is a really important research to to undertake.

Um, you know, since the last 2021, we now have a rapid bus.

And that uh that is going to do uh hopefully a great deal of um incentive for redevelopment and and I think uh hopefully quality redevelopment.

Uh we also have uh will will this report also be assessing uh since we're working with Colwood about uh making Wilfort Road um a through road.

Through the mayor, um this is through the chair, pardon me.

This is strictly a technical report.

It's looking at the data, so it's not, it's really looking at data to help inform land use policy.

It's not going to, and land economists are are doing this work, not transportation engineers or land use planners, we're land economists are doing this work.

Yes, thank you.

So we we and we need their expertise in order to provide us with that data.

And and um hopefully um Wilfort Road changes the whole dynamics of traffic movement um uh in many ways, and so that that's why I ask, and certainly Colwood has got a lot more development on on uh Wilfort Road that we've never did expect.

So a lot has changed in that regard.

Um the um other point is as we do this report, I would be very interested to see how these points that um are assessed could be applied to Fort Victoria in terms of the density and the uh support of that density.

The what was your point um to meet daily shopping needs in proximity to residential areas.

So hopefully we can you know be able to take that information and apply it to both areas and as we look at our OCP.

Victor Taylor.

Through the chair.

The um the uh in our current OCP, the uh Fort Victoria site is identified as our town center, and uh the that was that was a test site in the 2021 land economics study.

Uh and uh it will be retested as part of um this site, not as a as a town center, it's more looking at the land economics of the site, not so much land use designation, if it's gonna be a town center or not, it's town center, it's strictly land economics.

Yeah, I mean the Fort Victoria Center.

I mean, we're starting to confuse things.

The reality is, are we going to be throwing out 600 or 500 low-income housing families out on the street by redeveloping Fort Victoria?

And I don't think so.

So I just think it's a waste of time and energy to spend a lot of time and focusing about redoing something to Fort Victoria when you know it'll make Ebenezer Scrooge look like like a saint if we did.

Counselor Lemon.

Well, the OCP looks toward 2050, so that's that's a ways down.

Much, much can change and and um I don't think we should completely give up on forget that um patch of land and I move receipt of staff's report.

Moved by Councilor Lemon seconder sec councilor rogers second all those in favor that was more scott, were you going to report on on this next slide?

I'm happy to.

Thank you, Chair.

Director leung couldn't stay with us this evening, so I'm happy to take this report uh we have before you uh response um to a council resolution from October that was presented to us by View Royal Elementary PAC looking for a suitable location for a rainbow crosswalk.

In our experience, I I did co-write this with the director.

Crosswalks don't last very long.

And so the thrifty side of me says, why would we put it on a road when it's going to be rained on and driven on constantly?

So we prepared some alternative options, one being a crosswalk and one being a painted sidewalk, which see less traffic and last for a lot longer than the expected life of seven years.

It's a thrifty approach which accomplishes the message of showing diversity and inclusion in our community.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Not a question.

Any questions?

I like the recommendation about doing the park benches better because they'll last forever rather than speech which will just be continually have to re repaint these things.

Councilor Rogers.

I agree with Councilor Matson.

The um uh the nice thing about park benches is that you could have them in Watkissway Park, View Oil Park, um uh and Eagle View and um View All Elementary.

So you you're able to distribute um uh and a recognition, um, you know, not quite nicely in the community, and probably for the same cost.

Counselor McKenzie.

I do think the added bonus of having it though on the road is that traffic calming, especially where it is and the the number of students, pedestrians that walk that way.

Uh so for that reason, I think it it is value, extra value for money.

It's not just a symbol, uh, which the others also achieve, but it is uh for safety as well.

Any other questions?

Can I get a motion to uh oh mayor toyas?

Go ahead.

Um just uh a question.

I'm largely in favor of it.

I am concerned about 15 to 25k every seven years for a crosswalk.

Um I I like the message it displays, no no debate about that.

I do have an issue with cost.

I do have a concern if it's vandalized or damaged.

Is that insured or is that something that we now have to pay to upgrade?

Will our insurance cover us if it's vandalized or painted over or otherwise abused?

I think our deductible would make it more feasible for us to go and repair it and do the painting in-house.

Thank you.

Council Qualwick, go ahead.

Thank you.

Uh actually, Mayor Tobias, you you peaked my my brain.

So thank you.

Which is hard to do at times.

Um one element that probably should be considered for this would be um would be septed actually for this.

The crosswalk would probably actually make it much more challenging uh for vandalism because it's a very busy road as opposed to a park bench.

So just for consideration, I actually am happy with either decision, but it it's a point to to consider.

I'll move option two.

Councillor McKenzie, I think you have a comment.

Yeah, just around uh the vandalism element, it was something that I considered when I originally raised this.

And I think although it does cost money, just us replacing when that does happen, I think sends a very strong message.

Um, so I don't have a concern with that happening because I know we would take steps to rectify it.

And I believe that's in and of itself what we're hoping to achieve is to show what we stand for in this community.

I'll still move option two.

Move by Councillor Mattson, second by Councillor Rogers.

So we'll for park benches.

For parked benches, okay.

Um the motivation is that um sorry, thank you.

Thank you.

Motivation is that um we don't have to limit uh the benches to re rule.

It uh we could also have benefit to our other uh community elementary school as well.

And uh Watchkiss Way does is has a great deal of public um eyes on it, and that I don't think the brandalism would be that much of a um an issue either for those three options so I think the bench is economic it says it and um gives more of more places for option for uh to put that so the motions to uh replace crosswalk with uh uh park benches okay all those in favor any opposed uh McKenzie and Lemon are counselors opposed uh the motion passes move on to item uh eight F Watkins park design finalization staff report on that can I move um that this matter be uh um tabled for budget discussions i actually i'd like to move that uh the matter be tabled for budget discussions do have a seconder there's no discussion if it's just if it's table i'll second it can uh mayor to buy a second after discussion no discussion okay the items tabled then no vote we go to item eight uh g Elmkin road at Watkers Way Interception Protection measures now that uh I assume Ivan was gonna report on that maybe Scott are you gonna do are you gonna report on that one?

Yeah oh it is table okay sorry my my mistake I'll have to read my Roberts Rules we'll forget um all those in favor to take discussion no discussion so uh any opposed counselor McKenzie and Lemon opposed this motion passes to table now we'll move it to item eight G I'm not sure who's who's gonna report on that from staff, or is anyone gonna report that council's wishes do you want someone want to table this motion?

Well, I was just gonna ask the staff.

Would staff prefer that it comes back later once they have some remote.

We'll move it.

I do have some speaking notes uh left to me by director Liang if okay, if you're interested.

Yeah, perfect.

Uh so what we're looking for is a recommendation to build a quick build traffic calming, um, which Councilor Liang refers to as a Calgary curb.

Um at Helmkin Road and Watkiss.

Um, it's a very small section on the leg of the intersection.

Um Chief Hurst, you can probably confirm no impact on the fire department.

Um everything else in the design uh in this report has been approved by council and previous reporting.

So it's really just the Calgary curb that's the variance.

Umce decided, we'll proceed with tender and award for construction.

Uh Director Leung says council can say no to the Calgary curb.

The intersection will still function, but no improvements to active travelers.

That's it.

Any questions from council?

Councilor Rogers and then Councilor Levin.

Uh yeah, thank you, staff.

The um uh these appear to be temporary.

Um uh are they easy to move or how are they uh secured?

I don't know the details on that, but I assume if they're quick build, they're uh they're also uh quick remove if needed.

Okay.

And and uh again, I appreciate the safety uh aspects in this limited area makes uh it does make sense.

How um one of the problems with uh you know these these barriers is that uh debris, rocks, whatever can uh be trapped between the barrier and the curb, uh creating uh sometimes a cycling hazard with uh stones and whatnot.

How does one clean that area if uh these are installed?

Uh that knowledge is uh is beyond me at this point.

I'm sorry.

Counselor Lemon, go ahead.

Well, I'm not a cyclist, so I don't know if this is really beneficial from a cyclist point of view.

I imagine it is.

Um, but do we have a cost on this, Scott?

We don't have one in the report at this time, no.

Counselor Madsen.

And help then Mayor Tobias.

That's the first thing.

Yeah, I guess my thought is we should probably have the cost so we can make a decision easier with the cost.

I don't the concept I'm I'm I'm happy with.

I like doing some some of the things that if it looks like it might work, put it in, see what happens.

And if we find out that it causes grief to other people, we can then make a decision because it doesn't look like it's gonna cost a lot to install or to remove.

So I mean, that's one of the reasons I would support it without too big a consideration.

Yeah, I've got some big concerns about this one.

This isn't just installing a curb, this is eliminating a whole lane heading northbound.

And if you're traveling up that way at any type of rush hour, oh yeah, there's two lanes that go on the other side of Helmkin up towards Burnside.

You're eliminating an entire lane there.

And you're forcing that lane to take a right onto uh Chancellor.

So that that that will now push all the traffic up Canard that said, oops, uh, I'm in the wrong lane, or I want to gun it past traffic.

This has more implications than just bike safety here this is also eliminating a boulevard that we just put in after eagle creek you're taking that whole boulevard out and uh adding a left hand lane to the fire final design what i think that neighborhood particularly is looking at is please fix the light right now if you're trying to walk across that intersection the stuff coming off a watkiss way has a green light it doesn't go red when the pedestrian sign comes up so it's a flashing or a a green light to take a left turn.

Uh and then when that ends, it's a steady green.

So there is no the the traffic coming off of Watkiss heading north on Helmkin, that that is where we've had two accidents involving cars on pedestrians because they assume it's a green light, it's safe to go, they can't see the pedestrian walk sign, and that's where the accident's happening.

And there's no advanced left green to get out of Chancellor to turn toward uh Old Island Highway.

So I think if I was to prioritize anything for safety, it would be fix the light first, and then let's see what else can come up because that's the concern of the neighborhood is getting from the neighborhood to Eagle Creek to do their shopping and back safely.

And I don't think this curb is has got more implications in it that we'd need to look at the whole kind of plan for it.

I would assume just on my knowledge of it, this elimination of this lane will back traffic up to the highway at rush hour.

A movie table.

Sorry, that there's too many thank you, Mayor Tobias, there's too many implications here that uh I was not aware of.

I just thought we were talking about a little bit of concrete.

And this this is too much.

Second second by counselor Levin to table.

Are we talking about yeah and we we get the big picture.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Anybody calls they would ask you now.

I guess uh Chief Burst, you might be up next here.

New Royal Smart FireSmart program.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh as council recall, uh a couple of meetings ago you had asked for uh an update on our FireSmart program.

And I just wanted to I I talked to our FireSmart coordinator, had him put together just a compilation of what he's accomplished in the first six months.

Um this is a a high level overview of the work he's done.

And I just wanted to clarify, he um Mr.

Eason posts probably well weekly on social media sites and uh on the Towns Notice board and the e newsletter.

So he has quite a social media and media presence with the the events that are going on with the FireSmart, and this is just an update on what he's accomplished in the first six months.

Any questions?

Councilor Madsen.

Mayor Bile, go ahead.

Does he post on X?

But again, there's not a single picture in the report, so it is substantive.

Just thought I'd point that out.

Not sexy.

Council Rogers, please.

Yeah, we need pictures of the Claricats.

Microphone.

Sorry, thank you.

Let me repeat that.

We need pictures of the Clarkats.

So, Chief, who's who's the FireSmart coordinator?

It's one of our paid-on-call members, Ryan Eason.

Ran a competition last yeah, was it April.

He was a successful candidate.

So he it is a grant-funded position through UBCM and the province.

We've just made uh reapplication for additional years of funding for him to continue the program on.

An incredible list of both you know education and practical uh impl implications already.

Um so you've ordered a custom-built fire smart model home.

Where's that gonna be?

That's gonna be at the fire station.

So oh, that's novel.

It's a miniature to scale home.

And Ryan takes it out to uh to community events and he's able to interact with the public and show how to fire smart a home.

So uh we've heard lots about LA and and the disaster there and extraordinary number of homes burned and all the things that American Americans, California is going to be doing in terms of roofing and no gutters and so forth.

It's just astonishing.

So is that one of the uh approaches both through through us and uh the province to uh work towards?

I haven't heard anything officially, but there has been uh discussions that the insurance industry is going to start exploring insurance premiums based on fire smarted properties.

So if you're if you're living in an interface zone and your home is not up to a fire smart standard, there there could be insurance implications.

There could also be insurance savings if your home has been evaluated and is fire smarted.

So there is some discussion uh going around the province.

And I I would anticipate, given the cost of insurance worldwide and the loss, that the insurance industry is going to want to mitigate some of their issues and and start holding homeowners a bit more responsible for their own property.

So it is timely that we're we're working through this program in View Royal.

Absolutely.

Get a motion to receive the report.

So moved by Councillor Mattson, seconded by Councillor Glemman.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

Pass.

Thank you, Chief.

CAO updates next.

Thank you, Chair.

Before you this evening is a departmental newsletter basically on all the different departments in the town and what we've been up to since we last had a CAO report in January.

Councilor Rogers.

No question, but again, thank you so much.

Because of this.

Because of this, um, you know, I I checked out Engage View oil.

I saw it, I did it.

Likewise, Blue Sky.

Thank you, uh, Mayor Tobias for uh uh going taking us into this direction.

Well done.

And the um it it is interesting.

I will be curious to see in um over the next few months, particularly in development services and uh the applications that come in, um, if we're going to see any more um density uh mid to high density projects coming along again with the whole uncertainty of of land costs, people costs, um, and uh of course the tariffs.

So it'll be very interesting to see what actually can come to fruition in the next few months.

And if I can ask a question in our budget, do we do a budget projection of assumed DCCs for 2025?

We will do our best to do an estimate of DCCs coming in.

Yeah.

I I imagine we've uh budgeted quite conservatively in the past for DCCs.

But we'll have a look at the trends for what has been coming in and and uh we'll include that in future years.

Yeah, it may be a different uh situation this year.

Thank you.

Sir Manson?

Yeah I want one quick question.

I'd forgotten all about the OCP survey until I saw it in this document.

So I've completed.

I'm just wondering how many people have completed or have done the survey.

And um I'm wondering if we've been promoting it enough because I really haven't heard too much about it from other residents.

Through through the chair, um we have been um promoting it on social media.

Um we are we have our uh internal team was out and about on Saturday at three at three different locations promoting the survey and promoting the OCP.

Uh they were at Admiral's Walk, they were at the Quality Foods, Eagle Creek, and they are also at View Royal Park.

Uh, we have also been at the schools.

Uh, we've so far we've been at Shoreline and Eagle Creek, and we'll be going to View Royal next week.

Uh we have been um doing additional Facebook boosts, and so um staff's actually quite pleased with the amount of um getting the word out.

And I did actually also email council as well because we have prepared leader kits for all of council to come and pick up, which include posters and business cards, so that you can also go out in the community and hound out business cards and um which includes the QR code for people to access the survey and access all the other information about the OCP update.

I was just gonna ask that too.

Does that mean there's something in our boxes that I haven't seen?

I saw the email, but I don't know.

I can go go to the front and pick it up, I guess.

But we do have mailboxes there.

So if you could throw them in there, that'd be great.

Thank you.

I'll go check to make sure they're there.

Thank you very much.

Move your seat.

Uh staff, um, with the recent snowfall that we've had, would there um did things go okay with any public uh or concerns or residents in any areas, if you will?

Uh things things went relatively well.

Um, there was a few complaints of people unable to get up uh Helmkin Hill.

Um the reason for that is depending on what time of day it snows and how much traffic there is on the road really limits the cr contractor's ability to go and clear snow.

So they can't plow a hill if it's already uh full of sideways cars with summer tires.

So they did their best.

I think they're caught up now, and um there's always the initial reaction day one or day two.

And uh I I think relative to the rest of the CRD, uh our contractor did an excellent job.

Just to comment on that, just uh Councilor Rogers.

Uh my neighbor, I'm on Atkins Road, so 100 meters up the road, you're in Langford.

And uh one of my neighbors said to me, he was visiting a friend in Langford who commented, he says, the road was nice and clear to the top of the hill.

When started Langford, and theirs was crappy.

He said, That's the advantages for living in the uh the the Oak Bay of the West Shore.

So anyway they were happy.

All right second I I didn't no I had a comment too.

Okay go go ahead I just well I I gotta give you a I I've been saying all nice things all about you all the time but there's one of you kind of missed Island Highway in terms of the sidewalks.

I walk past that go up there every day and it's sheets of ice it's n it doesn't look like anyone's ever gone over with it with anything and uh up until just two days ago, the ice covered the whole sidewalk, and now there's sort of this tiny path about this big.

So we need to look at doing something for those sidewalks along island highway because you know, one side's nice and clear, the side closest to the town hall is um still dangerous.

Get a motion to receive CO's report?

We did?

Okay.

I didn't get the mo mover to second anyway.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

No.

Building department report is next.

Uh Leanne, are you reporting on that?

No.

Okay, can I get a motion?

Can I get a motion to get a motion to receive?

Move by Councillor Lemmon.

Second by Councilor Matson.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

Okay.

Thanks, uh, Mr.

So portfolio reports.

Looks like Mayor Cobias, you're first up.

Chair.

Um, yeah, uh, just to be brief about those two points.

Uh, one is a general one and observation that you might reflect on the building report as well.

I think the ongoing uncertainty is affecting decisions with development and permits, anything, uh, home renovations.

So I I think that our expectations should be managed depending on how things go in the next little while.

Didn't start off the year all that well.

So I think with uncertainty, people are going to be reluctant to uh spend uh big dollars on on development.

Um just want to put a plug in for our CAO who's been working diligently getting ready for the budget.

Um of course it'll be um a story uh for the budget this year and as much uh of contingency.

It's gonna look different than it has in the past with Don delivering it.

Um so we can be the public and council can anticipate that in in March is those uh opportunities starting to to uh um to come through.

Um but uh again it's gonna be one of those uh budgets during an uncertain time that I'm sure we'll have enough to talk about in our meetings.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Uh next is EEO of Protective Services.

Um I know the uh MYST, the mobile youth services team, sent us a letter asking for support from various councils.

Um I know the um police detachment here uh had some overlap of services, so um it was kind of directed to everybody.

But uh good news is they did get receive a federal grant to support a full-time counselor for their team.

And they do a lot of work, um, not that much in View Royal, but they it is a very valuable team.

So I was happy to hear that news that the federal government approved a grant for them.

And uh and that's my report.

Thank you.

Counselor Kolovich, you're next up.

Thank you, uh Acting Mayor.

I serve as the officer in charge of the mobile youth services team, so we appreciate those kind words.

Thank you very much.

Uh, as it uh relates to engagement, um, I will be engaging with Mayor Tobaya soon to find out exactly what my job entails.

But I can tell you that I've been monitoring engagement and Leanne has been engaging with the community.

We have a part-time employee who engages with View Royal.

I have communicated with her.

We have big plans in store for youth that have been stalled because of me.

But certainly with Kelsey here, we will work on getting better at communicating.

I know this was actually something that I had advocated for years was to have a a part-time communications person way back when, if you recall.

And now it's time for me to step up and do that.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And Counselor McKenzie, your next up for parks and recreation yes thanks so for the West Shore West Shore Parks and Rec uh I am just to let you know I am the rep for the GVLRA for the West Shore Parks and Rec.

So I've already had my first meeting there.

In terms of what we've been discussing we had an aquatic staff presentation at our last meeting and you know the pool continues to be oversubscribed essentially so there was a presentation on creative ways uh to address that and meet demand.

They also talked about some of their very interesting new programming that they've they've added so they've they have a trial a triathlon training there.

They have fitness swim lessons and they have specialty swims actually for trans queer uh women's only and the sensory swim as well in terms of the regional parks and recreations uh facilities master plan the engagement is going to be happening February and March and there's going to be surveys and in person uh public sessions and we expect the first draft of the plan to be in July and then they're gonna come here and do presentations in late October or early November.

And then finally pickleball uh you know unfortunately they were unsuccessful in getting the grant the BC gaming grant for that however that won't impact timelines uh or anything we still expect that it will be ready for May.

So yeah so uh that's all for me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh planning and development uh counselor Matson do you report?

Um not specifically you know we had a number of items on this evening.

One of the things I guess I would like staff to sort of bring back to us we previously had a a report that sort of outlined the development that was going on in the town where the status was those sorts of things.

So it's nice just getting that that update.

And I'm wondering if we can expand things through I mean like most council would probably like to know what's happening with the grocery store that's supposed to be in the bottom of Island Highway and uh Helmick and those types of things.

So if there's any information you can provide to us on a sort of a a more regular update just in terms of the status of developments going on, what sort of projects are are coming in.

And it doesn't necessarily need to be you know a lengthy report just sort of quick updates to us so that we have a better idea of what's coming in around the community.

Thank you.

And uh arts and uh arts library, counselor lemon, please.

Um thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh Library Hell uh library T VPL Greater Victoria uh Library System Library Board held its um inaugural meeting last month, and that's been the only meeting since uh uh CEO Sawa presented to our council.

And uh I think we received a pretty fulsome report then.

Um I nominated at the inaugural meeting I nominated uh the vice chair to the position, the the former vice chair to the position of chair of the board, um and she was successful.

Her name is Shahira Kar, and uh she is in the library system at um University of Victoria.

And on the um other fronts, um arts commission, CRD arts commission, there was a January meeting in which we simply approved operating grants.

And the WandaPuca Performing Arts Fr.

Again, the uh we consider can continue the search for a venue.

Um certainly View Royal is preferred because of you know well the the transit availability and uh the you know the potential for an entertainment district.

Um but uh still no firm location.

There's a couple of possibilities in landford um and anyway uh judith cullington is is out there you know scouring the bushes for a a suitable location for a performing arts center just a question yeah so uh we talked earlier about uh putting you know multi-story car parking etc i mean we've got a large building and where the live currently where the library is in view or in uh the west shore.

Like what are the possibilities of putting an extra floor on one of those buildings?

On the um on the library, for example.

Yeah.

I mean you've yeah they just got all the parking there for the evening for yeah yeah I think that that has been discussed um and it it it hasn't gone gone forward and I think part of the reason is because of the age of the building of the library itself.

There was an there was an earlier look at the corner up there where the where the uh the the e parking is um would that be a site?

And it was just not again, not suitable um and not big enough.

Uh yeah, it's it's it's a it it's difficult to find the appropriate location.

There was there is one site, and I mentioned this before in Veroyal um on the strip, but it's um well the the price was too high and there were additional concerns.

So but she is she is um Judith Cul Judith Cullington, who is the president of the Performing Arts Society, she is tenacious, she doesn't give up, she's meeting with commercial realtors, she's she's meeting with developers, she's meeting with a lot of people to see what she can then turn up.

That's my reply.

Excellent.

Thank you, Councillor Lemon.

And it's on to Councillor Rogers.

Yes, thank you.

Again, congratulations to staff for for building the um in place uh uh the new EV charging stations for for staff uh in our new vehicles.

So the the question um that arose from uh the climate coalition folks is the the charging stations are they just for staff vehicles or can the public uh be using those on weekends and uh evenings and so forth uh the staff charging stations for staff vehicles are behind the the locked gate.

So um they they won't won't be used evenings and weekends.

Okay.

Yeah, we I mean we could keep that in mind when we build a new charging stations.

But uh yeah, the way it is right now, we've got the one out front.

Yeah.

Um for public use.

It's quite well used.

Okay, so we obviously we weren't aware it was behind the locked gate.

Okay, that's that that deals with the situation in at the at the present.

Yeah.

Um my uh my point to uh counselor uh Matson's um um comments on the island highway Helmakin noose project and whether you know we get a grocery store there.

One of the things um I'd be uh hoping staff keep an uh uh a real eye on is um is that that corner.

It's it's got a soft corner where vehicles quickly come around the corner and um and at the same time we have a bus stop, we have the um entrance um to uh the condos, and we also have school kids going to and from on that side of the street.

So um uh I think once it does open up and the building is used, um we would probably have to have a close eye on on what are the challenges and conflicts.

And again, Helmak and uh harbor traffic wanting to go through uh if there's um and whether or not they can or because it gets blocked with buses and other things.

So it's it's going to be uh an interesting, challenging situation that we would uh need to monitor quite carefully in in the next year.

Thank you.

That's my comment.

Thank you, Councilor Rogers.

And uh, there's no other reports under new business.

I I did uh submit to Alan a uh notice of motion to be discussed at our next meeting.

And it's similar to a motion that's been passed at other municipalities including Sanach to uh um amend or review our procurement policy to ensure that in all cases we're buying and purchasing uh equipment and other uh substances from Canada first um and then other countries other than the USA so I'll have to wordsmith that a little bit but uh that's the intent of the motion and that'll be discussed at the next meeting and I did I fail to what I started meeting and and thank you for the cheat sheet uh Mayor Tobias.

I didn't look at the second page, sorry.

But I forgot to mention during question period that people are watching virtually that they can uh go online and submit their questions by scanning the code up there.

Um that being said, I don't see anybody in the audience here.

Um perhaps Carl, do you have any questions from uh people watching that are possibly watching?

Probably not.

Uh Chair Brown, we've had no questions this evening.

Okay, thank you.

I have to say I like this format, and I see we're finished at potentially 10 after five, but there's no other can we have a motion to uh to adjourn?

Moved Lemmon seconded by Councillor Madsen.

I can tell he's ready to go.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

No.