Committee of the Whole

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'd like to call the committee of the whole meeting Tuesday, March 11th, to order.

And I would like to recognize the Lekwungen speaking people known today as the Esquimalt Nation and Songhees, and that their historic connections to these lands continue to this day.

Thank you.

Can I get an approval of the agenda?

Councilor Brown, seconded by Mayor Tobias.

All in favor, opposed that's carried.

Minutes of the previous meetings.

Councilor Brown and Tobias.

All in favor, that is carried.

Down to the chair's report.

I just want to actually do a quick chair's report and just talk about the last uh couple weeks in Canada have been quite eventful.

We have significant developments all over the country.

Uh we have a new uh liberal leader who will soon be our prime minister, and we we welcome Mr.

Kearney, and he certainly has a lot of work cut out for him, and we hope he pays attention to local government.

Uh here in British Columbia.

Uh I think the recent expulsion of a party member from their caucus for uh derogatory comments about residential schools is something that uh we all need to be aware of and be mindful of.

Uh locally here in View Royal, we're continuing to play our part, stay on our lane.

Uh Councilor Brown has uh got the flag of Ukraine back up, flying.

We appreciate that.

I'm wearing my Ukraine socks right now with the last name Kowalewich.

We can show that later off camera.

Promise they're clean.

Uh and thank you for everybody.

We've had lots of nice messages from people in View Royal supporting us for uh for causes, and we're certainly trying our best.

And thank you to my colleagues for all the hard work and communication.

Uh do we have any public participation uh in the room?

Anyone would like to come up to the podium?

Not seeing anybody.

Uh Carl, how are we doing on the on the electronic side?

Um one moment, Councillor Kowalewich.

Uh we have no uh questions on the board.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh why don't we move down to reports?

We'll table 81A for now to see if Superintendent Preston arrives at a later time, given the unpredictability of public safety.

And we'll move down to Leanne for the development of variants on Burnside Road West.

Yep.

Uh your colleague.

Thank you, Councilor Kowalewich.

Um, so today I will be presenting the development variance permit for uh 2401 Burnside Road West.

So the purpose of this report is to introduce the development variance permit application.

Um BC Transit is requesting three variances to the sign by law.

After submitting a sign permit application to the town, it was determined that variances were required for two of the three proposed signs for the BC Transit Handy Dart Center.

The subject property is zoned P3, Parks and Recreation, and is located within the local institutional sign district on the signed by law.

The sign the applicant is requesting variances for are both located on building A, which you can see on the screen.

So the applicant is requesting a variance to the location of sign two.

So section 6.7 of the sign by law requests that wall signs be located or sorry, requires that wall signs be located between 2.4 and 4.5 meters from grade.

The applicant is requesting a variance to increase this maximum height permitted from 4.5 meters to 5.2 meters.

This variance is supported by staff as there is a canopy which extends over the main entrance, which is located at 5.4.5 meters from grade as shown in figure two there.

And the additional height is required for the sign to be visible over that canopy and for those who are approaching the building.

So the applicant is requesting a variance to section 6.7 once again to increase the maximum height permitted for a wall sign from 4.5 meters to 7.1 meters.

And this variance is also supported by staff as it is the proposed location is on the second tier of the building, which allows for greater height.

So there are those traveling from the TransCanada Highway can see the sign clearly, going on the en route, et cetera.

As there are some existing landscaping trees, shrubs, and a hill, which kind of block a lot of the lower portion of that building a variance to section 7.2b, which is to increase the base character size for the sign from 45 centimeters to 63.5 centimeters.

This variance is not supported by staff as the sign would be visible from the highway with still with the 45 centimeters.

For that reason, um staff is recommending that the committee recommend to council after giving notice to consider the following motion that the development variance permit application in accordance to plan submitted on February 27th, um, be issued, be authorized to issuance um for those two variances for the height variance of sign one and the height variance of sign two.

Thank you.

Uh thank you very much.

Just a real quick one.

Questions for staff?

Counselor Brown.

Are these illuminated signs or just just regular?

These are just regular signs.

They're not illuminated.

Thank you.

Uh Meritobias.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Uh, thanks for this.

I don't have a really big problem with this, but I I I'm wondering why um there's such a large signage requirement in that I don't believe anybody is going, the public is going to the handy dart place to get a handy dart because that kind of defeats the purpose of having a handy dart.

So I I the public's not going there.

They just want to have their brand now.

Is that what I'm getting?

Correct.

Yes.

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you, Chair.

No, the same view.

The public's not going there.

And these these places are very easy to see on Google Maps.

Why?

I don't think uh I'll let Staff Thank you.

I just received some information that the public will be um attending this site to pick up bus passes.

So the public does need to know um the location of the handy dart site.

Okay.

Are these the I'm I'm wondering if uh these are the same size of shines that they have on the Gorge Road.

I cannot speak to what the sign is on Gorge Road, unfortunately.

I would yeah, I think that's quite necessary to have um before we make any motions in this regard.

Let's do some comparative analysis and and see, because it seems to me that it's quite easy to find uh transit uh that on that location.

And again, Google Maps is pretty darn amazing.

Yeah, you can not only see the building, but you can also see where this you know, you're you're prompted to where the sign is.

And I'm also really wondering, what is transit offering as an incentive as a good neighbor to better our community?

Because we made lots of requests to BC Transit.

And a good example is the number four number 46.

We've asked them to boost it to regular bus service so our youth can get to the West Shore Parks and Wreck and be part of the programs there.

So I really would like to see uh some in um some, I don't know, quid po quo, some real recognition that they want to belong in this community, um, maybe even um make a donation of benches to the it's not really parkland, you know, the Watka Square is not parkland.

We don't own it.

We only got a 10-year lease on it.

So let's um uh I'd be curious if they've made any contributions to the park or to improving number 46 uh bus service.

Uh uh through the chair.

Leanne?

Um these comments have um aren't really related to the um purpose of the sign bylaw and the variances being requested for a sign.

Um that's a completely different issue.

Um uh and and it's not something that staff take into consideration when we're evaluating um variances to the sign bylaw.

Um and then the comment regarding um the signs on the Victoria buildings, uh the city of Torrey has has a completely different sign bylaw than the town of Uroyal.

Well, I I'm not sure what if I may, I'm not sure what those differences are.

And members, I would uh urge that we receive this and um um wait for transit to come and speak to this and see uh how much of a community member they would really like to be in this request of supersized signs.

Oh, councillor Brown.

Yeah, I don't want us to get into uh a trade war like what's going on with the United States and Canada right now.

I I I'll like to move the staff recommendation.

We have a mover.

Is there a seconder?

I'm not seeing a secondary for this.

Uh that motion uh will not proceed.

Mayor Tobias.

Then I'll move option two, which is to decline the application and see if I've got a secondary.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

Uh Meritobias for motivation.

Yeah, I I think if this was a frequented business that was um happening, I think I'd be more inclined to entertain this.

But seeing how this is just brand recognition, I don't see an exception to deviate from a normal bylaw.

Uh Councilor McKenzie.

Thank you.

Um and um I did look at their rationale, uh, why it was so essential.

And um quite frankly, those essential points were nice to have, but not essential.

Google Maps is just amazing.

Councilor McKenzie.

Yeah, along a similar vein there, I think it's not hidden amongst uh a number of other buildings.

It's very uh easy to find.

Um so I I agree.

I don't think the larger signage is required.

Staff has a comment.

So just clarification, um, because there's three variances there for two different signs, one of which is slightly larger, and then there's the two, so ones on the front of the building and ones in the rear.

Um and obviously there's three different variances, two for that, one in the rear, one is which is enlarging the sign, and the other is for the location.

And then the first one is for the location.

So can you provide clarification on whether the entire application is being declined?

Uh I put forward my uh intent, and the intent would be to uh allow the signage within our current bylaws.

So that would be applicable to both signs.

That clarification works for you, Counselor Rogers, seeing how you were the secondary.

Yes, I agree.

Okay, we got a motion on the floor.

Uh any more comments?

No.

All those in favor to decline.

Opposed.

Motion's passed.

That is declined, and uh we'll wait for staff to come back.

Thank you.

Uh I'd like to invite Superintendent Todd Preston to the podium, please.

Can I just uh I saw Councilor Matson wave his hand?

I just wish to clarify if he was voting uh to support the motion to decline, uh, or if he was voting to how he was voting, I guess is what I need.

For the sorry, yes.

Wish you clarify.

Okay.

Sure, yes, I was voting to decline.

I wanted to decline the whole building, but lost on that one.

We all lost on that one.

So all right.

Let the record show you're declining the sign.

Uh building separate.

I do not see you on my screen, Counselor Matson, but I will watch more astutely.

Uh welcome, Superintendent Preston.

Thanks.

You nice to see you.

Um it's been a number of months here actually since uh had the pleasure.

Okay.

How's that?

Is that a little better?

Uh thanks for having me.

So I'll just go through as uh as usual here.

I'll go through a few um a few notes here, and then I'll uh put it open for questions here for you.

So um some of the statistics that I've been able to glean here for the last number of months in January, uh specific to View Royal.

We wrote 12 no insurance charges uh in January, one excessive speed charge, three speeding charges plus 11 warnings, nine other warnings, and one impaired uh driving.

In February, we wrote uh five speeding charges, two speed warnings, three no no uh insurance, two no DL.

We went to three collisions and six other charges.

Um, as far as community engagement in January and February, we partnered with uh Join 529 Garage Program, which is an online bike registration program um that allows for residents.

I believe it started out of Vancouver PD.

Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but and allows residents to register their bikes for free.

The program uh then allows police officers to search the registry for lost and stolen bikes, which is obviously a huge problem, and especially given the fact that uh bikes are very expensive, uh, e-bikes, uh very costly these days, and a primary mode of transportation for many.

So we are taking this more seriously and looking at avenues to try to mitigate that.

Um, we hosted the 2025 Mount E Cup, which is our uh senior girls uh basketball tournament.

Uh 16 teams throughout Vancouver Island.

We uh enjoy tremendous community support for that tournament.

Hundreds of senior girls um uh playing a competitive uh game, uh two-tiered tournament, and it gives us a platform to have some just fantastic positive relationship uh building with uh not only them but the whole school.

We do uh demonstrations at the schools, we uh we feed them and uh obviously have relations uh with the parents and uh and teachers and coaches along the way.

Um we hosted a family day street hockey event across the street from the detachment.

Um officers played hockey with the members of the community and handed out hot dogs.

We the West Shore RCP and municipal staff took part in the 2025 Polar Plunge for Special Olympics, um which West R OP, Central Sanage, Sanitz, Victoria, Victoria Baila, Military Corrections all took part of, and we raised uh nearly $5,000 for that.

Uh, Community Indigenous Policing Unit hosted a coloring contest in honor of Pink Shirt Day with students from SD61 and 2, along with a few private schools.

Over 100 winners were chosen, and um they won prizes such as Art Kits and West Shore Swag.

And it's um happy to report that um obviously changes have come about with SD61, um, and the changes in their um policies surrounding police in schools has since uh changed.

So that's a positive uh win, in my respectful opinion.

Um, we attended the job fair trying to attract new recruits at uh Comosan College, and Corporal Brewer and Constable Hall from our community policing unit uh were coaching um hockey weekly at the Hockey for Youth program.

Any of the participants are students from grade nine and twelve, and so we're on the ice with those uh those kids again, just building uh positive relationships.

Some of the files of interest, January 2nd, uh we were on Vancouver Island Railway.

We reported an unknown suspect cut the hinges on the railway uh control box and some wire was stolen, about five thousand dollars worth of damage.

January 6th, the cyclist versus a um a vehicle uh with uh injuries on Admiral Road.

Um the cyclist made an unsafe lane change, and they uh although the driver attempted to stop, was unable to do so, and that individual was taken to hospital for January 7th.

Uh hospitals uh officers attended a house uh fire on Damon Drive with EHS and URL fire.

Um, thankfully to the fire department.

Uh all occupants got out of the house with no injuries.

Um we believe that there may be um uh arson, maybe uh um in we are investigating arson at this point.

Uh January 17th, approximately 3 p.m.

Cole received multiple crisis lines from a suicidal youth.

Um we found that youth at Portage Park with an edged weapon, threatening to harm themselves if the officer and the and our nurse was there.

The officer spoke with the youth for approximately 10 minutes, and when the youth began harming themselves, uh a physical struggle ensued to get the blade away from the uh the youth.

The officer unfortunately sustained uh a cut uh as a result of that.

The youth was apprehended, and and you know, I guess the frustrating part here is the youth wasn't actually um certified.

And so that youth was released, and six days later the same youth was reported suicidal again, found uh at a park, and once again had an edged weapon.

Uh multiple members attended and tried to de-escalate the situation.

The youth began self-harming, and this time a um the CEW was deployed, uh a taser, if you will, um, and the individual was taken into custody without any injury.

Uh January 27th, uh, we've had a report of a mischief to TelusPipe uh where our fiber optic cable was also cut, uh, located on the Ian Alan Rail or trail near Helmaken and Pheasant Lake, most likely around 2 a.m., and that caused a telus service outage and between five and ten thousand dollars worth of damage, and we have no uh uh no suspects to date on that one.

Uh February 5th, we had a uh sudden death, an adult female in an apartment.

Um, it was initially deemed suspicious, but after a um significant investigation involving the coroner and medical personnel, um, it's no longer believed to be suspicious.

February 7th, a call out of a disturbance on the 300 block of Island Highway.

A female um was in distress.

We were able to um locate the female, but the male that was involved had departed the uh the scene.

Uh we related later located that individual and took that individual to custody uh for breaching their conditions on three different uh accounts.

The February 11th, the report of a person who stormed out of a doctor's appointment, possibly making suicidal comments.

Metal health units located the SOC and spoke with them.

They had some mental health challenges, but resources were not set in place.

Um our nurse uh and a subject of a complaint completed the forms together for the community outreach program to the uh RGH to get proper supports in place.

So there's a classic example of where that mental health unit that we have is paying significant dividends.

Um it's the only unfortunate thing, like I've told other counts, is that we only we have two nurses, which uh they work four on four off, but we don't have 24 hour coverage with those nurses, which is unfortunate.

We feel very grateful that the province gave us those two nurses.

I mean, uh, we are very fortunate.

I understand there's uh restraints everywhere.

So uh just a few more here.

February 16th, we had multiple uh reports of uh possible shots heard near Shoreline Drive.

Members attended uh and heard fireworks coinciding with the complainant calling.

So um we believe that it was fireworks likely at the time.

Um February 23rd, request for assistance by the military police with a group of intoxicated males on 1200 block of Admiral's Road.

We arrested individuals there for intoxication.

March 2nd, security at uh VGH reporting uh a security staff member is being assaulted, being punched in the face by a youth patient who's being released from hospital.

The suspect was located and arrested for insult.

Uh March 1st, a distraught female showed up at the View Royal Fire Hall claiming to be trafficked uh females and significant mental health issues.

Again, our mental health team attended.

Uh apprehension was made, and a four and a half hour wait at the hospital, unfortunately.

Um, I'll pause there with those, and I'll just give you some other quick stats here and open it up for questions.

Our file load uh year over year for the last uh two months, January, February, uh marginally a 1.3 uh percent increase, so very marginal in terms of increase for file load.

30 percent decrease in um uh violent crime.

However, I think if you refer to the vi uh the uh annual report, you you were up significantly in violent crime year over year uh in the 2024 report, unfortunately.

Um last couple months has been 22% decrease in uh property crime.

The casino, there was no um no change year over year, January, February from last year.

We've gone in the first two months 52 times to the hospital, which is a six percent increase compared to last year.

And I think I'll pause there and open it up for uh for questions.

Uh thank you, Superintendent.

Uh Councillor Brown.

Just wonder how the high brown boot collection is going.

Yeah, yeah, that's uh for those that aren't aware, yeah.

The uh the RCP and Depot um they're having problems sourcing uh high browns, which is our the boots, the the brown boots that we wear.

So we've been doing a collection through retirees uh and other members that have spare boots to send to Depot right now.

I think it's just a procurement issue.

It's uh it will be resolved in short order, I'm told.

Yeah, I donated mine.

Uh if you ever listened to Steve Martin, the comedian, and did a skit on uh curl shoes, that's what the boots were like to me.

Anyways, happy to get rid of them.

That's good, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, Councilor Rogers.

Party cameras.

When are they uh likely to be uh implemented?

Uh uh we were told the latest we've been told was uh June a rollout in uh the West Shore, but that is uh flexible dating.

Yeah, June, what year?

Yeah, no, it should be this year.

They've started to roll them out all over the place here.

So okay, good.

Um what are the um at police attendance numbers like at uh the casino?

How we is it up, down, the same?

The the casino.

I believe we had the same as uh in the last two months.

We've been to the casino one sec here.

Uh thirteen times in January and February.

And that's the same as last year at the Okay, good.

Yeah, right, great.

Um I was um my wife was at VGH um in the emergency area along with uh my mother and uh suddenly a great kerfuffle that uh someone had been stabbed in the waiting room um is that something where the uh RCMP would uh would come to um resolve that or deal with that or is that the police of jurisdiction so yeah obviously the Victoria General um we would deal with and Royal Jubilee Victoria would uh would deal with but um yeah obviously if it's crow if it border if it crosses over into criminal code into not, you know, not a security measure, but somebody's being stabbed or uh risk of imminent death or injury, then yeah, the police would certainly be involved.

Well, we often see um certainly again well there there were a number of different um police detachments, different officers taking individuals in.

Um is that something where a circumstance like that where the officer, even if they were from a different municipality, would uh assist and step in?

Absolutely, yeah.

We're we have a fantastic relationship with all our uh municipal partners, and yeah, we're all one brother and set of brothers and sisters out there.

So absolutely.

Thank you.

Okay, not seeing anything else.

Um do you have anything else to share, Superintendent?

No, just uh again, uh continued support from this council is uh is absolutely outstanding and uh much appreciated.

So thank you very much.

Well thank you for your service and uh oh I understand there's still a meeting next uh Wednesday.

Uh I don't have it on my I don't have my calendar in front of me here, but yeah, I I know we have a town hall coming up here to to discuss uh priorities, yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks very much.

All right, we'll move down to 8C development permit for for Helmoken Road.

Thank you once again, Councilor Polic.

So the purpose of this presentation um is to present the development permit application for for Helmkin um to construct a small-scale multi-unit housing uh development for a total of four units.

So the subject property is located between Helmkin Road and Conard Street, just past Eagle Creek.

The front of the property is facing Helmkin and the rear is off of Canard.

The zoning bylaw defines the front as the shortest lot line, so hence Helmkin is the shortest, which is important for this application.

So the subject property is approximately 591.5 meters squared, which is just over 6,000 feet squared.

The purpose of the current sorry, the property is currently zoned R1B, which is the detached residential medium lot.

And this application follows the site standard B2 requirements found in Schedule E of the small-scale multi-unit housing regulations of the zoning by law.

So the development consists of four units, and each dwelling unit consists of three bedrooms and a private balcony slash patio.

There is a shout outdoor amenity space located at the rear, or I should say the front of the property, sorry, which you can kind of see at the top of the screen there.

Um, and slight gray accents around the windows and doors.

There is two ground oriented units that are set back from the road, which helps provide a positive pedestrian experience in streetscape.

And there is secure bicycle parking and physical visitor, sorry, bicycle parking provided on the property, which you can kind of just see there are located right underneath the stairs.

So the proposal addresses key for main character design guidelines within the mixed residential development permit area, such as addressing the public realm through contributing to a positive pedestrian friendly streetscape.

The building design promotes eyes on the street through the provision of entrances and windows and patios and balconies facing the street as well.

And each unit has their own private balcony, as mentioned, which also looks over the roads.

The building also incorporates some crime prevention through environmental design concepts, such as lighting, clearly defining private, semi-private, and public spaces and appropriate sight lines and passive surveillance.

The development has a traditional pitched roof line, and the massing and sighting of the development aligns with the immediate uses of the neighboring properties, which are both two-story single-family homes.

The surface parking is located at the rear of the property off of Canard and incorporates permeable features such as pavers and concrete.

The parking is also screened from the neighboring right next to Canard as well.

So this is an image of the massing along Helmkin Road, which kind of looks at the neighboring properties.

You can kind of see the roof line is in the middle of the two.

The applicant's arborist has identified 10 trees on the subject property, eight of which are considered protected trees underneath under the town's tree protection by law.

Five of these trees have been identified for removal due to the trees being located within the building footprint, driveway, or utility servicing areas.

And five trees will be planted on the site, which is half of the required tree replacement.

Um, however, the arborists has stated that there's simply just not enough room to plant all of these replacement trees.

So the location of these replacement trees and/or categor cash and loo amounts will be determined as part of the tree permitting process.

However, the mature Douglas fir tree fronting Lake Canard, which is right at the very top.

Um, which I don't even know if you'll be able to see that.

Right at the very top, um, will be maintained as well as right by the entrance of the driveway.

There's a huge pine tree there.

Um, and both of these will help maintain the existing tree canopy and street appearance.

So our recommendation today is that council authorize the issuance of development permit, or sorry, that committee recommend to council to consider the following motion, which is council authorize the issuance of development permit 2024 06 for for Helmkin Road in accordance with the plan submitted on February 18th, with the caveat that the plans be revised to indicate that the parking spaces and the bicycle spaces will be energized.

Thank you, staff.

Some questions.

Counselor Matson has a question.

Go ahead, Ron.

Thank you, Chair.

I was wondering about the total square footage for the or the square footage of each of the properties and the total.

And I'm assuming they uh it falls under our our maximum allowed for these units.

Correct.

Um so each of those units do meet the requirement.

Um unfortunately my table is very small, so bear with me a moment.

Yes, so it the area per unit is approximately um 92 92 feet squared, I believe, is with the requirement.

So it's just under the allotted amount.

Okay.

I was just wondering like could you multiply that out for us for people up here at five thirty minimum?

Number square three.

Sorry, two, which shows the um the total, but it does say for the lower flow area that it's a hundred and sixty-five meters or sorry, hundred and sixty-five point eight six meters square, or that's approximately two thousand um square foot for the bottom floor, and it's the same for the top.

Okay, stem along the line.

I remember the a total for the whole lot you know 3800 square feet.

So I was just curious about that for stuff.

Sorry, can you repeat that, Councilor Madison?

Sure.

When we're doing this setting that there was a maximum square footage set for the entire lot, and I thought it was around thirty, eight hundred square feet.

All right.

So through through the chair, the the maximum floor building floor area for this particular lot is 372 square meters, which I will do the conversion for you, but it's well just over yes so it's just over four thousand uh square feet which means each unit really can exceed a thousand square square feet and um miss curtis has confirmed that each unit is approximately 990 square feet so it complies with the zoning bylaw okay thank you very much my only other comment is I'm delighted to see we were able to get three bedrooms uh per unit in that maximum strike one in favor of uh small, more affordable units.

Thank you.

Councillor Brown.

Sorry for my ignorance, but you haven't had a lot of these.

Um would they be would these be rentals or would could they be if someone has a lot like that and they they build like a fourplex, they'd have to um well not subdivide, but they'd have to have individual addresses.

Uh so I'm not sure exactly how it works.

I'm sure we're gonna get more of these.

So they'd still all be underneath that same parent address.

But but it could be sold as individual units, or are they or they have to be rentals?

I'm not sure how that works.

Uh through through the through the chair, um we do not regulate tenure, so it could be either rental or strata and I believe these units are strata, am I correct?

The applicant um at this moment hasn't really informed me on whether they are rental or strata.

Yeah but it's not a it doesn't form part of the um development permit because we're just looking at form of character not housing tenure.

Okay great thank you counselor rogers thank you um the heat pumps is it well I see it there's HVAC HVAC units are those are the same as heat pumps.

I do not know the answer to that question, Council Rogers.

Yeah, so if heat pumps, there's some some confusion about what heat pumps and HVAC units are, where are the heat pumps?

So through the um through the chair, the um the applicant will must um demonstrate that at the building permit stage in terms of ensuring that this building that meets the zero carbon level four.

And so I I don't know if it's going if yeah, they'll have to demonstrate the building permit in terms of how these buildings will be um energized.

Okay, to be uh determined.

Uh what step code uh is this building?

Uh it will have to meet um level energy step code level three for part nine.

Okay.

Good that's great, thank you.

I'm um I notice with concern uh that um all the noise and aggravation is going is directed to the east side, number 11.

Um the patios, um the bikes, the garbage, the gates, the even the entrances uh up and down in and out of the building, all focused on the poor folks on 11.

Do we get an opportunity or give an opportunity for neighbors to um uh voice uh a thought on uh the development that's happening next door to them?

Through the chair, um there is no public hearing opportunity for development permits.

No notice, no invite.

Looks like I got another house visit to do.

That's unfortunate.

Um, because I'm I'm certainly concerned about um, you know, you would have thought that we could have the applicant could have built it with uh greater consideration and and sharing uh the strain, as it were, uh, between uh the two adjacent houses, single houses.

Um oh, staff have got a comment.

Yeah, I just wanted to note that um it is tricky because um there is desire to protect those large trees, the one on Helmkin is also the one on Canards.

So we are in terms of driveway um location, there are there are some uh constraints with the site.

So to ensure that those large trees are protected as part of this development.

Yes, I I see that, and that that certainly is a valid point for half the problem.

Um uh anyway, I would uh I would have hoped that we'd seen a more considerate design.

So, what would the height of the fence be for these poor people on number 11?

Seeing as this is the rear of the property.

Seeing as this is the rear of the property, they could have a full height fence.

So that is just underneath the three feet mark.

Sure, that would be like six feet.

Yeah.

Sorry, six feet.

Yes.

Could they make an application?

Um that'd be interesting.

Could they go higher with the variance if uh if they were to approach number 11 and said, yeah, sure, build the sky.

The applicant could choose to submit a variance for a height to the fence if they really wanted to.

Um, however, at this time they have not done so.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna move over to uh Meritobias, who I think was next in line.

Thanks, staff.

I'm I'm in support of this.

I think it's been through the committee, and it's good to see the first output or demonstrable kind of project uh from the the bylaw that we created.

So I'm I'm happy to see that.

And this is in my in in my neighborhood, so uh I I think a hostplex is really innovative and kind of appropriate to uh blend in with the rest.

Uh my only concern is our sidewalk ends on Canard, um uh just on the other side of Camden Green, uh which is 13 Canard Street, and then we it stops, and then we've got six, um, and then we got eleven.

I didn't see a sidewalk kind of plan for eleven.

Uh I noticed that they've got a plan to maybe do some pavers out to the road or whatever.

I'm just wondering what our policy might be to connect these properties to sidewalks.

Thank you, um Mayor Tobayas.

Through the chair.

Um the applicant will be required to provide some road improvements along the Conard side in front of their property.

Um, and from my understanding, there's a little bit that needs to be done at some point later on for for Helmkin.

Um engineering will be looking at those civil plans at time of building permit to ensure that they meet the the subdivision and development servicing by law.

Uh Councillor McKenzie was actually uh in line.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Um, so to confirm, it's only pedestrian access from Helmkin, and they'll be doing a staircase there.

And so I assume it's at the cost of the developer to um make the changes to that the railing that's currently there.

Uh yeah, thank you, Chair.

Um, yeah, there's there actually shows on the drawings that the stairs encroach into the road right-of-way.

So it's part of the building permitting and our um for development servicing.

We won't actually allow them to put stairs into our road right-of-way.

So that will be adjusted.

Um, it will all should be contained within the property.

But that said the access would have to be done as part of this development to ensure that it's safe not only for them but also for those that are walking along Helmkin.

Okay and that would be at their cost or would it be at ours?

Uh yes um through the cherry it would be 100% at the cost of developer.

And sorry, may I ask another one if unless there's other Well I think I've set precedent.

There's been people that asked me the whole question, yes.

Thank you.

Um this is more of a general one uh to be honest.

So this is the probably the third variance we've seen for an incr or decrease in the maneuvering aisle um for a permit that we've seen in recent um memory.

Sorry, there are no variances associated with this application.

Oh, am I looking at the next one?

Oh, sorry.

Councilor Rogers.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

I'm kind of missing the whole thing with sidewalks.

So the um they've got the fronting two streets, Helmaken and Canard.

Which sidewalk will the um uh applicant put in uh through the chair.

Um we look into into too much detail because the details are a time of building permitting.

They're required to do works on both sides.

However, it's up to staff to determine whether or not um cash and lieu or deferral uh would be reasonable, which maybe for Helmkin.

And uh the Friday Friday shown on as part of his application is uh not per the bylaw.

So when building permit comes in, the town will make sure that uh whatever design is in accordance to our subdivision development bylaw 985.

Yes, certainly we have been the first, I'm I'm really curious to know, again, happy to know what the step codes are, but um also uh what DCCs we would be uh we'd collecting.

Uh do we collect CACs?

You know, just DCCs?

Yeah.

And uh one of the big problems that we have about $18 million worth of sidewalks, and view all that we have to do is sort of sidewalk tax uh if it's not covered in a DCC.

Certainly it's about time to happen.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh Councilor Brown.

I'd like to move the staff recommendation.

Moved by Councillor Brown, seconded by Mayor Tobias.

Any further motivation, Councillor?

No.

Mayor Tobias, no?

Yeah, yes.

I I just wanted to say this is the first one that we've done, so I'm kind of happy to see it go after we spent a lot of time with committees and uh and staff work and getting the budget uh ready.

And the housing minister was very concerned about our bylaw being prohibitive and not being allowed.

It's just gonna be good to see a demonstrable here.

It is, here's what we built, and uh and it does work.

Uh and just um yeah, it was brought up to me today that um there was some concern about a decrease.

I think Councilor McKenzie uh had put it out that it was concerned about decrease and only allowing a thousand square feet there.

Five out of the eight designs that the ministry actually delivered were around a thousand square feet to us to kind of follow.

Um so just um yeah, it's just good to see it, and I'm excited that um uh this is a type of gentle densification I think that would blend in pretty much anywhere.

Okay, any more comments?

If not seeing any, all those in favor?

Opposed.

Seeing Councillor Rogers opposed.

Counselor Madsen, were you in favor or opposed?

Yes, I was in favor.

In favor.

Let the record show Councillor Rogers opposed.

Motion carries 8D development permit with variances application for 296 Eltham Road and 242 Helmkin Road.

Thank you, Chair.

We're just going to bring up the presentation there in a minute.

This is a development, this is an application for a development permit with experiences for the property at Alpha, a corner intersection of Altham and Helpkin Road.

Council may recall this property was rezoned in October to uh to permit townhouse type use.

The proposal is for um is for five um uh five buildings um with uh with 20 units altogether.

Next slide, please uh the units would be accessed by a central driveway oh sorry I might be a little bit lag in our in our presentation here uh so the uh the buildings would be accessed by a central driveway from from Eltham uh the units would be three stories and feature uh rooftop terraces the units facing the street would have injurial individual front entrances uh and um and private sort of small private yards as well.

Next slide please uh the buildings would be kind of contemporary in style and would feature um hardy hardy type siding, the combination of kind of a wood look and more of a panel uh panel look as well.

Next slide please.

The project uh generally complies with the uh farm and capture development permit requirements of the mixed residential development permit area uh guidelines including um the articulated facades with you know different surfaces uh it would have roof varying rooftop heights and again individual entrances that engage the street next slide please a number of variants three variances are requested uh the first one is for building height uh at the time of rezoning um the the in creating the zone unfortunately the height requirement was was miscalculated and the proposal uh so the zone was instituted with the required height of 11.25 meters uh these are the same buildings uh that were presented at the uh time of rezoning the proposed height is actually 11.78 meters uh the buildings that required the height variants that are closer to helmkin Helmkin Road.

And the reason for that is because uh the site slopes from uh helmkin road towards uh the ash the gate townhouses at the rear.

As part of the site prepping the site it would be uh it would be kind of leveled so that the buildings closer to Ashley Gate would be lowered and the uh the buildings closer to Helmkin would be a little bit higher.

So that's where the 11.78 meters is required for the furthest building.

Staff support the proposal because it is the same building layout that was shown at the time of rezoning.

Next slide please a request for maneuvering aisle width is required.

7.6 is required, and the proposal is for is for six meters.

Now, in this case, it's a little bit different than the actual drive aisle width is six meters.

But in this case, the the layout of the buildings is such that the garage entrances have aprons in front of them, so that every unit the space between garage doors will be more than 7.6 meters, but the actual width of the the drive aisle is six meters.

So the applicants provided a number of turning template on a couple of units to show how standard vehicles may still be able to enter and exit the site.

Again, there is room at the apron of both of all the all the garage entrances so that 7.6 meters is provided between between buildings.

Furthermore, it's a kind of a challenging site because there is a there's a uh approximately 75 to 80 degree kind of turn turn in it but the applicant has worked with the fire department so that actually if fire vehicle is able to to make the turn in the driveway and be able to back out.

Next slide please the final variance is for the uh location of a um of a trellis actually uh next slide please or oh maybe there's a leg.

Oh okay one slide back from that please there we go uh a trellis is proposed to be to locate it on the Eltham Road frontage at the zero lot line that's considered an accessory structure and typically accessory structures aren't um always supported in this case it is a landscape feature that provides um a gateway to sort of the a pedestrian entrance into the site and it's it's a trellis that kind of adds to the streetscape and marks the uh the entry to the uh one of the pedestrian entries to the to the site uh so that variance can can be supported on that basis um in terms of trees, because the site has to, because of the site alterations that are needed um most of the trees on the property would be removed and would have to be replaced in accordance with the tree by law.

Some additional trees are proposed on the site, but some additional cash and blue may be required to make up the uh the difference.

One other item to note is on the north side of the site, there is a site constraint in terms of there's a statutory right-of-way along the uh the north boundary with the north adjacent property that provides kind of a buffer to to them.

And um that will be a uh kind of a green area where um if necessary to repipe repair pipes in there, that area would be kept clear to allow equipment to access those pipes.

Um next slide, please.

The additional information to be required prior to council consideration include information on the fences and retainable heights to make sure there's no variances required.

Confirmation that lighting on the structure will be dark skies friendly.

Confirmation that the landscape plant selection installation maintenance and irrigation will meet the BC landscape standard, which is uh which is the standard that we have to make sure that uh plantings will be uh installed professionally and meet the standard for uh best chances for survival.

So the next slide, please.

The recommendation is to um essentially to receive the application to and uh conduct notice for council consultation once the additional information that's been requested has been provided thank you questions for staff council rogers uh yeah um i don't have any problems with the the variance requested but um i see this there's still an outstanding um measurements that need to be addressed, the heights um um it does kind of worry me that we're we're going ahead and giving approvals for these.

And yet uh number b could be rather excessive variances that we won't approve.

So shouldn't we be considering all of this together?

Through the chair.

In this case, the permitted fence heights is six meters.

If you have a fence on top of a retaining wall, then it's measured to the base of the retaining wall.

The intent here is to provide privacy between neighbors.

In this case, because the if there's a variance, it's because the site uh might be a little bit lower than the neighbors, and there would be fences on top of the retaining walls.

So if I get it right, you're talking about the neighbors that are the single family dwelling to the north.

And to the townhouses behind.

Oh, and to the townhouses.

Okay, that's good.

Well, and thank you for mentioning that.

My next question.

Um to Ashley Gates and and um the new development proposal building one, are they going to have rooftop um gardens and and whatever that's going to be overlooking the uh residences of um Ashley Gates?

Uh through the chair, the the actually if we can go back to slide six or seven, please.

Okay.

Sorry, it's a little bit slow here.

Um so this uh I'm sorry the the drawing is a little bit small here, but the uh the building is um not as tall as Ashley Gate because it's lower on the slope.

Um the buildings are also located at an angle to the um to the adjacent neighbors at Ashley Gate.

So sorry, could you um do you have a more a point to that just so that we're on the same page, I you you are talking about the Eltham Road building one that's the closest to Ashley Gates, um right?

Uh for the share, yes.

So this is building one?

Yeah.

Okay.

And so do they do they have so you're saying they don't have uh a rooftop um uh every unit has rooftop terraces part of their which is the which is what the DP guidelines call for in terms of units having outdoor space.

Um again, also these buildings are located at an angle to uh to the Ashley Gate building, so they're actually not face-to-face.

Okay.

Thank you.

Not seeing questions here in chambers.

Councillor Madsen, do you have any questions?

No, I don't think these variances will make the project any worse than the one I voted against.

So that's I'm fine with some counselor Rogers.

My question is probably well, I'm sure it's not per term germane to the form of character, but my question is with respect to the um um the sales, the safety, and the congestion issues that um uh these new tenants will have um with respect to um getting out of uh Eltham onto Helmakon.

Um so refresh, I wonder if staff, I'm I'm you know, my indulgence please, but is there um left turns permitted from Eltham?

Uh through the chair, I'd be able to comment on that with respect to this development permit, um, most likely because I don't recall what the uh rezoning uh files have said.

So obviously, you know, we need to get this sorted out because if there's left turns permitted and the design that we see, the uh the roadscape uh that uh doesn't show any disseparation from left turn, right turn, and knowing the amount of traffic that's going to be added on to Ashley Gates and Lions Cove and all those other houses, um, I wonder if we can just be a little more proactive, much like we were proactive with Erskine Lane and Watchkins Way to ensure a fair egress and and minimizing accidents and congestion.

So um is maybe I should just make a notice motion for that to come to the next council.

Right.

That would probably be the best.

Done.

All right, looking for a member of council to look at the staff recommendation for 8D.

By Councillor Brown, seconded by Councillor McKenzie.

Would you like to motivate more, Councilor Brown?

No, I'm fine with the uh these small changes.

Counselor McKenzie.

All those in favor.

Opposed.

None.

Unanimous uh moving forward.

Let's carried eight e CAO financial plan insights 2025 to 2029 uh thank you chair and council um might seem unusual to have your CAO presenting financial insights you'll notice it's a bit light on numbers uh we do plan on having Troy Ziegler director of finance come next week uh with a more fulsome look into the figures uh purpose of tonight is to get some information in front of council uh generate some conversation, and maybe uh we can make some last-minute changes to the budget before we start presenting it next week um thank you.

I was in the woods for the last four days so uh thank you, Councillor Kualowich for filling me in on the news.

I think I listed six or seven crises that we're currently in.

Affordability crisis, housing crisis, homelessness crisis, climate, health care, poison drugs, and trade war tariff crisis.

It's a challenging time to put a budget together.

So again, uh the purpose of the report is to provide information and generate conversation.

So I'll walk you through this.

Some of it um many of you have seen many times before, the purpose of a financial plan, really more for the public's interest.

Um, what are what are we doing all this budgeting for and why the five-year plan?

Uh review of council strategic priorities that guide the plan, uh so our six priorities.

A bit of an infographic about the balancing act of local government and council between the density, stability of service, and wanting low taxes, particularly during these times we're in.

How's Uroyal doing compared to the other communities in the CRD.

We're middle of the pack as far as taxes and user fees.

We're we come in seventh out of the 13 municipalities.

BC Transit takes 7%.

Capital Regional District takes 6.

Regional Hospital takes 3.

BC Assessment and Municipal Finance take less than 1% between them.

Some information on our 2025 property assessments.

These are all subject to change.

April 1st, we get the revised assessment rule, which is another good reason not to do all your tax work before that date because you might end up doing it again.

In 2023, we issued 114 building permits for a total construction value of 166 million dollars.

The total residential class of View Royal, which makes up 91.2% of our entire assessment, we are very residential-based community.

The total is $4,141 million.

Those numbers start to become a bit difficult to comprehend, but the average single family home in View Royal is $1,095,000 in 2025, down 1.6% from $1,113,000 in 2024.

The average assessed value for a strata condo or townhouse in View Royal is $634,000, down 3.9% from $659,000 in 2024.

Business classes are up 6.1%.

They vary quite wildly in size.

Really hard to come up with an average business.

Quick stats again, middle of the pack for our multiplier, which is normally how you measure the ratio between residential taxes and business taxes.

That's based on uh an estimate of consumption of municipal services.

Um not not exactly a science, more of an art, but um that's where we are again, middle of the pack.

Um brief review of the other property assessment classes.

Uh class eight, recreational nonprofit, that's largely Fort Victoria, I believe, at uh $12 million in assessed value.

Class nine is farm assessment.

We have $7.4 million worth of assessed farms, $4.3 million in light industry, and less than $1 million, uh $906,000 in class two utilities.

Now I'll get into a little bit about the fees we collect.

Um garbage collection fees, uh, those are fairly straightforward.

I think there is a policy on how those will go up.

They have been going up $15, well, $10 a year, sorry, for curbside.

And they went up $20 for on-site garbage collection.

That direction was given to staff last year during our budgeting process.

Sanitary sewer collection.

This is very complicated.

And I think that's a really fair way of measuring how we charge the user fees for sewer.

All right, the alarm bells may start to go off when we look at casino revenue.

Um council in its wisdom has determined that uh we should be less reliant upon uh casino revenue to fund operations.

Um in 2024, we budgeted $2 million for our share of the revenue.

Um as you can see from the graph there, uh we haven't received $2 million in revenue since 2022, and there does seem to be a trend of it declining.

So when we, you know, there's a change of ownership, we can hope that it will get better and that the revenues will start to head in the right direction.

But it is something council should be aware of.

I believe we will be presenting a budget reducing that expected revenue downwards from 2 million to 1.9 million.

So probably $100,000 less in revenue, which equates pretty roundly to 1% tax increase.

We do have a policy on the use of casino grant funding that will reduce its use for ongoing operational services and focus the casino grant funding on acquisition, renewal, or replacement of municipal infrastructure, which I'll come back to later.

A little information on the purpose of the community works fund, which we used to call gas tax, for those have been around for a while.

It's distributed to all municipalities in BC on a per capita basis.

So we do have some surety in those numbers going forward to the 2028, 2029 year.

As well as a list of eligible projects for the sorry, I almost called it the gas tax, the community works fund.

I touched on some of the smaller grants, uh, the small communities grant, um, for assistance in providing basic services for communities under 19,000 in population, traffic fine revenue sharing, uh, the growing communities Fund, which is um largely sitting intact, and Troy will come back and uh have some creative ways to tap into the Growing Communities Fund.

The LG CAP is another one that uh we've been tapping into quite regularly.

Um, sorry, local government climate action program.

It's a lot of acronyms in this business, so I'm trying to sort them out.

Uh we have an enviable debt position.

Uh, we only have two debt issues right now on the books.

Um I believe they're both related to the fire hall, and one of them matures next year.

So I will come back to that.

But when that debt retires, that will free up uh a fair amount of uh revenue to be put towards other projects or debt reduction.

Uh what will be driving this year's budget increases uh as usual.

Number one is RCMP.

Cost per officer has gone up 7.5 percent.

Um, could be related to body cams.

There's uh different portions of their union contract, um, signing bonuses, retroactive pay, that sort of thing.

But uh we can expect for the same number of officers, we will be paying seven and a half percent more in 2025.

As well as discussed with council earlier this year, um the municipal support employees.

Um we we've been asked to pay our fair share, and we have signed an agreement that we will pay based on a percentage of the officers.

So we're still waiting for figures from Langford.

Although we call them municipal employees, they're actually Langford's employees and we contract Langford to provide those municipal employees for us.

Some information on the detachment expansion.

So I've been coming to council and sort of giving you tidbits of information.

It will be August before we have sort of a no go or go on that building.

It's an 87 and a half million dollar expansion of which V Royal expects to pay about 16% with our partners Langford and Callwood.

So some information we are working on a web page which will have more details as they become available.

Right now we're not sure if that will just be a standalone webpage for the project or if each community will have a link to its own its own information but we will be sharing that information as it becomes available.

The ecom 911 dispatch I I suppose when uh counselors went to UBCM last year and Minister Farnworth said there would be good news on this file, we all expected that that cost would be absorbed.

It's four and a half million dollars for the province.

Um, they have dug their heels in, and despite the fact that they are reviewing it, and there are some some issues with it, um, there is no reprieve in site.

So we expect to be budgeting for it.

And uh I don't expect that the the new minister will will come and say it's okay, you don't have to pay for that.

Um there's been a letter writing campaign.

Uh 10 South Island municipalities have been affected by this.

Um it's it's about a two and a half percent tax hike just for 911 services.

So there are municipalities in the lower mainland that pay for it.

Uh the rest of the province does not pay for 911, and uh it's a considerable bill.

Uh it will be phased in this year.

It's 276,600 for the remaining three quarters of 2025.

But going forward in 2026 through 2029, there's a wide range of estimates for what it will cost.

But um we're looking at uh you know close to close to half a million dollars by the end of this budget term.

Uh bit of a service review on uh on the services we provide here.

Um, View Royal Fire Rescue.

Um, Chief Hirst, still here, good.

Um we we have a great fire department.

Um there's been a recent transition over to a unionized department and new staffing model.

I've provided some information in this report on what that looks like.

Um numbers are still settling their way out.

Chief Hearst also manages bylaw enforcement, and we also contract out the animal control to the CRD.

Transportation Services probably our second highest cost internally next to fire department.

It's about a three million dollar budget last year.

Of the engineering and parks budget.

General government includes corporate and min, finance, IT, public relations, and maintenance of the town hall and the grounds.

Just a bit of a list of things that happen in that department.

That's basically town hall upstairs.

And then Dev Services, Development Services led by Leanne Taylor.

$942,000 budget in 2024.

Leanne also handles the economic development portfolio, which is not well funded at $30,000, but we do the best we can with that.

We have some partner agencies we deal with, West Shore Parks and Rec.

We've approved their budget back on January 21st, so that's baked into this year's budget.

A modest increase of 2.88%.

As usual, Whispers is doing a great job, and we're very happy with the services there.

Greater Victoria Public Library.

We've approved their budget, a 4.3% increase.

We are part of the Central Shore Service Area along with Victoria, Esquamalt, and Oak Bay.

So we are a little less west shore.

We are making some inquiries about the option to perhaps join West Shore Library Services and be more aligned with Langford and Collwood.

And last but not least, a bit of an excerpt from our sustainable infrastructure replacement plan.

So back in 2022, that's the numbers I'm providing here.

And it also recommends a path to get to that $4.9 million a year.

A dedication of casino revenue of half a million of that.

12 years of 1% tax increases towards infrastructure replacement, increasing sewer utility rates by 5% per year for five years.

When the debt is retired, which one of them is retiring in 2026, contributing the same amount to the capital renewal reserve, and then utilizing non-market change, which is taxation resulting from new construction to increase the reserves.

So the uh cross-departmental asset management group working group here has uh has been working towards putting more details into this plan and updating these figures.

Um those will likely be coming sometime after the budget is complete.

But just for earmarking, uh council should keep it in the back of their mind that 4.9 million dollars is a magic number just to maintain our existing infrastructure.

That's not new bells and whistles.

Um that's that's just the amount that should be put in the reserves each year.

So I have uh run out of wind, so I will leave it there and uh look forward to hearing council's thoughts on what I put before them this evening.

Thank you, Chief Administrator.

Well thank you for your detailed report.

Councillor Brown, I think you're first.

Just one quick question.

On the debts, is that uh are those fixed or variable?

I assume they're fixed terms.

They're they're through the bond market so they reset um every five or ten years.

I'd I'd have to look into that but um there there's not typically wild fluctuations and we do we do expect to see the the second debt come down um before the end of the term.

Great.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Councilor Rogers.

Yeah.

Um so when are we going to be meeting to discuss the the budget in great detail?

We'll be meeting next week.

Uh that will be Troy's last meeting.

So we'll be doing it in a regular meeting.

What?

Yeah.

We're not going to have a dedicated um full on three hour session on a Wednesday, Tuesday or Saturday.

I didn't I didn't say we wouldn't be doing that.

Our next budget meeting is next week in a regular meeting.

We'll see how far we get and uh how many comments and suggestions we get um to change from what you see next week and we'll schedule it from there.

I imagine we'll we'll have a few uh you know maybe not the Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday session, but yeah I know, I I appreciate the report that we got, and it's a good uh thing to hold the mirror backwards and and it caused me to run to my 2004 budget um binder and start looking at this and and to uh not only see this, but also to see the projections that we were um you know estimating out to the different uh capital projects.

And I'm uh really concerned about um you know the the cream that we have in capital projects, the optimum pro capital projects that um aren't um you know maybe as high profile as the essentials that we uh have to think about.

And so um that that's one of the aspects I'm gonna be looking at very carefully.

Um yeah, I'm not particularly happy that we're the lowest taxes in um uh in uh the CRD.

I appreciate you giving us a breakdown of the residential.

I would like to see the similar uh breakdown of um commercial um you know revenues that we're getting because um we're unlike Colwood and many other municipalities who have great wonderful commercial developments uh we're stagnant and I'm also deeply concerned that um our um I say our building report shows us that with only what four building starts um of the year so um reserves um are going to be of uh great interest um I note that um uh of the 1.9 million that we're likely to get in casino, and I don't think it'll change anywhere, yeah anywhere upwards in in 2025, of 1.9, 1.4 is spoken for.

So we only have half a million left, and it seems like we'd had committed 500,000, half a million, to um put into capital reserves.

So in answer to your question, historically why our casino, why we're taxable so low is because in those days, two million was a heck of a lot of money.

It ain't no more.

It's running out, and and those two um uh aspects are are going up.

So um with the police buildings with e-com, um I I would um one expect a double digit tax increase, and I would also expect that we look and uh severely on the capital projects that we've got and on what's realistic and um the important ones.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Council Rogers.

We we also rely on that prioritization list for the different capital projects, and I think um we are trying our best to keep it under double digits.

It's a challenge this year.

Um, but I I I hate for our residents to have sticker shock when they open their tax bill and and get more than they expect from us.

So is there a way to um balance that out and attenuate the the spikes and valleys of tax increases?

So there are no surprises when people open their tax bill.

A lot of the capital projects are things you have seen before.

We've sort of taken it upon ourselves to take a bit of an austerity approach.

We have a hard time getting through the number of projects we approve in any year.

But we paired it back a little bit.

How many projects and we prioritize based on on those project summaries that we've done?

So depending on how much time council wants to spend on those project summaries most of which they've seen before will really dictate how many more budget meetings we have counselor mattson yes thank you good report Scott um I I too am concerned about sticker shop this year and everything I've heard you say today it's gives me cost to about what the final numbers would be so I'm wondering if in your preparations do you present to council you could provide if staff are looking at sort of options where we can actually make reductions in cost um and our services.

I know don't like to do that, but it'd be good to have those options and if you make the decision based on how large a percentage increase it is.

Thank you.

Uh staff have tried to stay away from service cuts up to this point.

Um that's that's currently not on the table, but what's always on the table is uh cutting back your reserve contributions, unfortunately, um, and tapping into reserves.

So uh that's an easy way to balance the budget.

Um but yeah, we look forward to the the conversation.

Councillor McKenzie.

Thanks.

Um so despite the rising costs that you've mentioned, um I've heard anecdotally that other municipalities are actually decreasing their tax rates.

I know that none of them are finalized, but um, like Victoria, for instance, I don't know if this is a strategic thing for votes for uh next election or um so I I think though it would be helpful for me uh to know to kind of like do a scan to see what people are at tentatively, so that when we're doing ours, we have um, even though I know a percentage and the dollar amount is different for us, but it's good to have that information just when we're setting a goal for our uh tax percentage.

Um you know that's a tricky one, the the percentage way of looking at things.

Um we we tried to provide comparison to those those municipalities because a lot of them have had like I I won't name which one, but I believe they had a 17% tax increase last year.

And so yeah, if they can if they can bring it down to to 12%, that that's great.

Um but you know, having a s a nice straight line for your increases and tapping into your reserves and balancing your your reserve contributions and withdrawals over the long term, yeah, I think is is an admirable goal as well.

So um yeah, I I we are sort of collecting uh a spreadsheet of what other municipalities are doing, and we can we can provide that next week.

Councillor Brown.

Yeah, I just note that um several municipalities have already anticipated double digit increases.

Of course, City of Victoria, just the pool alone is going to be a big uh jump on their on their taxes.

So um it's a pretty bleak picture, other than the the fire hall's almost paid for, which is great.

Um thanks, thanks, Paul.

So that's almost done.

So that's that's good.

But we're gonna have to take it to me.

There's a lot of fixed costs that you can't really juggle around with it.

Um I agree with Councilor Councilor Rogers about the uh capital costs.

I think uh in spite of grants and everything, we have to take a really close look at some of those, and maybe um I hate to say putting stuff off because eventually a lot of that stuff has to be done but I think that's might be the one area we might be able to shave some money off thank you any other comments or questions for the CAO no staff recommendation is there motion to receive counselor brown seconded by counselor rogers all in favor that is received thank you HG Helmican Road at walk Us Way.

Sorry, Scott.

You're still up.

CAO report.

Up from there and sitting down sure yeah I didn't write the whole thing.

Uh so before you this evening is a departmental overview of things that uh the various departments have been up to this this last month, um really just to be received for information.

Question comment.

Oh sorry.

So I appreciate the the rocks that were added, the gravel that was added to the portage park.

I just had a question around the part of Portage Park, which is on the other side of the ENN.

In particular, there's the area by um the tunnel, which is often muddy.

And I'm not, I don't think we need to have pebbles everywhere, but like that in particular is is always muddy and actually a bit of a slip hazard, I think, for people.

So I wondered if there's anything that we can uh do there.

Um yeah, thank you, Chair.

Uh appreciate that question.

I know the location, not the exact location, so I'll relay that to staff.

Um maybe if you can send me an email just at engineering ural.ca and then we can kind of uh take a look at that.

Thank you.

Uh any other comments or questions from the CEO update?

Yep, John.

Thank you.

The um I note that uh the transit priority bus lanes um have moved on to near completion um asphalt paving and road markings.

And I I see the bus stop, um, they've got some pretty decent fencing that um uh is considerate for the neighbors behind.

But the rest of the um railing, this um is is wide open, and I would have thought that um both transit and highways would have been more considerate to the neighbors about um litter and debris that's gonna blow off the sidewalk and onto their properties.

Is there going to be um a ministry um initiative road maintenance of cleaning up the garbage that falls in the back there?

Uh uh through Chair Kualowich, um this is uh a town road, so the ministry is not included in this at all.

That said, when it comes to garbage cleaning, it'll generally be through the town to do.

And we can certainly take a look.

It's um it's the homes that's on Price Road, the ones that had the most concerns about their trees coming down and and now all the noise and uh I mean it's one thing that they're gonna be inundated with extraordinary extra noise.

Uh, but now they'll have insult injury with the the litter uh flying off uh down there.

So I wonder if if we could um I mean I know it'd looked gorgeous, but maybe we should all um take the initiative uh to provide snow fencing along there so it just collects along the sidewalk.

Uh through Terra Kowalowich, um the discussion regarding that interface is between the homeowner and BC Transit.

So that's been administered through them.

Um that said, uh we can certainly provide some anecdotal messages uh with respect to what the speaker is speaking to.

Can I get a motion to receive the CO report?

Uh Merit Tobias, seconded by Councillor McKenzie.

All in favor.

It's carried Ivan.

Almogan Road Walkers Way Intersection Protection Measures.

Thank you, Chair.

Ivan Lee Young, Director of Engineering.

This report was brought forward at the February 18th, 2025 regular council meeting.

However, I was unable to uh be here at the time.

So uh the discussion was tabled to whenever I can come back here to discuss.

So uh the report is back on this.

I made a couple of changes, and the reason why is because I've listened into some of the video uh deliberations at the February 18th meeting.

There were some comments about the intersection, about the queuing of the vehicles.

So what I did was I actually appended my previous report uh that was done in May 21st, 2024, which explains uh staff's recommendation on the option that should be taken to change the intersection.

And so at that time, that was what council approved.

Council will notice in that report that queuing and safety was incorporated into that report.

I believe also look at report now by reducing that northbound lane from two to one, there would be only a 20-second delay, and that uh the queuing wouldn't actually go significantly significantly that far.

Um that said, this new report is specifically with respect to just one small item on the intersection, which is what we call uh colloquially as the Calgary curve.

And so that was what we want council to kind of look at right now is whether or not council wants to have this one piece of curb installed at intersection, which is about one meter wide by about 2.5 meters long.

And it is used in many parts of Greater Victoria, even though it started off in Calgary.

If council wishes, I can certainly provide with them a list of locations where these Calgary curves are.

But that said, this is a what staff considers to be a good piece of inf a good piece of uh of a quick build to improve safety in the bike lane pedestrian area because the lane is relatively wide to allow for turning, left turning.

And we want to make sure that uh pedestrians and cyclists are offered a level of safety to help improve accessibility in that area next to the Galloping Goose.

But that said, I'm happy to take any questions with respect to the Calgary Curb and the reports before you.

I believe staff recommendation is that the committee recommend to council to approve a quick build traffic calming curb to protect northbound cyclists from intersection traffic within the Helkin Road at Watkiss Way intersection.

There is an alternative option, and that is that the committee recommended council to not install the quick build traffic calming curb.

Thank you.

Thanks, Evan.

Councillor Rogers.

You know, to me, this is more than just the question about whether there is this um uh quick build traffic calming hub curb.

To me, this is a three million dollar project.

It's the intersection that is the beginning of uh I think it was noted um item of the uh transportation.

Uh sorry, the alternate transportation plan.

So anyway, the term escapes me, but um the the the report speaks to one C, one D, and two B.

And you know, this is all part of the big picture, which is going to, if I understand, mean that we're going to close lanes and we're going across the bridge to Vicery, and that this is going to ultimately total to a $3.5 million project.

So this is just the beginning.

And what was initially in this uh, and that was back in 2003.

Sorry, the prices are based on 2023 cost estimates.

And um my concern is that by approving this, we will be approving the design, and we will now soon see that um there's not going to be any merge lane.

And when I uh you know, on the uh V royal side.

So all the traffic, there's no in the two lanes that are going down, there won't be two lanes, it would just be one lane, because one's already been taken up from the um uh the cycling situation.

And it doesn't, you know, this is all, it seems to me, a cycling focus.

And I have no idea how many cyclists are actually using this road.

We haven't got a cycling count.

And um, the good news is that we have a 2025 transportation master plan finally going.

We've got the terms of reference ready to go.

And, you know, quite frankly, members of council, can you afford 3.5 million without understanding what the transportation implications will be?

Because it it's not just a curb.

This is for the whole design.

And this is capital projects, this is gas tax, this is grants.

It was goodness gracious, you know, a whole bunch of money is gonna have to be poured into this, and this is all based on a um plan that was received, not adopted.

So when I looked at the 2024 optimum uh cost, 1.25 million for the intersection improvements of Helmakin and Watkas Gway.

1.2 million optimum costs.

And um as I just had said, um, and I congratulate Stefan in uh reassessing the operational sides, we have to do the same on the um um project side because our reserves are threatened.

So quite frankly, I do not recommend obviously this, and I don't rem recommend uh what we had uh uh supported back in 2024 because as staff have said, the environmental circumstances have drastically changed thanks to uh President Trump.

And I think we we need to take a so but not only that, a police building of our share cost 17 million, e-comm 1.3 million, and um and we're if we're gonna try to avoid these double digit costs, we had also made got to make sure that we're totally understanding that our residents fully support, and I would urge that we put this back as a survey question.

Are you happy to have these lanes disappear?

Are you happy to have the traffic back up onto Helmican?

So there are huge implications.

Do not accept this, your worship.

Members of council.

Councilor Brown.

I'll be quick, sorry.

Um I don't disagree with Councilor Rogers.

It's certainly one project I would put quite a bit lower on the uh on the scale.

There's a lot of other projects that uh to me should be further up on the priority list.

So that's just my own feeling.

I don't think it's uh well, I don't think it's necessary, absolutely necessary at this time.

I don't know how much this one curved costs, but if it does cut down lanes, I could see the concern for traffic flow.

Mayor Tobias.

Thank you, uh, Chair, and and thanks, Ivan, for this report.

And it gave me lots of room to think about it, and I appreciate what it's trying to do.

Um, I think what the neighborhood is actually looking for is both for pedestrian, the real safety concern there both for pedestrian and cyclists is getting across Helmkin safely, mainly to Eagle Creek or the hospital.

Um, right now, the current state is you don't have a left-hand turn um uh signal light.

So uh meaning that the people coming up Walk this way that are turning left onto Helmkin Road to go north, um essentially have the right of way uh and that when the light will turn green or the arrow will go away remain green and then the pedestrian light comes on which confuses drivers to say I've still got the right of way but it's green for the pedestrians so they start walking and um so that's where a toddler was taken off a bike um two years ago.

My neighbors will drive over there and I think I said this before because they don't feel safe enough to walk.

So I I appreciate what you're trying to do with the Calgary curve, but I would much rather invest whatever it causes to uh change that light to protect pedestrians going to grow off.

It's a four-way stop when not uh when the pedestrians could cross.

And we've just uh supported more units on Camden and Helmkin that will all exit out Canard, but there's no left turn lane uh or light, right?

So you can't take a left from Camden, and you still can't take a left from Chancellor.

So really we've boxed everybody in there with no safe way to exit onto Helmkin South.

So I think we would be um seen as heroes in the neighborhood's eyes if we could just fix the light.

I think uh as a stop crap.

If uh that was an alternate motion or Ivan there was something else gonna come along with that I'm just curious.

Uh thank you chair.

Uh with respect to that recent comment um council already approved that upgrade actually at May at the May 2024 before the signals in the intersection.

So we don't need to reinvent things there.

That's already isn't incidental.

Um should council wish to make changes to that and not put it in then we can certainly look at that but I think to meet the spirit of what you're speaking it's already been approved by council last year.

Yeah.

Uh point of uh clarification on how this intersection impacts uh the potential future upgrades on Helmkin Road all the way down to Vicery uh council will will recall at uh the May meeting that uh staff have confirmed that these upgrades will not impact the ability to do any kind of upgrades for the down south towards Vicery and Helmkin Road.

I'll repeat that again that uh any upgrades that this is being proposed right now uh will not impact the town's ability to make upgrades on Helmkin Road down to Vicery.

Um and then just speaking with respect to, and that's just with respect to the previous uh approval that council had.

Um, for the Calgary curb uh should council wish to not put it in.

Um, I mean, it's not it staff it can certainly support that as well.

It will put the level service of safety of pedestrians and cyclists to probably existing conditions.

Um, but we can certainly not have one in there.

Um, I think that's I think that's all I really wanted to kind of provide clarification for the committee here.

Um, but yeah, happy to take more questions.

Uh Mayor Tobias.

Sorry, just uh another, and I guess this is more of a comment than a question.

Um, given the fact that we've got a development permit going in where the Helmkin market is right now, uh, that will be significant.

That also includes the house next to it.

Uh, not a development permit, a rezoning uh uh um application in.

In we've got the um townhouses going in on the other end of uh by count uh Camden and Helmkin, and then the recently within the past month, the strip of houses, and I think there's five houses have come up for sale on Helmkin.

So my there's gonna be a lot going on here, and I don't think it's probably the right time to invest a lot of money into this right now, because uh the there could be a couple of things.

Number one is that place needs an adequate sidewalk and that needs to get sorted out.

Um uh council Rogers mentioned the concern about condensing that lane down, even though it's not perfect now uh by any stretch, because that two-lane goes into one lane just about where Camden is and causes accidents there.

But I think given the uncertainty, uh colleagues, I would just suggest we hold fire on making any decision about this right now, just until we know what's gonna go in there.

So we don't have to do it again.

Because um I think we've already redone things a couple of times, especially with the spire going in and the boulevards and stuff.

Can't keep a boulevard in there uh because we're always ripping it out to do something now because we're going so fast.

So that that's my only point is that um uh my plea is to uh just hold fire on this one until we see what's actually gonna go in there on the next little walk.

Thank you.

Steph.

Councilor Manson.

Just going to staff, Ron, then you.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Yeah, so uh just for the committees um just to give committee an update so that it'll help inform on the direction the council.

Uh based on the approval that council gave last year, I'll tell you how what's how staff has proceeded.

So based on that approval we have uh accelerated the design to about a uh 60% which is like a not a functional design but it's enough to get grant approval and um with council's direction, we did apply for grant funding on um this intersection.

We don't know what's come out of that, but uh regardless, we've accelerated that.

Um at this point, uh we have stopped the design until this committee meeting and the ensuing council meeting because uh we'll need to know whether or not we should proceed to giving these designs to the Ministry of Transportation and Transit for their ultimate approval.

Basically, what we have been doing is trying to uh get their approval and then go to 90% and 100% for the purposes of building in 2025.

I believe it's in the in the schedule for this year.

So uh I just want to let you know that that's how we proceeded based on council's previous approval.

So should the should the committee wanted to provide alternate direction, the council, um, we'll need to have some sort of resolution to make those changes.

Councilor Matson.

Yeah, I I can understand some of the concerns of my colleagues, but I don't think those concerns really have much to do with the or Calgary Curb.

This is uh an inexpensive short-term fix.

We get to pilot the Calgary Curb is going to help pedestrians and cyclists.

And once we get to see how one of these works, if need be in the future, it's uh not going to cost much to remove it.

I just don't understand why very reticence and um supporting staff's recommendation on this.

Councillor Rogers.

Yeah, um Council Messenger, it's uh from what I don't know if what you were specifically speaking to was this particular curve, but it's not just the curb.

The the whole issue is Project C 128 at the cost of 1.25 million dollars.

And um as uh the mayor's just pointed out, um it's really it it seems to have a very significant focus on cycling and not as much a focus on pedestrian concerns about being able to cross um to Eagle Creek and back and and all the traffic having egress and the the traffic implications um when we first initially thought of this back in 2023, a whole different scenario.

I cannot believe the congestion that we are seeing on this road.

And um, you know, frankly, I would want to hear from Ministry of Highways how they would feel about um closing off that road and all the uh congestion backing up.

Because it it it really is providing um w that backup is gonna happen all the way up to the in to the interchange.

And members of council, I think we have to walk this.

This is one of those things we have to get boots on the ground with staff and really understand what the implications are.

And if we really think it's a great idea, put out the survey.

And uh I think we also have a credibility problem, not only with the uh commuters, but with ambulance drivers, bus drivers, all those people that are gonna try and use this intersection.

And as the and let's not forget, the one big thing that just arose since then is Bill 47.

High density uh requirements.

So it's um uh we're trading on waters and and quicksand areas that we need to get a really good handle on before we uh start spending taxpayer money and applying for grants.

Question for staff, sorry, how much is this this quick build curb?

A thousand dollars?

But it will mean an elimination of a lane in order to get that curve in there, correct Arthur?

Actually, it's mutually exclusive of that.

We did, but we uh I think it's time to reconsider um the project number C 128 in its entirety and get a realistic uh uh approach on this.

We have eleven million dollars worth of projects in our active transportation plan, of which this is C1C, 1D, 2B, that still adds up to 3.5 million of that, and we haven't even touched Admiral's Road yet.

Councilor Brown.

I understand where Council Rogers is coming from.

However, I think that's more of a topic for budget discussions.

And I certainly would concur and probably second a motion if he made that motion to review that particular project.

However, uh, as as Ivan's already said, I mean, we're talking about a thousand dollar temporary item.

So I'd be quite happy to uh to move the staff recommendation.

Yeah.

We have a motion.

Is there a second or second?

Second for discussion.

Councilor Matson, Councillor Brown, you have the floor.

Well, being a uh previous traffic cop, I mean, and I'm sure uh Councilor Qualwage could appreciate it too.

I mean, you're always looking for safety.

And again, I understand the you know, reduction of one lien, I understand that, but again, this is a temporary uh thing that can be removed and maybe used somewhere else that might be useful.

So it's not a huge expense.

And I think going into the whole project as a whole is a whole different uh topic of discussion.

Thank you, Counselor Matson.

Yeah, so as staff have already pointed out, Chris Wolf new safety for pedestrians and cyclists.

And some of my colleagues have expressed concern that they don't know what the impact on traffic will be by putting in this curve.

What better way of finding out what the impact will be on traffic if we put it in and test it?

And if it causes lots of grief, it's physically removed.

But if it doesn't, then that's something we can look at as an example to use in other areas.

I just think it's cool hard enough to put it in on certain support promotion.

Did did staff hear a lot of that or some of it?

Yeah.

Okay.

Councilor Rogers.

Okay.

Um, maybe a question to staff.

This this curb, can you just put this curve in today and do nothing else with the intersection?

Uh through the chair, not without reducing the lane on the upstream side of the intersection.

Got a boom.

Okay.

So this is not a simple thousand dollar.

This is the beginning of a $1.8 million dollar.

And it still doesn't address the the primary issues of what we hear from Mayor Tobias and the neighbors in in that area.

So tread carefully.

The when you approve this, you go back and you um staff can continue on with the May 20, 2024 approval and move ahead with this and take it to RFP.

Thank you, Councillor Rogers.

Any other comments from the I I strongly advise that uh that we hold fire as the mayor mayor says that the implications of taxpayers and credibility is at risk.

Yeah, I'm not opposed to this.

I just think it's not the right timing right now.

Uh and that we need to see what's going to be built out there.

Because uh, as I've said, we've seen we've had that boulevard rearranged almost on a yearly basis that somebody's paying for.

Uh, that I I think we just need to hold off on this, concentrate on the light.

So that's why I'm I'm not supporting it because it's not just the Calgary curb, it is the lane that will funnel the rest of that traffic, taking a right up uh Chancellor and Kennard Street to try to get ahead of everything else when it goes down to a single lane.

So I I'm concerned about the implications, so I don't support it.

Okay, I'm gonna go to Counselor Brown and I'm I'm getting a feeling we're close to I'd like to uh withdraw my motion and make another motion to table if that's appropriate.

Would the seconder uh be okay with the withdrawal?

That was Matt's seems silly, but sure.

Motions uh now withdrawn, and there's a new motion motion to table.

Motion to table, second.

Uh may I call the question for no discussion for tabling?

Uh all in favor of tabling.

Opposed, Councilor McKenzie, Counselor Matson, are you in the affirmative for tabling or opposition?

Opposition.

Opposition.

Please note on the record, Councillors Madsen and McKenzie oppose tabling.

Motion carries.

Thank you, Chair.

Building department report.

Director Taylor, I believe.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you, uh, Councilor Kowalowich.

Um, it's just uh motion to receive.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Director.

Any questions about the report?

Yes, John.

Yeah, quick question.

Sorry.

Well, how many you um how many approvals should it be for that we've got approval for?

Do you know what the total?

You know, I can't tell by the red line what the uh total amount of revenue so far is.

Uh for clarification, Councilor Rogers, are you referring to the revenue that we received uh this this in uh February?

The total revenue?

Yeah, my my you'll have to help me.

I'm not getting my computer's uh information coming up on the screen.

Oh sure, no problem.

Um this month for February it's four thousand six hundred and fifty-nine dollars and twenty-five cents for um the building permit, building and plumbing permit revenue that we've received.

Thank you.

One is that not directly related, but uh for those that want to attend the Afghan memorial for those Canadian service tomorrow night at 6 45 at the um uh Christchurch Cathedral uh in uh downtown.

Um as far as finance administration, I met with the two other mayors last Friday, and it was mainly to uh pull up a plan to make a plan.

Uh and I just want council to be aware of our discussion.

So so council uh at one of its first acts when we were uh voted in um uh voted uh to money for the IRP process validation.

So what we were initially with uh the RCMP building was kind of a plan.

The RP was the methodology.