Attachment 12. Letter from Greg Burke to Mayor and Council

March 23, 2013

Dear Mayor and Council,

Since our last discussions at the committee of the whole meeting March 12, 2013 I have had meetings and discussions with View Royal Staff and surrounding neighbours regarding the changes they would like to see made to the proposed landscape drawing at the rear of 28/3 Kerwood St.

The revised drawing now attached has been edited in the following ways.

• The topless glass railings have been moved to the inside edge of the patio, as per Councils request
• A low second mason terrace has been added to the east elevation of the raise patio area to retain soil to permit additional plantings and reduce any visual mass of the retaining wall from the eastern view.
• Included an additional elevation drawing showing the proposed side view from the eastern elevation with all changes made
• Minor alteration to planting plan which keeps a low hedge along the eastern side of patio for additional privacy between neighbours, but reduces to lower plantings along the south & western edges of patio as not to block view out to ocean.
• An additional discovery is that both the originally approved drawing and the new proposed drawing actually show the patio and landscape retaining and plantings 0.8 metres closer to the natural boundary than they actually are. The reason for this is that after the original landscape plan and house plan were approved and the house site was surveyed for foundation placement, the surveyors suggested I needed to move the house away from the water an additional 0.8 metres to allow for footings and roof overhang. As the landscape designer was not aware of this change, the revised drawings since the original approval did not reflect the 0.8 metres farther away from the natural boundary that both the house and patio actually are.

To my knowledge, these changes address most of the Councils requests from the March 12, 2013 COW meeting. I am open to any additional recommendations, but would very much like to leave the April 2nd Council meeting with some sort of approved plan to move forward, complete this project and get on with life. I would believe that staff and council would like the same.

Sincerely,

Greg Burke 283 Kerwood St., Victoria BC, V9B 1A2 Cell: 250-920-6818 Email: greg.burke@shaw.ca