Meeting

Okay, thank you very much.

Good evening, everyone.

We're going to start tonight with a public hearing and then move into our council meeting afterwards.

And Councillor Mattson is with us.

He's just with us virtually, but all five members of council are here tonight.

So this public hearing is called to order, and I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Laquongan speaking people known today as the Esquimalt Nation and Songhees Nation, and that their historic connections to these lands that we call View Royal continue to this day.

At this public hearing, any person who believes that their interest in property is affected by the proposed bylaw should be given an opportunity to be heard.

However, it is important that all who speak at this meeting restrict their remarks to matters contained in the bylaw, and it is my responsibility to ensure that also remarks are restricted.

This evening we will hear presentations from staff and the consultants on behalf of the applicant, and we will hear from the public during the comments from the public portion of the agenda.

And there's two ways you can do that.

And then you can also call in.

So if you're gonna call in, you dial 778-402-9227, and when prompted, enter conference ID 783-545-125 pound.

I will then announce the last four digits of your phone number, ask you to mute the live webcast to avoid feedback, ask you not to use speakerphone to ensure sound quality, and that you unmute yourself by pressing star six.

To begin with, please give us your name and address for the record.

If you're providing comments through the chat feature, that feature is open now for your comments.

And again, we ask that you provide your name and address to begin your comments.

Members of council may, if they so wish, ask questions of you.

However, the main function of council members this evening is to listen to the views of the public.

It is not the function of council at this public hearing to debate the merits of the proposed bylaw with individual citizens.

Like all public hearings, this meeting will be recorded to aid in accuracy of minute taking.

By participating in this webcast, you are consenting to being recorded, and the recording will be available on the town's website for future access.

After this public hearing is concluded, the council may, without further notice, give whatever effect council believes proper to the representation made at this public hearing.

The public is reminded that after the public hearing, council cannot hear any new information until a decision about the application is made.

Did I cover everything, Sarah?

Yeah.

Okay, and so with that, I will turn it over to our staff.

Thank you, worship.

Uh Jeff Chow, Senior Planner.

Um, this is the uh statement of um public hearing, publication of public hearing.

The notice that advertised this public hearing was posted on the notice board at the municipal office on January 19th, 2022.

It was placed on the town's website on January 19th, January uh 2022.

The notice was mailed to to uh residents within 400 meter radius of the property, and it's a total of 771 uh residents.

Residences.

The notice was also advertised in two consecutive issues of newspaper being the Times Colonist on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, and Thursday, 20 January 27, 2022.

That concludes the statement.

Okay, thank you, staff.

And so with that, we'll go right down to the presentation on the project and back to you, Mr.

Chao.

Thank you.

I'm just going to load up the presentation.

So before introducing the uh before we head into the public hearing portion of the session, uh I'm presenting a report that will summarize information relating to the zoning bylaw to amend the site at 167, 169, and 171 Island Highway to a new zone being the CD 27 zone, which is also called the Comprehensive Development Island Highway Portage Zone.

In this presentation, we'll cover the proposed zone, the development concept, how it relates to the official community plan, the transportation impact, servicing for the site, and community advantage contributions, which will be secured in a covenant.

On the site, and uh would also permit home occupation as an accessory use.

Uh it would uh permit um uh includes requirements for minimum lot size, lot width, uh a floor space ratio of 1.5 or 1.6 with underground 80% underground parking.

Uh includes requirements for lot coverage and permeable surface, and would permit a building height of 18 meters and a building require a minimum building width of six meters, and the top story, uh which is unique in this bylaw, uh, it would be to require the top story to not exceed 75% of the floor area of the story below.

Um there would be a maximum height of 4.5 meters for accessory buildings and include uh setbacks to uh to the street.

Now, what's unique about this zone is an 18 meter setback from Island Highway and um and a side plot line setback of eight meters from the Portage Park uh lot boundary.

The development concept is for a uh five story apartment building on a site that currently is comprised of three three dwellings adjacent to Portage Park and uh and four mile brew pub.

This is an aerial view of the site, and this site uh the applicant has been in front of uh community hall and and council uh three times now, and has had some public engagement as well.

And what's shown in this development concept, which is the applicant's intent for the project, will be formally considered a development permit process if the if the application is if the rezoning is approved.

The purpose of the development concept is to show what they intend to build.

And the original concept is shown here on this slide.

Those include increasing the setback from the lot line abutting portage park from four meters to 8.4 meters, changing the design of the building from a kind of a modern type building to one with a more classic style that has a sand-colored brick veneer.

The number of units has been reduced from 86 to 82.

The number of they've provided an increase in the number of three-bedroom units from one to three.

There would be a new on-site amenity pavilion for residents of the property.

A lane garden location would be located closer to the island highway.

Visitors parking spaces would be increased from six to nine, and they would be located as surface parking close to the on the street side for easier access.

And the provision of four trees in Portage Park that would provide additional screening of the development from the playground in Portage Park.

This is a site plan of the project that shows the location of the building and this shows the setback from Island Highway.

Spaces for visitors for ease of access to the site, as well as a tenth space that would be used for pickup and drop-off.

And this reflects the trend today for a lot more home delivery of of uh both uh goods and meals.

Uh the applicant is also providing uh a new row of large trees, so six trees that would be located along the property line to provide additional screening of the buildings in the park.

And there would also at the rear of the building there would be a path connection to the path behind the town hall that would create a link to the E and N trail.

In terms of screening from four mile pub, a row of hedge hedges would be planted to provide uh some screening from from the uh to minimize the impact of the the height of the building.

The site is lower than the four mile pub as shown in this uh this rendering.

The green the hedge would help soften the uh the visual impact of the building.

This rendering shows the site from Island Highway heading away from from town and shows how the uh the additional clearance will preserve views to the four mile pub.

This is a rendering from the ENN trail that would show uh show how the site the building would would be seen uh and uh there would be it should be noted that the closer you get to the site the more trees there are and the trees the building would be less visible so the idea is that from the uh from the playground there would be there would be good screening from the from the site in terms of the official community plan the proposal complies with the official community plans land use designation as mixed residential which supports low rise apartment along this among other supported land uses uh the land use designation supports four stories with a one point 1.6 floor space ratio for apartment dwellings in this case the the building is proposing one additional story but uh the the regulation of in the zoning is not the number of stories but the but the height of the building the other the other policies that kind of relate to this project include supporting higher density and mixed use at neighborhood centers and along major transit corridors which this is on to promote walkability, cycling and transit use.

Also there is uh support for providing um an adequate housing stock that would support uh local centers and for uh for um for housing of employees and the intent here is that is that by having uh in this location it provides an opportunity for people to live uh close to where they work if they if you work in the area.

In terms of transportation impact, a transportation impact assessment was conducted and concludes that that the proposed development would not create significant traffic impacts on Island Highway.

That being said, this site has immense potential for reduced automobile demand because it is close to the ENN Rail Trail and a number of community and commercial services are within walking distance and has good access to one of the region's most well-served transit routes.

A transportation demand strategy was also conducted that underfunded some options to provide more sustainable transportation choices and reduce the burden on the public transportation system, which is not uh it's not required for the zoning because the proposal as it is is does comply with parking standards.

But at the development permit stage, they could consider the provision of e-bikes for a bike share program.

The designation of the vehicle space to support ride hailing and home delivery of goods, which is shown on the development concept, and recommendations for enhanced security for bike storage, such as self-contained lockers and video surveillance, and accommodation for cargo bikes, which are larger than standard bikes.

Report also recommends that the town continue to advocate for the expansion of car sharing in municipality.

And I can advise that the director of development services has been working on this for a number of months, but um with a number of providers in town.

In terms of site servicing, a servicing brief has has been conducted that concludes there's sufficient uh water and sewer capacity for this development.

Stormwater management will be provided on site and will be formally considered in the development permit to meet the town's requirement that there's no net increase in post-development site runoff, and stormwater entering the town's drainage system will be required the required to meet the requirements of the stormwater regulation by law.

The uh covenant is proposed to be registered in concurrently with the fourth reading of the rezoning bylaw and concludes includes two kind of components to it.

One is uh kind of a development requirement that the three lots comprising the site are not to be sold independently and that the three lots would be consolidated into one prior to building permit issuance and the intent of that that aspect of covenant is to ensure that the site will be developed in accordance with the development concepts with so that the uh and so that the zoning would would work.

The town has a community amenity contribution policy and the applicant has agreed to provide uh four thousand dollars per residential unit uh prior to prior to building permit issuance um of that 10% of the uh of the amount would be uh contributed to the CRD housing trust fund uh to supplement the town's uh annual contribution and that is to provide uh projects that provide uh affordable housing within the regional district uh prior to building issuance um there would be four trees would be placed in portage park to the to uh provide some additional screening to the uh for the playground site and that was developed in uh accordance with the landscape architects review of the site looking at ways to uh to improve buffering.

Um, further to the the uh to the last council meeting um where first and second meeting were were conducted for the rezoning bylaw, the applicant further proposes uh $50,000 that could be used towards the removal of invasive plant species and for additional tree planting at Portage Park under the direction of the the director of engineering.

And the purpose of the uh the town has been conducting an invasive species removal program, and uh this this is uh additional funding that would uh allow that program to continue for uh for several years, and the provision for tree planting would be to uh enhance the tree canopy there, either by uh additional screening of the building if that's necessary in the future, and for uh succession planting within the natural area of the park where a number of the trees are quite mature.

So the idea is that as they mature, you have a new generation coming up behind it to help preserve the tree cover in the area.

So that uh concludes the report that was presented on the agenda.

The recommendation is to uh receive report.

Uh the applicant has also uh provided an additional uh landscape plan that uh that I can that that uh they can probably speak to in terms of the uh four additional trees.

So but that concludes the report.

Okay, thank you, staff.

Do we have questions for staff?

Councillor Lemmon?

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chow.

I'm interested in the landscape plan, but perhaps perhaps my main question you can just answer my main question.

There's six large trees to be planted.

Are these going to start out as large trees and that will you know screen screen between the park and the building or are they going to grow over many years into large trees?

Through you, your worship, the applicant may be able to answer that better.

I believe their landscape architect is is present.

And here is the uh landscape plan that shows the uh location of the six trees along the uh along the property line.

So I believe the yeah if the landscape architect may wish to uh is it probably a better position to answer these questions so maybe when we get to comments from the applicant we we can cover that question sure okay anybody else with questions for staff councillor rogers yes and uh say council in option too um uh thank you staff uh i'm just wondering with respect to landscaping uh there's shown a um a um rain garden is that rain garden that's showing on the street side is that to replace the bioswale that's in Portage Park uh through you, your worship um that that uh stormwater management is not to replace it.

That the soil drains uh provides drainage for a number of properties along the island highway that that's carried through the drains all the way to the uh to Portage uh through Portage Park, but that stormwater managers only for the for the site itself.

Okay, so it's not replacing the bioscope we have already.

It's to supplement it.

Supplement.

Okay, thank you.

Uh somewhere in the uh the report, um I I thought I saw that there was a height variance um uh from 15 meters to 18 meters.

Is is there a variance here?

Um through you, your worship.

No, the I think it that might have been uh in comparison to a previous proposal, uh, but the proposal is for 18 meters and and basically has been for the uh for the duration of the application.

Okay.

Yeah, so I did see though, and and maybe it's just identifying that the original height was 15 and now it's gone to 18.

And maybe the applicant can help me on that one.

Uh Stefan, in your report, um you noted that there's an immense potential to raise car reduce car demand um you know through e-bikes and uh car share.

I I wonder if the applicant is also considered maybe a question of the applicant, um, also to include bus passes as a uh since this is on the number 14 major bus route.

Um have you discussed that with the applicant for inclusion of bus passes?

Uh through you, your worship.

Okay.

Um that's currently not part of the amenity package.

Mm-hmm.

And and you know, given its location and um yeah, enormous potential with uh cycling the regional trails and and bus route.

So why then um are we still requiring the park eight to be so um so large and and going from uh property line to property line?

Uh through you, your worship, this is a design concept.

Um the applicant is showing how they that they would comply with the zoning with the parking requirements.

And that's also why uh we we haven't had the discussion about about transit passes because the proposal complies uh the developer concept complies with the zoning requirements for parking okay thank you um and i and i'm certainly pleased to hear that um uh in addition to the six trees we see along the property line um uh another additional four more trees and and like uh council lemon i'm i'm very curious and what staff would uh determine as uh the size and caliber to ensure a quick and sizable growth uh for screening um i'm i'm just curious if we were to require it could we have those six trees planted in the park side so that we can then have care and control of those trees um as part of the park yeah would you like me to comment on that?

So they could indeed uh because I know that they're being planted really quite close to the parquet underneath.

And uh so if um if I would imagine if uh the town and council were amenable, uh we could have those planted just three feet into the park, and we've got the care of control, and um um we ensure their survivability.

Is that uh possible, staff?

Um I miss the landscape arc attacked.

I saw you trying to go ahead.

Um it's Brad Forth here.

Uh just a couple quick comments about that.

Um, the six large trees would be already considerably um sizable, eight centimeter caliper is what I'm thinking for those, which is a really quite large tree.

Um the parkade um structure has been notched out in each of the locations of where those trees are because we wanted to give the trees the opportunity to grow in Mother Earth, um, as if you will.

Um and they're sitting really right on the property boundary, and so you know, shifting them onto city onto the park property is not an issue really in any way.

Um I'm also kind of locating them in a fringe of native planting along that property line.

So really the applicant um will be looking after the boundary edge of the park and and it'll be restored to a nicer condition.

Um so absolutely they could be put onto the park if that made council feel more comfortable um and then the additional trees that are shown inside the park are just intended to kind of complement the the walkway connection to the playground and to give a bit of additional um landscaping there uh but I believe that um the applicant's additional fifty thousand dollars would include even more trees um could include even more trees for the park okay thank you thank you thanks very much.

Thank you, Richard.

Councillor mattson.

Yes, thank you uh staff, so uh are these units going to be for sale or for rent.

Uh through you, your worship, as part of this rezoning proposal, uh, there's no commitment to tenure for the for the site, so uh um so the applicant can probably answer that question better.

Okay, and and the other question I'd be I guess for the applicant is you know depending on what they're gonna be, you know, for rent or for sale, I'd like to know an idea of the sort of price that they're going to be asking at that.

You know, again, one of the issues is brought up is sort of affordable housing, so maybe that's probably better for for the applicant.

Um I was gonna ask about the the new trees.

Um in your report, you talk about reducing car demand.

I mean, but you know, one of the problems I just have with that statement in general is we've got three houses there now, and we're going to be going to 80 82 units.

So there's going to be a huge increase in the amount of traffic coming out of there.

So by saying I don't understand what you're saying, but I I just had a bit of a problem there, just in terms of uh suggesting there's going to be a significant reduction in basically car demand.

Um the other thing, and I guess I sent a note to the mayor.

I'd provided a picture to staff I that I took from the uh the playground, and I just wanted my colleagues just the and those in the audience to see that just to give you a totally different perspective than the diagram we have here.

I I I don't know if staff has that.

Um they're working on it.

I think we're all very familiar with the site, actually, every member of council, but certainly happy to look at your photo.

I I did uh I did see it earlier when staff was doing some practicing earlier on this evening.

Okay, well, I'm gonna let staff work on that because I'd like to get to the applicant and the public, but we can definitely, when we've got it, we'll we'll let you speak to it.

Oh maybe it's coming.

There it is.

There we are.

So I guess my point is if you you can see in the background sort of the roof at at one story and then the bit of the white above the trees.

So so there's nothing between in general, there's nothing between the uh the playground and the existing houses there.

So I just find it a little bit hard to imagine the the rendering that they have that somehow shows that um you know, you won't be able to see this five-story building from from this playground when the reality is it's there's pretty much nothing they can do that won't, you know.

I could have been trying to drive drawing the five stories, but it's uh it's gonna be you know taller than those trees that we have in the in the far background.

So I I just wanted to point out that it's gonna be a huge impact on the uh on the playground and in terms of visually for what they see this building, irrespective of uh the six large trees and and any other sort of planting they do for many, many, many years.

So that was all I had to say about that.

I just wanted to point that out to my colleagues.

Did you have any Councillor Mattson?

Sorry, pardon?

Did you have any further questions?

No, I said that was all the questions.

Okay, thank you.

You're muted.

Okay.

On my left.

Okay, so we'll go to comments from the applicant.

Coming up.

You're welcome to take off your mask if you like.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

My name is Graham Mann.

Um, thank you for having me tonight.

I'm the owner of proposed development at 167, 169, and 171 Island Highway.

I'm joined tonight via teams by Justin Bennett of Urban West Architecture and Brad Forth of Forsite Landscape Architecture.

As you're aware, we are proposing an 82 unit building standing five stories over one level of underground parking.

The building has a 34% lot coverage and an FAR of 1.6, and we're proposing a total of 104 parking stalls, 82 bicycle spaces, including nine cargo spaces, six class two bike spaces, and seven shared e-bike spaces.

The proposal conforms with the official community plan.

The proposal is conveniently located for the use of public transit and the EN rail trail, as well as not too far away, the Galloping Goose, as noted in the traffic study that was done by Watt Consulting.

We feel we have designed a pleasing building both architecturally and functionally.

We are citing it to preserve the views and reduce the appearance of five stories by significantly reducing the massing of the fifth story.

As we've all heard over the past several years, there is a housing shortage, and I believe this is a step in the right direction to help with the shortage.

We can see we continue to see growth in the CRD, and View Royal has been no exception.

We have listened to the public through a public consultation meeting held June 2021 in which we had positive feedback.

We had many meetings with neighbors and other property owners within View Royal.

We've worked with staff who has been very helpful, uh, just so council knows they've been very helpful uh through this process.

Um, we've listened to council, and we've tried our very best to address the comments that have been made.

We're thankful for the many letters of support we received from the community for this proposal.

I want to address some of the comments directed, uh comments and directions we received in the first and second reading on January 18th.

We are committed to $4,000 a door, which is a total of $328,000 in community amenity contributions, further understanding concerns from council and discussions with John Rosenberg of the Parks Department.

We'd like to commit an additional $50,000 to the Parks Department towards portage park and the removal of invasive species and the planting of additional trees.

We trust this will help provide a better experience for all those who enjoy the park.

We have made some modifications to the underground parking structure to accommodate six fully mature trees or trees that can become fully mature.

They will be of a large caliper as as big as we can buy, and they're broadleaf maples, which do provide screening when the foliage is in.

We will be doing this by indenting the exterior of the foundation in the parking structure, boarding portage park to allow the trees to mature and not affect the root balls.

Again, we would work with staff and council if the desire was to have these trees pulled off of the parkade and into the park.

Further, the landscape plan proposes a total of 57 new trees.

So four outside of our property in the park and 53 on our pro on the proposed property.

In conclusion, we hope to provide 82 new homes for 82 families to call View Royal home.

I appreciate your consideration and I look forward to addressing any questions that the public and council have.

And to address Councilor Mattson's uh question in regards to uh if these were for sale or apartments, they are are for for sale.

And as we understand it in discussions with with planning, we would like them to be for sale, but also be able to be rented by those who own the units so i'm here if there's any questions or okay thank you just i'm sure there will be for for public at home that are wanting to call in public comments from the public is is coming up very fast so this would be your your time to call in now if you like and then you'll you'll be in line questions for the applicant Councillor rogers thank you very much uh yes thank you uh appreciate um the work that you've done and and um and being flexible with coming back with um um it's improvements, if you like, to architectural aspects and and listening very intently and and uh thank you also for um um contributing the fifty thousand dollars on uh as a covenant to improve Portage Park.

I want to be clear though that, and this is something with the with council and staff.

I only asked for the monies for invasive species.

I'm not really particularly interested in monies for trees because we'll get into that debate, but it's the investment in the removing invasive species that is going to shape the trees.

I have a concern.

That's deciduous.

That means that the visibility of the building during the winter time will be very evident because they won't be knee leaves.

So I hope that there's going to be some flexibility in that because one of the encouraging things when I was reading your um Arbus report was there's the mention of um uh specific spruce species that grow very large, you know, 20, 30, 60 feet.

The spruce is what I'm interested in in terms of the perpetual year or 12 months year screening.

So I hope that um that we can really have that flexibility.

But that's going to be in the yeah, I was gonna say I mean I presume this would be a development permit and we would get into that type of detail.

Just want to give you a butt I mean I mean uh I'm not a landscape architect, but we we would uh gladly staff to to make those things happen.

And um that's definitely something we could work with.

And and um, you know, I'm really impressed with the efforts that you're making on e-bike and because of course the regional trail.

Um and you know, I'm sure as a sales perspective um to keep people out of the cars, um, like we saw in other development aspects.

Um you're right, car shares, good, bus passes, the number 14 is an incredible bus route.

So please consider that too.

Yeah, we will.

And we did speak with Moto because we've used them on other developments, and unfortunately at this time they didn't feel it was an appropriate site.

Uh they haven't had any dealings, I guess, yet in the municipality, and they just said not at this time.

Thank you.

On my left, questions for the applicant very quickly uh mr man you probably gathered we're very big on trees here in view the uh the the four trees going into the park are they going to be in the same area as the six uh border creation if we could i don't know if uh jeff's able to bring back that landscape line but we could show you it there they kind of come towards the trail towards the the actual playground itself the the four that were proposed so all in the same area well the six come across the property line kind of flanking down the property line kind of right proportionally to the property line and then the four uh this would be one, two, three, and four.

They block the okay playground more.

Got it.

Good.

Thank you.

That was my question.

Okay.

And Councillor Matts and is asking by text message if you have an idea of what the price of the units will be.

At this point, we haven't uh we need to go through the whole process of pricing out the building to determine our final price point.

Um I would think they'd be relative to what the market uh is currently at, but uh we do our best to keep everything.

I'm always a big proponent when I do a development of trying to get through it quickly and not sit on units for a long time.

And we've done that in our previous developments and been successful.

Uh so we've been able to sell them at uh what I feel is a very fair price for the market.

It's proven by by the fact that we sell our our units.

Okay, thank you.

So next we're gonna go to comments from the public.

So you have the option of dialing in 778-402-9227, and then conference ID 783-545-125 pound.

And then there is also the chat feature, um, which is on our website, where again we ask you to enter your name and address, but you can give us the benefit of your views through that as well, and that will close at the end of the public hearing.

So I think seeing as we have people in the room, I'll start in the room.

Is is there anyone out here who wanted to speak to this development?

Okay.

You're welcome to come up to the mic and and give us your name and address, please.

Hello, um, I'm Alison MacKenzie and I live at 48 Fallstaff.

Um, so I just want to start by saying I'm not against development at all.

Like obviously there's lots of advantages to it, but I just think this site in particular is not suitable for the density of the development.

Um, we're very lucky to have Portage Park, how quiet it is, how preserved it is, and I attribute that to not having any uh direct access for cars and things like that.

I think that's really been why it's such a a nice place to go.

Um with this development, there'll be a huge increase obviously in the density, um, the foot traffic through the park, and that's gonna result in noise pollution.