Old Island Highway – Initial Council Enquiry (Attachment 3)

Old Island Highway – Initial Council Enquiry

Proposed Fourth Floor Plan

Proposed Fifth Floor Plan

Proposed Sixth Floor Plan

Common Amenities:

While the “standard and typical” strata meeting room has been conveniently placed on the ground flor adjacent the building’s entry, a large area on the roof of the building has been allocated for other common amenity uses (to be defined) but is not limited to an exercise studio, yoga room, common work place/offices, etc. It is also located on the roof to provide direct access to large outdoor patio and urban agricultural gardening plots for the residents, as the views from this terrace will be outstanding and will capture water views as well as maximizing sun exposure for growing medium for the proposed resident gardening plots.

And, of course, ample bicycle storage, EV charging stations and the like are implemented into the parkade design and ample room has been reserved for other amenities desired from future residents when our marketing team are able to solicit feedback from end-users such as a workshop, kayak storage (similar to the Glen now under construction), common office work spaces etc. We always make an attempt to include common work spaces as we have learned (like communal veggie plots) this provides a tremendous opportunity to bring a community together to share ideas, increases affordability (those that typically need to purchase an additional bedroom or den for their workspace no longer need to do so), and of course less reliance on the automobile (or given this site’s immediate proximity to public transit many users may not require an automobile) but regardless providing this use on site precludes many from having to drive to work on a daily basis!

Partial Sixth Floor Plan (Common Amenity)

Massing & Height:

As you will note in the following renderings, the massing has been very intentionally designed so the building in its entirety reads as 3 stories of residential around the building’s commercial floor with the top two floors of residential set far back from the main façade:

Upper Floor only visible from across Highway

The only exception to this guiding principle is the corner element, which we believe is appropriate given the site’s gateway location and can be supplemented with signage that may read “Welcome to View Royal” if desired by Council.

This form of terracing also ensures no overlooking, privacy nor overshadowing will occur between the proposal and the adjacent multiple-unit residential project named “Lion’s Cove” which is also well set back from the common property line and has a significant existing tree buffer separating the two buildings.

Overshadowing:

As seen in the shadow diagrams below, no spilling of shadows shall occur onto the Lion’s Cove neighbouring property – in fact, that project spills shadows onto the subject site:

Community Consultation:

As noted in my previous correspondence with Council, in lieu of our historic ability to host Public Open Houses, my Client’s Team have initiated an ongoing door-knocking campaign c/w our proposal in-hand in an effort to solicit feedback from View Royal residents, including our immediate neighbours. It is our intention once this neighbourhood survey is complete to provide all associated correspondence with our rezoning application, but in order to allow you a preliminary viewing of responses so far, I provide you with the following sampling as follows:

Again Covid also precluded our ability to host a private Open House for the residents of the adjacent Lion’s Cove project that we had previously organized and since then offered their strata and residents a virtual open house to which we received no response until a few days ago. We have now though managed to coordinate an Open House with those Residents for this evening and the Strata Presiden sent me a copy of the notification that was sent to all residents.

Naturally, we will notify Council as part of our Community Consultation package the results of that meeting.

Summary:

We believe that consistent with the glowing feedback we have received from the View Royal Community we have received thus far as well as View Royal’s Planning Staff that caliber of the project being proposed and the benefits it will bring to the community will become a project that we can all be proud of and will raise the bar for future development along the Old Island Corridor. We do however believe that it is those members of the community including Council who live in View Royal that have a far better “pulse” on what’s needed and will be deemed appropriate hence our efforts in reaching out to everyone pre-application to assist us in ensuring that this project can be the best it can possibly be and will meet the needs of the community as much as possible. We look very forward to your feedback and thank you so much in advance for your efforts in reviewing this project.

Yours truly,

ANKENMAN MARCHAND Architects

Per:

Timothy Ankenman Architect AIBC | MRAIC | M. Arch. | AIA| Founding Principal