• Oak bay lodge
• Bowker creek
• 4 story limit
• Amalgamation
• Oak Bay lodge delay
• Source of campaign funds, specifically developers
• Secondary suites
• Communication
• Secondary suites committee
• Role of council
• Coordination of municipalities
• Oak Bay lodge parking
• Deer

Note: This is the first of three mandatory meetings for any rezoning, so there is no need to panic yet. Any rezoning first goes to Committee of the Whole, then Council for notice to be sent to neighbours, then comes back two weeks later for voting.

Committee of the Whole meets at 7:30pm on August 8th, 2011, in the Council Chambers of Oak Bay Municipal Hall.

I have no idea why that little episode happened, but I do know one thing: this was one of many ways Allan made our community better. And while, he and I disagreed on bike lanes, he always had a good reason why. So goodbye, my former Beaver leader. Thank you for your service.

“to change that [Blair Gowie's heritage designation] would impoverish the designation”

Councillor Braithwaite on why she is voting against the Heritage Revitalization Agreement

“Constable Herbert”

Councillor Jensen with an interesting slip of the tongue after Herbert ran down a significant list of things he would like to see changed

“[make sure the Heritage Revitalization Agreement is] sufficiently sensitive to the original designation goals”

Jensen on the HRA

“It is not going to fall down next week … or next year”

Councillor Ney explaining why she is voting against the agreement

“The Heritage Revitalization Agreement doesn’t remove but imposes a different kind of protection”

Councillor Copley debunking the rumour that the HRA will remove the heritage designation

“She [Mrs Ellis] felt I, as Mayor, could come up with the perfect plan for Runnymede”

Mayor Causton talking about his many discussion with Mrs Ellis on Blair Gowie (or Runnymede as she called it)

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Unsurprisingly, the first thing he mentioned was the town hall meeting, something he promised to the protesters from the the other day. What he promised was a meeting without an agenda, and he promised that he would facilitate that However, he wanted to have it during April, which means that somebody else will need to chair that. Causton ended up suggesting the acting Mayor — Nils Jensen for the month of April — as a suitable substitute. As for a date, there are a few being kicked around, all in April: 12th, 14th, 19th, or 20th.

Second on his agenda was “improved communication”, which apparently just means the website currently, something Tara Ney is taking over. As an aside, I see a pattern emerging here; prospective mayoral candidates being asked to get involved in high profile issues (although neither have said anything either way).

Lastly was the giant hot potato known as secondary suites. Causton has pushed hard on this issue recently, prompting one councillor to ask “What’s driving this issue?”. My suspicion is that council is going to shelve this until after the election. We are only eight months out (Nov 19) and nobody wants to commit to such a polarizing issue right now.

Thankfully, the Mayor is not shirking all of his duties as he runs federally: the children of Willows in Grade 1 and 2 are going to get a visit by him to, as he put it, “explain a federal election without getting political”, as well as chairing the local Mayor’s lunch and one final Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities’ AGM and conference up in Sidney.

And so we (possibly, although I think not very probably) bid adieu to the Mayor of Oak Bay for the past 14 years. Emperor Frank (of Saanich) he was not, although he is equally long standing. Now the speculation will turn to what councillors are going to run again this year and who will replace him.

The first meeting is the joint Parks & Recreation Commission and Council meeting on March 30th at 7pm. I don’t know what big ticket items are in play for this year, save that the Rotary Waterpark money (almost $30,000 for upgrades) has already been approved.

There are two further general estimates committee meetings on Tuesday, April 5th and Wednesday the 13th. Both are at 5:30pm. All three meetings are held in the council chambers in the municipal hall on Oak Bay Avenue. As with council and committee of the whole meetings, these meetings are open to the public to listen.

On the 21st UVic will be Oak Bay Council meeting for a presentation of the new UVic strategic plan, currently in the planning stages. This is part of a committee of the whole meeting so it will fairly informal as these things go. Join UVic and Oak Bay Council at 7:30pm in the council chambers of the municipal hall. See the ad for the full details.