Thoughts on the Oak Bay Lodge decision

Well Monday night’s decision was not what I was expecting. I knew going in that we have two councillors on either side, with Hazel Braithwaite as the swing vote. What I was not expecting was Hazel to switch from yes to no, causing the project to be defeated. So where did it all go wrong? VIHA and Baptist Housing boxed themselves into a corner.

They arrived at the table with set of requirements that left no room to move. To contrast, I find it instructive to look at Oak Bay High School vs the Lodge. Both are very large projects, both driven by replacement of long-standing community amentities, both with some very specific needs that meant that there was little “wiggle room”. But this is where the path diverges. The High School team arrived with a blank page, a list of things they needed, and a willingness to talk about it. The reality with the high school is that the end result, with the school along Cranmore St, was probably going to be only result that worked, once the need for the regulation-sized soccer and rugby fields, transforming the old gym into the new theatre, and protecting Bowker Creek were all taken into consideration. But critically different, that result came about because the neighbours and the wider community got to hear why the high school plan ended up like it did.

Contrast that with the Lodge, where the developer arrived with a plan for a building on a site and then told the community it had a very short time to decide. So they were already forcing the neighbours to accept something they had no insight or decision-making on, but also they are not being given the time to see why the Lodge ended up as it did. Further, Baptist Housing apparently spent years up in Saanich talking, but only weeks in Oak Bay. The very easy question then came up: Why didn’t we get the same amount of time? Nobody seemed to be willing to answer that clearly. I think that Baptist Housing should have come out and apologized to the neighbours for that even if it wasn’t their fault (I actually think the delay can come down to VIHA, whom I don’t trust).

In the end, the combination of mostly-formed project, with a big building, an apparent disregard for consultation in one community but not another, and a very short time frame doomed this project. I suspect this project is now dead. Baptist Housing’s media statement says this (emphasis mine):

Baptist Housing is extremely disappointed with Oak Bay Council’s decision to vote against our variance application regarding the proposed redevelopment of Oak Bay Lodge. Baptist Housing will be meeting with our partners, Vancouver Island Health Authority and Capital Regional Hospital District, to determine what our options and next steps are. Baptist Housing remains committed to providing resident-centred complex care and licensed dementia housing for the seniors of Greater Victoria.

Not Oak Bay. Hmm. Further, their project website is now offline, which is usually a pretty telling statement.

Well, that was a fun ride while it lasted. Hopefully other developers will take the right lessons away from this “community engagement is critical”, not the wrong ones, “Oak Bay doesn’t want development”.

By split vote, council advances Oak Bay Lodge to public hearing

After a long debate in which neighbours continued to express their disappointment with lack of consultation with the process and the size of the building, council ultimately voted 3-2 to send it out to public notice. Councillors Ney and Jensen voted against moving it forward, claiming that hasn’t been enough public consultation.

The front row was even more filled than usual with “people in suits”, as Hampshire Rd. resident Michael Hayes pointed out. Joining the usual Baptist Housing (and Cotter Architecture) staff, were VIHA CEO Howard Waldner, and CRHD‘s chair (and View Royal Mayor) Graham Hill.

The final decision will thus come November 14th, just 5 days before the election. Altough CRHD lack a webpage about the project (Mount View Heights, which includes the other side of this project, does have a page too), Baptist Housing haveĀ  a fairly comprehensive one.

Council delays Oak Bay Lodge decision

At last night’s marathon council session, council ultimately decided to delay the decision until early November (either the 7th or 14th). Baptist Housing apparently faces a deadline of November 10th for their funding, which is intertwined in the Mount View property in Saanich, so this delay still allows them to complete the deal.

The plan has changed somewhat, with the building dropping by one metre and pulling back towards Cadboro Bay Rd, at the cost of four mature Garry Oak trees, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy neighbours, who were fairly unanimous in saying they felt that the project was rushed and out of scale with the neighbourhood.

Another bone of contention was the revelation that although the plans were filed initially in late May, it wasn’t until August that they were brought forward. The delay was at the request of Baptist Housing, although whether they had to for legal reasons or not is unclear.

Baptist Housing did promise to work with the neighbours on the design, although it seems fairly clear that the total number of beds, 320, isn’t going to change, as that is part of the 550+ that Baptist Housing has said it will provide to VIHA between Oak Bay Lodge and Mount View. Councillor Ney did wonder why Oak Bay got the larger number, but Baptist Housing said that Mount View is already a 7-story building.

After Baptist Housing meets with the neighbours, it will head back to Council on October 24th, likely to be sent for the legally-required public notification period of two weeks, which brings the decision back either on November 14th or the 7th, depending on if council decides to hold a special council meeting that night.

As a final aside, likely this will be Mayor Causton’s final major decision, as he mentioned that when he first arrived as mayor, his first was sewage. He laughed as he said there was “no link”.