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3561-3579 Quadra Street is a proposal to build 11 townhomes along the 3500-block of Quadra Street at Tattersall Drive in the District of Saanich within Victoria's urban core.
The project will include the conversion of an existing heritage home into a seven unit rental building.
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Letter summarizing initial feedback from QCHCA from March 2020 link is here.
A few things that stood out in the letter from QCHCA to me.
concern about traffic and street parking
This is in spite of the bus service which is "not dependable at times". The plan seems to be for 1 parking spot for each unit. A single parking spot for each unit is a lot especially with Modo around and the number 6 bus route.
The regional population continues to rise. Street parking will only get worse regardless of this development.
Bus service on route 6 is good and a key reason my family moved in the cedar hill area to get to our jobs downtown. Bus service "not dependable at times" is not a reason to force everyone to have more parking spots - this will make the project vastly more expensive through reducing the number of units available.
If street parking is already a major issue there's a very simple solution: paid street parking! But regardless that's out of scope for an individual development - this is a municipal government issue.
Concern on density and family design
There's concern the plan is too dense as well, especially if targeted for families. The steps were also pointed out as barriers for strollers.
I lived downtown for many years with a young child. A few stairs is not perfect but no big deal. Stroller wheels are small and are easily rolled up a few steps one wheel at a time.
The REAL challenge is if there are 90 degree turns right inside the door. You need space inside for a stroller to dry off and to stay out of the way (and ideally out of sight). But these are all interior design issues.
Living in a smaller space with a family without a yard is not really a big deal when there are parks nearby, like Cloverdale school, Rutledge, Tolmie, Playfair.
The QCHCA and community feedback seems to miss the point of badly needed housing supply
But far and away is the overwhelming issue of insane house prices. Housing is way out of reach for most people now.
These kinds of discussion and questions in the QCHCA document make me think the community involved in the feedback process is way out of touch. It seems like they are guessing at what they think people need.
Regardless of all of this, it seems like an underwhelming project in terms of housing units given the close proximity to Four Corners (with a full sized thrifty's on cloverdale/cook). This is right on the border of a few of the Local Area Plan boundaries unfortunately so it seems like a tricky area to develop without a ton of community resistance.
...it seems like a tricky area to develop without a ton of community resistance...
Is there anywhere in the CRD where there isn't a ton of community resistance to every development proposal?
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