Downtown Victoria 2020

Conference Delegates, Presenters and Sponsors

Re:  Annual Report No. 1 – March 21, 2005

It has been almost exactly a year since we concluded the conference series.  Mixed in with all the excitement surrounding the proceedings at the conference was a lingering doubt in the minds of many as to whether anything tangible in the way of positive change would come of it all.  Victoria is famous for its interminable debates, but when it comes to actually doing something, the response is usually “let’s talk some more”.  We were committed, however, to capturing some of the energy generated by the conference and moving forward with some of the ideas around which there was substantial support.  Here then is the first of what I hope will be a series of annual reports on our progress.

Following the first conference in November, 2003 we established eight working groups to examine a number of specific areas.  Six of the working groups have completed their mandate, and four of them presented formal reports to City Council in September and October, 2004:  “Living Downtown – A Plan For The Future”, “From Public Spaces To Public Places”, “Downtown-A Place of Learning” and “Improving Downtown Transportation”.  They are posted on our web site and print versions are available at our new office (more about that later).  The reports reflect the hard work of some extremely dedicated and talented volunteers, and in themselves represent a significant legacy of the conference.

Phil Boname, one of the speakers at the first conference, made the statement “if you do nothing else re-establish a B.I.A.”.  A working group was formed to act on this suggestion, to attempt to identify what went wrong with the previous Business Improvement Association and to propose a new structure which responded to the lessons learned.  The B.I.A. working group met regularly, consulted with experts from other jurisdictions, formulated proposals, held public meetings and made a presentation to the City in September, 2004.  City Council acted on the recommendations by introducing a bylaw creating a new B.I.A. and it was passed on January 13, 2005.  The Downtown Victoria Business Association is now up and running under the leadership of Matt McNeil and will be a significant force for positive change in the downtown core.  The D.V.B.A.’s annual budget is $780,000, and approximately one-third of that amount is designated for a scaled down and slightly modified version of Portland’s Clean and Safe program which was discussed at the conference.

The working group examining the rehabilitation of heritage buildings convened a workshop in September, 2004.  The attendees included representatives from the City, the Provincial and Federal governments and a number of local developers with experience in heritage projects. 
The exchange was useful in identifying some of the unique challenges of heritage restoration and assessing the adequacy of the existing incentive programs.   The Mc & Mc Building at 1450 Government Street is currently undergoing rehabilitation and both the C.R.D. Building at 524/530/534 Yates Street and the Oriental Hotel at 554 Yates Street have recently been sold and will likely be upgraded.  We will continue to look for ways to encourage these and other similar projects.  The activity on lower Yates Street is particularly exciting as it links Bastion Square with lower Johnston Street.

In February, 2005 the City announced its intention to appoint a task force on developing a “learning commons” in the downtown core following up on the ideas discussed at the Downtown Victoria 2020 conferences and the reports of the D.V.C.A. working group.  The inventory of learning institutions already operating in the downtown core prepared by the working group came as somewhat of a surprise and indicates the importance of this sector to our downtown economy.

One of the major attractions at the conference, perhaps second only to the ice cream bars, were the illustrated proposals from the Public Spaces, Public Places working group.  They also generated considerable traffic and public feedback when we moved them to the “City Room” on Yates Street.  The formal report from the working group described several of these proposals in detail and made reference to an excellent earlier report entitled “Downtown Victoria Beautification Strategy”.  Although the earlier report was formally adopted by the City in 1992 it fell victim to lack of time and resources, and other more pressing priorities on the City’s agenda.  The City has recently taken steps to resurrect an internal committee, the “Downtown Beautification Team”, under the leadership of Mike Hill, the Downtown Coordinator, and has designated $50,000 in its proposed budget for 2005 to implement some of the recommendations in these reports.

The residential housing boom continues, and much of the new development is located in and around the downtown core.  Increasing the downtown residential population was a significant theme at the conference.  The Living Downtown report picked up the theme and charted a course to the future.  The pace of development activity has prompted the City to move ahead with a review of the Downtown Plan.  There is talk of moving towards a simpler, form-based zoning regime, one that focuses less on land use and more on the size and shape of buildings and the public spaces around them.  The current plan is limited in its scope to the physical environment of downtown, and the City’s intention, based on the recommendations of the Coriolis Report (available on the City’s website), is to expand the new plan to include economic, transportation, and social issues. 

One of our working groups is collaborating with the University of Victoria School of Business in an ongoing effort to develop an economic strategy for downtown.  The report of the transportation working group endorses the need for a downtown transportation strategy and makes specific proposals as to what it might include.  Sadly, our efforts to outline a strategy to improve the social health of downtown have not been particularly successful.  The problems and the solutions are complex.  We bring no particular expertise or experience to an area that is well-supplied with agencies, all of whom appear to be over-worked and under-funded.  We have not given up and will continue our efforts, perhaps in a co-ordinating role, trying to promote greater understanding amongst those dealing with the problems and those affected by them.

The social health of downtown received a recent boost with the announcement of the Victoria Urban Development Agreement which is expected to be formally signed in the Fall.  Additional money, and equally important, coordination of federal and provincial programs will target issues such as urban decay, safety, addiction and homelessness.

The City was also successful in securing designation as a “Cultural Capital of Canada” for 2005.  The funding that goes with the designation will support an Inner Harbour First Nations Interpretive Program, a number of Arts and Cultural Initiatives and the International Tall Ships Challenge.  The Provincial Capital Commission and the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority continue their work on the harbour lands, and progress has been made on both the Belleville Street Terminal and the Waterfront Pathway.  Past experience with proposals involving the harbour underscore the sensitivities and conflicts that are bound to arise, but both organizations share the growing impatience, and indeed the necessity to make better use of one of our most significant public assets.

One of our objectives as the conference organizers was to keep the public discussion of downtown issues going after the conference.  We met with representatives of the Cultural Resource Management Program at the University of Victoria and discussed the idea of a speaker series.  Arthur Erickson’s lecture at the university in September, 2004 attracted an overflow audience, and his comments following his walking tour of the Inner Harbour received considerable media attention.  Earlier this month, Nan Ellin, an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at Arizona State University presented a public lecture and conducted a workshop entitled “Integral Urbanism: Towards A More Liveable City”.  The series will continue and you will be notified of future speakers.

The new offices of the Downtown Victoria Business Association and the D.V.C.A. will be located at 20 Centennial Square.  It will also be the new home of the “City Room”.  Our first choice for a location was the corner of Yates and Douglas, the former Kentucky Fried Chicken location, but it was taken, another sign of progress.  Centennial Square was a close second, as it too is a problem area with significant potential for improvement.  The proximity to City Hall is another advantage since our ability to work closely and effectively with the City is vital to our success.  In November we submitted to the City a list of ten specific projects as the first phase of the implementation process.  The City has endorsed at least six of the projects, and in a number of instances has already completed some of the preliminary work.  We anticipate settling the terms of a protocol shortly which will clarify how City staff resources will be organized to work on the downtown initiatives.  The co-operation we have received thus far from staff and council has been excellent.

That concludes my report.  We welcome your feedback.  We will be in contact with many of you as we solicit support for specific initiatives.  We sense some excitement downtown.  Something more than expectations were unleashed at the Downtown Victoria 2020 conference.  We believe there is a collective and enduring resolve to restore vitality and health to our downtown core.  The credit goes to the volunteers, organizers, participants and sponsors of the conference – all true Friends Of Downtown.

Downtown Victoria Community Alliance

Mohan Jawl, Chair