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DRA & DV2020 Election Questions for a Better Downtown Victoria Submitted by Pieta VanDyke www.pietavandyke.com • Please list specific initiatives and proposals you will put forward to improve the livability of Downtown for its residents. Harbour Airport – While the airport has been certified as a water airport since 2000, there has been no monitoring of flight and taxiing activity to determine if it is meeting requirements in the current draft Water Airport Regulation. There has been no effort to determine the saturation point of vessels and aircraft, and reports of serious safety violations are not taken seriously. There is no full time manager of the airport – it is run off the side of the desk of the Harbourmaster. I would require 2 actions immediately – 1. the city needs to hire a consultant familiar with both aviation and marine navigation to review the revised draft Water Airport Regulation, to ensure that includes safety and environmental measures that are relevant to Victoria and reflect accepted industry standards. 2. Call a meeting with Transport Canada to pressure them to properly fund and manage the harbour airport. Adopt the Downtown Plan option that was recommended by the public after a public review process. This version has increased density and height at the north end of downtown. This would respect the heritage values in the area adjacent to the harbour, and is consistent with existing policy which requires height to rise as distance increased from the Inner Harbour. Review the density bonus policy to ensure that the list of ‘allowable' amenities reflects current needs in downtown – i.e. affordable housing (either on site or through funding for the Affordable Housing Fund), open spaces/plazas, space for cultural amenities etc. With regard to providing funding for AHF, a formula needs to be agreed on based on the increased real estate value and developer's costs. • Please state your opinion about, and a corresponding action you would propose that the City of Victoria adopt, on the following issues: • Park planning/green space – all current parks, playlots and greenspaces need to be both designated as park land and zoned for park use only. Increasing open/park space in downtown is a challenge as the cost for the city to purchase land is significant. My preference would be to increase open space through density bonusing. • Late night downtown issues – this needs to be addressed in two ways – 1. working with the Liquor Licensing Branch to ensure that patrons are not being over-served. 2. ensure that there is police presence on the street at pub/bar closing time. If these measures are not successful I would consider extending closing time to 4am. • Policing and safety – the Mayor and Police Board need to appoint a better police chief (better than the previous one) who is able to restore morale in the police force, so that they can operate effectively. I would encourage the Police Board to do a review of deployment to ensure that people are safe and resources are used effectively. I also support the amalgamation of municipal police forces. • Continuing residential development – I support additional housing in downtown, but the city has a responsibility to ensure a good quality of life for current/potential residents. This speaks to the need for more effective policing and liquor management as discussed above. As part of the review of density bonusing I would like to have an analysis of whether this tool is still required to encourage market housing downtown. I will support the use of density bonusing to encourage affordable and/or supported housing downtown. • Additional cultural/social amenities – I support the city's ongoing support of downtown festivals. I will also continue to support the current system of encouraging and regulating street musicians (buskers). In terms of social amenities, we need more gathering spaces – most particularly the upgrading of Centennial Square, which has been planned for many years and is being dealt with in a piece-meal manner. We need more public toilet facilities – maybe this could be considered as a density bonus amenity. • Commercial prosperity - I will vote to continue to provide funding to the Economic Development Commission and the Greater Victoria Development Agency, which are responsible for economic development, and in particular the Chamber of Commerce's task force on promoting sustainable economic development. • Transportation planning – I am a strong proponent for using the E&N tracks to bring commuters in to the city from the western communities and from up-island. At this time we are hampered by the lack of a regional transportation authority, so planning – such as the recent Douglas St. bus corridor plan – is done piecemeal and does not address how people are going to transfer from one type of transport to another. The city's representatives on the BC Transit Board and the CRD Transportation Committee need to continually push this regional perspective. Similarly, the location for a new downtown (inter-city) bus terminal needs to address how passengers are going to transfer to local buses or rail. Local bus service needs to reflect local needs. Currently the service to Camosun and UVic – where car ownership is often not an option – is woefully inadequate. More buses (or double deckers) need to be allocated to these routes, and late night bus service needs to be added. BC Transit service to Ogden Point, linked to the cruise ship schedule, will serve this sector and replace the environmentally unfriendly highway coaches currently used to shuttle passengers to downtown. • Infrastructure improvements – land use planning should be linked to service capacity. If the sewage pipe system does not have the capacity to take extra development, it should not be approved. We have already reached this point, with a local developer being asked to build a sewage holding tank because the system does not have capacity to accept extra sewage during the day. The need for costly infrastructure improvement could be offset by better understanding and encouragement of green building technology. With this approach buildings can be designed with the capacity to recycle grey water, reducing the need for city sewage and waste infrastructure. • Budget priorities – priority must be given to maintaining the city's current level of services. • Property taxes • The Social Health of Downtown There are 214 Non Profits funded by the United Way in Victoria. Funding Analysis shows that their volunteer base and number of funders is declining. Many of these Non Profits are charged with providing essential services for the social health of Victoria. Now that the economic climate is weakening these services are more important than ever. How would you work to support Non Profits in the community, and what role do you see the City playing in helping keep this sector strong? The City has a limited role to play in this area, but I agree that non-profits have an even more urgent need to be effective and efficient, as some sources of funding (namely the Victoria Foundation) do not seem to be available as they were in the past. Some very small non-profits suffer from an inability to attract qualified volunteers to serve on their Board of Directors or in any other capacity, and have limited funding. For these agencies it may make sense to join with an existing non-profit with the same mandate. I have served on countless Boards of Directors and recently served on the Board of a small agency that struggled for years before I came along and has now dissolved and turned the service over to a larger agency that has staffing with expertise in the area. I would encourage non-profits to work together in coalitions such as the Coalition of Neighbourhood Houses and/or the Community Council, which sponsors the Quality of Life Challenge and the Housing Affordability Partnership. We have a Coalition to end Homelessness, we have a plan, but we don't have all of the organizations working together yet. The new mayor and council will be charged in ensuring that this is resolved or the Coalition will not be successful and the problems will only get worse. How do you propose getting all 214 non-profits to come to the table and work together under the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness to provide a more seamless provision of services to those in need and stop providing a duplication of services and therefore a waste of valuable funding? I would certainly not want to see all 214 agencies at the table of the Coalition. Currently the governance model is, in my opinion, over-populated as it is managed by several committees, each of which has 12-19 members, and is lacking a clear line of communication between the committees and the Co-Chairs. This can lead to frustration and bogging-down of the process, especially when quick decisions need to be made. As stated above, I would encourage non-profits to work with existing coalitions. The United Way is currently part of the Coalition's governance structure, and has strong links to many non-profits. The Community Council does not appear to be at the table (although members of the Housing Affordability Partnership are) and maybe the Council should be added to the Coalition table. • Making Plans become Realities The City planning department, in cooperation with community associations and other stakeholder groups has created some excellent plans to ensure the success and vitality of downtown. Unfortunately some of these plans have been "in the works" for many years without much tangible progress on the ground. In particular we are concerned about the following four plans: • The Downtown Plan – The City needs not just to adopt this plan but also to consider how to activate it, fund it, and make sure things come to pass. • The Harbourfront Walkway Plan , which would connect the harbour from Ogden Point all the way up to the Selkirk trestle. Two key areas are the Belleville Terminal and the Blue Bridge. • An excellent plan adopted in 1992 entitled the Downtown Beautification Strategy which seems to have fallen into disuse. • The Greenways Plan which will make our city a more sustainable, walkable and liveable place. Are you aware of all these initiatives? How will you move these ideas out of the "plans and incentives stage" and towards action and results? I am familiar with all of these plans, with the exception of the Downtown Beautification Strategy. I am disappointed that Council has not adopted the Downtown Plan, as at least 2 years of staff and community work have gone in to it. I would like to see it adopted as soon as possible. The Greenways Plan appears to be imbedded in the city's parks process, and the Harbourfront Walkway Plan seems to be well in hand – the new parks staff are working on the next stages of it, and it does not appear to be abandoned. 6. Monitoring the Well-being of Downtown Much of the progress downtown Victoria has made over the last few years has been the result of a very strong economic climate. There are signs that this climate is weakening, and the question on our minds is, “Have we made enough progress to sustain ourselves over the coming times?” How would you provide diligence in monitoring the health of downtown retail and services? By attending meetings of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, and reviewing the advice of the city's Downtown Coordinator, the Downtown Residents Association, and the Councillor liaison to the Downtown Residents Association. Are you willing to take a stand in supporting more residential density downtown as part of ensuring environmental, social and economic sustainability in our region? As per the proposed option for the Downtown Plan, I support additional height and density in the north end of downtown. Are you prepared to take leadership in ensuring that downtown provides the cultural and educational resources appropriate to it's role as the hub of the provincial capital? Yes. What kind of priority will you give issues such as building a new and up-to-date Central Library, encouraging institutions such as the Art Gallery, or University to come downtown? I support locating the Central Library as part of the Centennial Square re-development, which has been on the books for a long time. I also support the desire of the Art Gallery to move downtown, but as they require a 50,000 sq. ft stand alone building, which should also have outdoor landscaping/sculpture court and parking, finding space large enough will be a challenge. I do not feel that there is sufficient space next to the Crystal Gardens and do not support building it on the Cridge Park/lawn bowling sites. My preference is to revive the 1994 proposal to locate the Art Gallery on the south shore of Rock Bay. An architecturally outstanding gallery on this site would add to the tourism appeal of the city, and would serve as a “target” to move pedestrians north through downtown, the design district and Chinatown, serving to enliven these parts of downtown. The Art Gallery also has a role to play in mounting a capital campaign, as the city has very limited funds to put towards this project. back to candidate list .
info@dv2020.ca

DRA & DV2020 Election Questions
for a Better Downtown Victoria
Submitted by Pieta VanDyke

www.pietavandyke.com

• Please list specific initiatives and proposals you will put forward to improve the livability of Downtown for its residents.

Harbour Airport – While the airport has been certified as a water airport since 2000, there has been no monitoring of flight and taxiing activity to determine if it is meeting requirements in the current draft Water Airport Regulation. There has been no effort to determine the saturation point of vessels and aircraft, and reports of serious safety violations are not taken seriously. There is no full time manager of the airport – it is run off the side of the desk of the Harbourmaster. I would require 2 actions immediately – 1. the city needs to hire a consultant familiar with both aviation and marine navigation to review the revised draft Water Airport Regulation, to ensure that includes safety and environmental measures that are relevant to Victoria and reflect accepted industry standards. 2. Call a meeting with Transport Canada to pressure them to properly fund and manage the harbour airport.

Adopt the Downtown Plan option that was recommended by the public after a public review process. This version has increased density and height at the north end of downtown. This would respect the heritage values in the area adjacent to the harbour, and is consistent with existing policy which requires height to rise as distance increased from the Inner Harbour.

Review the density bonus policy to ensure that the list of ‘allowable' amenities reflects current needs in downtown – i.e. affordable housing (either on site or through funding for the Affordable Housing Fund), open spaces/plazas, space for cultural amenities etc. With regard to providing funding for AHF, a formula needs to be agreed on based on the increased real estate value and developer's costs.

• Please state your opinion about, and a corresponding action you would propose that the City of Victoria adopt, on the following issues:

• Park planning/green space – all current parks, playlots and greenspaces need to be both designated as park land and zoned for park use only. Increasing open/park space in downtown is a challenge as the cost for the city to purchase land is significant. My preference would be to increase open space through density bonusing.

• Late night downtown issues – this needs to be addressed in two ways – 1. working with the Liquor Licensing Branch to ensure that patrons are not being over-served. 2. ensure that there is police presence on the street at pub/bar closing time. If these measures are not successful I would consider extending closing time to 4am.

• Policing and safety – the Mayor and Police Board need to appoint a better police chief (better than the previous one) who is able to restore morale in the police force, so that they can operate effectively. I would encourage the Police Board to do a review of deployment to ensure that people are safe and resources are used effectively. I also support the amalgamation of municipal police forces.

• Continuing residential development – I support additional housing in downtown, but the city has a responsibility to ensure a good quality of life for current/potential residents. This speaks to the need for more effective policing and liquor management as discussed above. As part of the review of density bonusing I would like to have an analysis of whether this tool is still required to encourage market housing downtown. I will support the use of density bonusing to encourage affordable and/or supported housing downtown.

• Additional cultural/social amenities – I support the city's ongoing support of downtown festivals. I will also continue to support the current system of encouraging and regulating street musicians (buskers). In terms of social amenities, we need more gathering spaces – most particularly the upgrading of Centennial Square, which has been planned for many years and is being dealt with in a piece-meal manner. We need more public toilet facilities – maybe this could be considered as a density bonus amenity.

• Commercial prosperity - I will vote to continue to provide funding to the Economic Development Commission and the Greater Victoria Development Agency, which are responsible for economic development, and in particular the Chamber of Commerce's task force on promoting sustainable economic development.

• Transportation planning – I am a strong proponent for using the E&N tracks to bring commuters in to the city from the western communities and from up-island. At this time we are hampered by the lack of a regional transportation authority, so planning – such as the recent Douglas St. bus corridor plan – is done piecemeal and does not address how people are going to transfer from one type of transport to another. The city's representatives on the BC Transit Board and the CRD Transportation Committee need to continually push this regional perspective. Similarly, the location for a new downtown (inter-city) bus terminal needs to address how passengers are going to transfer to local buses or rail. Local bus service needs to reflect local needs. Currently the service to Camosun and UVic – where car ownership is often not an option – is woefully inadequate. More buses (or double deckers) need to be allocated to these routes, and late night bus service needs to be added. BC Transit service to Ogden Point, linked to the cruise ship schedule, will serve this sector and replace the environmentally unfriendly highway coaches currently used to shuttle passengers to downtown.

• Infrastructure improvements – land use planning should be linked to service capacity. If the sewage pipe system does not have the capacity to take extra development, it should not be approved. We have already reached this point, with a local developer being asked to build a sewage holding tank because the system does not have capacity to accept extra sewage during the day. The need for costly infrastructure improvement could be offset by better understanding and encouragement of green building technology. With this approach buildings can be designed with the capacity to recycle grey water, reducing the need for city sewage and waste infrastructure.

• Budget priorities – priority must be given to maintaining the city's current level of services.

• Property taxes

• The Social Health of Downtown

There are 214 Non Profits funded by the United Way in Victoria. Funding Analysis shows that their volunteer base and number of funders is declining. Many of these Non Profits are charged with providing essential services for the social health of Victoria. Now that the economic climate is weakening these services are more important than ever. How would you work to support Non Profits in the community, and what role do you see the City playing in helping keep this sector strong?

The City has a limited role to play in this area, but I agree that non-profits have an even more urgent need to be effective and efficient, as some sources of funding (namely the Victoria Foundation) do not seem to be available as they were in the past. Some very small non-profits suffer from an inability to attract qualified volunteers to serve on their Board of Directors or in any other capacity, and have limited funding. For these agencies it may make sense to join with an existing non-profit with the same mandate. I have served on countless Boards of Directors and recently served on the Board of a small agency that struggled for years before I came along and has now dissolved and turned the service over to a larger agency that has staffing with expertise in the area. I would encourage non-profits to work together in coalitions such as the Coalition of Neighbourhood Houses and/or the Community Council, which sponsors the Quality of Life Challenge and the Housing Affordability Partnership.

We have a Coalition to end Homelessness, we have a plan, but we don't have all of the organizations working together yet. The new mayor and council will be charged in ensuring that this is resolved or the Coalition will not be successful and the problems will only get worse. How do you propose getting all 214 non-profits to come to the table and work together under the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness to provide a more seamless provision of services to those in need and stop providing a duplication of services and therefore a waste of valuable funding?

I would certainly not want to see all 214 agencies at the table of the Coalition. Currently the governance model is, in my opinion, over-populated as it is managed by several committees, each of which has 12-19 members, and is lacking a clear line of communication between the committees and the Co-Chairs. This can lead to frustration and bogging-down of the process, especially when quick decisions need to be made. As stated above, I would encourage non-profits to work with existing coalitions. The United Way is currently part of the Coalition's governance structure, and has strong links to many non-profits. The Community Council does not appear to be at the table (although members of the Housing Affordability Partnership are) and maybe the Council should be added to the Coalition table.

• Making Plans become Realities

The City planning department, in cooperation with community associations and other stakeholder groups has created some excellent plans to ensure the success and vitality of downtown. Unfortunately some of these plans have been "in the works" for many years without much tangible progress on the ground. In particular we are concerned about the following four plans:

• The Downtown Plan – The City needs not just to adopt this plan but also to consider how to activate it, fund it, and make sure things come to pass.

• The Harbourfront Walkway Plan , which would connect the harbour from Ogden Point all the way up to the Selkirk trestle. Two key areas are the Belleville Terminal and the Blue Bridge.

• An excellent plan adopted in 1992 entitled the Downtown Beautification Strategy which seems to have fallen into disuse.

• The Greenways Plan which will make our city a more sustainable, walkable and liveable place.

Are you aware of all these initiatives? How will you move these ideas out of the "plans and incentives stage" and towards action and results?

I am familiar with all of these plans, with the exception of the Downtown Beautification Strategy. I am disappointed that Council has not adopted the Downtown Plan, as at least 2 years of staff and community work have gone in to it. I would like to see it adopted as soon as possible. The Greenways Plan appears to be imbedded in the city's parks process, and the Harbourfront Walkway Plan seems to be well in hand – the new parks staff are working on the next stages of it, and it does not appear to be abandoned.

6. Monitoring the Well-being of Downtown

Much of the progress downtown Victoria has made over the last few years has been the result of a very strong economic climate. There are signs that this climate is weakening, and the question on our minds is, “Have we made enough progress to sustain ourselves over the coming times?”

How would you provide diligence in monitoring the health of downtown retail and services?

By attending meetings of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, and reviewing the advice of the city's Downtown Coordinator, the Downtown Residents Association, and the Councillor liaison to the Downtown Residents Association.

Are you willing to take a stand in supporting more residential density downtown as part of ensuring environmental, social and economic sustainability in our region?

As per the proposed option for the Downtown Plan, I support additional height and density in the north end of downtown.

Are you prepared to take leadership in ensuring that downtown provides the cultural and educational resources appropriate to it's role as the hub of the provincial capital?

Yes.

What kind of priority will you give issues such as building a new and up-to-date Central Library, encouraging institutions such as the Art Gallery, or University to come downtown?

I support locating the Central Library as part of the Centennial Square re-development, which has been on the books for a long time. I also support the desire of the Art Gallery to move downtown, but as they require a 50,000 sq. ft stand alone building, which should also have outdoor landscaping/sculpture court and parking, finding space large enough will be a challenge. I do not feel that there is sufficient space next to the Crystal Gardens and do not support building it on the Cridge Park/lawn bowling sites. My preference is to revive the 1994 proposal to locate the Art Gallery on the south shore of Rock Bay. An architecturally outstanding gallery on this site would add to the tourism appeal of the city, and would serve as a “target” to move pedestrians north through downtown, the design district and Chinatown, serving to enliven these parts of downtown. The Art Gallery also has a role to play in mounting a capital campaign, as the city has very limited funds to put towards this project.

DRA & DV2020 Election Questions for a Better Downtown Victoria Submitted by Pieta VanDyke