I note the Oak Bay News article entitled, "Oak Bay shuts the door on resident's plan to subdivide property".
Council has decided to wait for the formation of the new official community plan before deciding that the new zoning changes will apply to the Henderson property. Is it possible to call a halt to the fourplexes on multiple streets in Oak Bay? Why would council prevent subdivision and development on Henderson and not elsewhere in Oak Bay?
The planned fourplex next door to me does not "fit the context of all of the adjacent lots" (Coun. Esther Paterson). (One has only to look at Bowker, just west of Cadboro Bay Road, to see how immense the change to all of Oak Bay will be.)
Coun. Carrie Smart noted, "If approved, the subdivision could have established a precedent for other homeowners in the neighbourhood." She confirmed that, "To make a decision for a subdivision for this particular lot really could be an almost transformative gesture toward implying that the whole grain of this neighbourhood could change in the same manner."
Next door, a single-family home is being demolished and subdivided into four three-bedroom, $1.5-milliion townhouses. They will not help anyone who is housing challenged. I face the prospect of having 12 neighbours on a single-family lot. Will council be fair and consistent by including all of us who are struggling with this misguided blanket rezoning?
I implore you to put all the multiplex developments on hold. The prospect alone of four heat pumps right next door, all working at the same time, is a further threat to life in Oak Bay. If multiplexes on single-family streets are allowed to go forward, we will lose Oak Bay as we know it -- forever.
The meetings "to learn about" the OCP updates are not consultations – which have historically been the spirit and practice of the OCP. Surely we need not have our fate dictated by the province to this extent. The OCP consultations are clustered over just one week. I will be away. Please spread the meetings out so more people can attend.
Of particular concern is council having to budget for upgrading infrastructure spread across the entire municipality instead of changes occurring in defined zones that can condense service upgrades and control costs.
Minister Kahlon has made clear he wants you to change the OCP – thereby acknowledging that it is a valid legal tool to defend our municipality. I urge caution about surrendering your ambit of power through the OCP any further, and hope that you manage to restore your stewardship in our municipality.
Please be fair and consistent. We can stop building fourplexes on single-family lots on streets of single-family homes. We can protect the "grain of this neighbourhood." And we can build affordable housing that serves those who need it most.
This process is terribly stressful as it affects our beloved homes and the future of every street in Oak Bay.
Jessica Van der Veen
Oak Bay
