Oak Bay OKs 4-storey Bowker Ave. project
Oak Bay councillors gave narrow approval Monday for a mixed-used commercial and condominium building at Cadboro Bay Road and Bowker Avenue.
Councillors voted four to three to approve Abstract Developments’ 43-unit, four-storey project, on a triangular piece of land along the two streets.
Councillors Tom Croft, Michelle Kirby, Tara Ney, and Mayor Nils Jensen all voted in favour, citing the needs for more housing in Oak Bay and for improvements to the intersection promised by the developer.
“We need to build housing,” said Kirby, prior to the vote. “There just isn’t enough.”
The decision followed a seven-hour public hearing last week in which pros and cons were debated. The site now holds three houses, a duplex and a commercial office building.
Once the new building is completed, it will house ground-floor retail outlets with residential units above. The residential units will range in size from 700-squarefoot one-bedroom apartments to 1,300 square feet with two bedrooms.
Costs have not been finalized, but the developer has estimated the units will start in the mid-$500,000 range.
Under the plan approved by council, a restaurant will occupy at least one of the commercial spaces on the ground floor.
Abstract had offered $100,000 to improve the road at the street corner, which councillors all agreed is a cause for safety concerns.
Abstract is also proposing to widen the sidewalks and recess the street parking to make way for a future bicycle lane.
The development will be “solar ready,” to allow rooftop panels to be installed at a later date.
It will have an electric car, with ownership shared by residents, allowing residents the option of travel without owning a vehicle.
“We have really tried to take this building into the future,” Abstract president Mike Miller said in an interview Monday after the vote.
Miller could not say when construction will start, but expected sales work to begin soon.
Jensen said the project promises to bring life to a commercial area that is now “moribund,” and echoed comments from other councillors who cited the need for more and a greater variety of housing in his municipality.
Councillors Hazel Braithwaite, Kevin Murdoch and Eric Zhelka all said they appreciated the effort Abstract had made to abide by Oak Bay’s official community plan and the efforts made at working with the municipality’s various committees.
But they still voted against Abstract’s project, citing concerns such as size, the shade it will cast on nearby houses and the shallowness of the building’s setback from the sidewalk.
They also cited the need for council to first hammer out a proper “housing strategy,” in addition to the official community plan.