Tower height reduced and waterfront pathway added to Capital Iron lands plan
A proposal to transform two city blocks on the water at the north end of Victoria’s downtown cleared its first hurdle this week, but lost a bit of height and some design elements in the process.
Reliance Properties’ plan for the seven acres around the landmark Capital Iron store was endorsed by council’s committee of the whole, after it was revised to reduce the height of planned residential towers and include a waterfront pathway.
The project, to be built out over the next decade or so, includes more than 500 residential units, commercial and office space and a potential new home for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria on the property, which includes 400 feet of waterfront.
Three heritage buildings — Capital Iron, Valhalla Pure and a small brick building, all along Store Street — would be preserved, and up to 12 buildings with a mix of light industrial, office, commercial and residential apartments would be added.
“This is truly an absolutely transformational proposal,” said Mayor Marianne Alto, echoing the sentiments of several councillors. “There is no doubt at all that finally a significant portion of what I think of as the north end of the downtown is going to, should this succeed, reflect a completely different vision for that part of the city.”
After the vote, Reliance chief executive Jon Stovell said it was good to see the project move forward, but the changes will create challenges.
The heights of two residential towers on the city block bordered by Store, Government, Chatham and Discovery streets were reduced to 14 storeys from 20 and 15.
“We feel we’re going to be a little bit challenged to make that look as good architecturally,” Stovell said, though he acknowledged the city was prepared to offer increased density on the site.
“Our task now is to basically redeploy the area lost from the upper part of those buildings around the site and also take the extra density they granted us.”
The result will be a squatter, more bulky design, he said.
Stovell said having to redesign the project to accommodate the reduced height and to ensure a waterfront pathway runs in front of what will be new industrial buildings is likely to take two months.
But it’s not expected to delay the project, as it would be delayed regardless to give notice to neighbours and stakeholders of an amendment to the official community plan.
Stovell said he anticipated there would be changes, as the staff report provided to council recommended having staff work with Reliance to revise the plan instead of proceeding to a public hearing.
“The staff report didn’t give the council an option of going ahead with what we had proposed,” he said.
Stovell said the waterfront pathway doesn’t make a lot of sense, given there will be an industrial user in the space and at this point there is no extension of the path beyond the Capital Iron lands.
However, a majority of council wanted to maintain the pathway right-of-way in case industrial use doesn’t last and an extension is built to the north of the site.
“When we talked about initiating the notion of the David Foster Harbour pathway, now almost 20 years ago, it was predicated on the notion that the public would have access to the waterfront and there would be billions of dollars of development in the upland side of that pathway,” said Coun. Chris Coleman.
Once Reliance submits the altered design to accommodate the revisions council endorsed, city staff will prepare a report for council and bring it back to committee of the whole ahead of a public hearing.
Coun. Dave Thompson called it a “very important development.”
“It’s a part of town that is desperately in need of revitalization, which the employment and housing contribution can really help out with,” he said.
“This could become one of the great parts of our city. It’ll probably be one of the most important decisions that this council makes this term.”