@aaoakbay
Outdoor Recreation guy. District of Oak Bay Councillor. GVPL Trustee. “This is not a time to be dismayed. This is punk rock time, this is what Joe Strummer prepared you for. It is now time to go. You’re a good person. That means more now than ever”
Our recent OCP provides so few locations for multifamily buildings that these “one off” rezonings are now required for most locations around the District. Means we will be going through this process with virtually every new rental building. No certainty for neighbours or developers.
Rendering of a proposed rental building at 2442 Eastdowne Road
Disappointed to say the least that tonight Oak Bay Council rejected (4-3) a 16 unit dedicated rental building a seven minute walk from the High School and Fort/Foul Bay intersection. Many comments about quality of design, need for rentals, and the lack of changes needed. Yet still, no new housing.
I was walking home from the OB Beach Hotel at exactly the right time and enjoyed it enormously!
Forward.
Can I put in an early request for Guildford in Surrey? So many tales of supergluing loonies to the floor and regular foam bombing of the fountain. Also: fights!
This National Aviation Day, check out our #HeritageMinute on Elsie MacGill, the world's first female aeronautical engineer.
A major student housing project at the University of Victoria (UVic) has been put on hold after the province’s 2026 budget deferred funding for the development.
Beyond this being disappointing just from the POV of needing this housing to relieve pressure on rentals in OB, it also calls into question requesting support for UVic’s development plans for Cedar Hill Corners, for which our Council has conveyed its strong support. news.uvic.ca/2026/bc-budg...
It’s a compromise. More rigorous than some in the CRD, more flexible in other areas. Provides the framework to use the provincial system, which creates consistency. Certainly there are voices both for and against in the community, I think there’s justification to move from unlicensed operations.
I would have liked to have had a debate about our village centres, using the financial viability data included in the consultant’s report. Instead of focusing exclusively on the height of buildings, let’s talk about what businesses we want in OB, and how we boost our economy with those tools. Alas.
Well in my opinion, and I think most people who observed the process would agree- they *weren’t*. The OCP debate became all about the number of units, rather than what *types* of housing were desirable, what positive effects this would accrue, and how smart density would benefit amenities. 1/2
And just for extra emphasis, this year’s number doesn’t include the tens of millions that we will need to borrow over the next five years to replace critical facilities, pushing taxes higher still. How many amenities do we expect current residents to forego?
To be clear, I would typically take a different approach and do not have unrealistic expectations for tax rates, but it is in my view high time for us to confront how the direction we take on growth has real and immediate effects on each household. We can’t have it all, folks.
But despite this, I can see us heading in the direction of tinkering with the small stuff to try and make the tax number look better, without looking at the blue side of the Van diagram. So I brought forward a motion to look at service and operational impacts from a 8% or 10% maximum tax increase.
First projection has us at a 13.0% hike. Now we’re really seeing the costs of years of deferred maintenance bang up against relatively static revenue. And let’s be clear, there are no big new amenities in this budget beyond, you know, the infrastructure we need to keep the District running.
Our recently passed OCP constrains us to very low density, and significantly reduces our ability to expand and diversify the tax base. Let’s take this opportunity to remind ourselves that ~95% of the District’s tax revenues are residential.
It was Provincial budget day yesterday, and as it happened it was the same day we got our first look at the Oak Bay budget projections and tax rates. Let’s just say that I have gone from tapping the sign to banging on it: 1/n
As I mentioned last night, if members of Council are interested in scrapping the AAA standard, then I would seek that they bring forward such a motion explicitly. This motion arising was supported by council, which in my view is a regressive step in achieving a successful AT network. Disappointing.
So I was surprised to hear a motion arising presented last night “that the previously requested constraint of a default design be removed…” first of all, I don’t see the AAA standard as a constraint, I see it as critical to safety. And this default design was a policy of council, duly passed.
Some two years ago when the AT strategy refresh was being laid out, I advocated for the All Ages and Abilities (AAA) standard being the default for all new AT infra. It’s the modern standard and the policy was supported unanimously by Council at that time. I reminded Council of this at the COTW.
Beyond disappointed in a motion brought forward at last night’s meeting that constitutes in my view a regressive step in implementing a proper Active Transportation Network in Oak Bay. We had in front of us an already very modest AT approach recommended by the Committee of the Whole… (1/n)
Happy to support and really interested in this one- AVICC deadline coming up Feb.12, might be doable
I’m having a hard time thinking of an interview between two human beings I enjoyed more than tonight’s interview of the great Ian McKellen by the great Stephen Colbert. Every moment of it was a pleasure that I highly recommend… but then came the most REMARKABLE ending that you really HAVE to watch.
Sign for the new Damascus Market, a grocery and specialty food market in Oak Bay
A happy cyclist outside the Damascus Market after picking up treats for the family
Tasty rolled treats made of pastry, pistachios and honey
Have been meaning to stop by the recently opened Damascus Market in the former Yumbrosia location at Eastdowne and Dalhousie. You should go! Everything looks amazing, and any time I can come home with treats I am popular 😎😄 Please support great local businesses!
There’s a fairly short list of celebrities for me that I felt it would be important, given the opportunity, to tell them how much I loved their work. Catherine O’Hara was one, and I would have told her she was a Canadian icon, and that SCTV was the blueprint for my sense of humour. Too soon.
Pleased that the government has issued a direct response. Read the comments from vets who were actually there- cannot imagine the rage they must feel. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."
— Frank Herbert, Dune
Carney uninvited to join Trump’s ‘Board Of Peace’ alongside Putin, Netanyahu, Lex Luthor, Megatron
A good friend of mine came home with no legs from Afghanistan. I assure you he was not “off the front lines”. Just when I think I can’t get any more incensed by Trump’s comments, he manages to find new angles.
As the standards become more complex, the need for form and character “review” enters the convo more. We also had many conversations about various processes being delegated to staff. For my part, I am glad that this has been done for a number of components. Let’s get some housing built.
