Link to letter on the Times Colonist website
Four questions about James Bay proposal
I live directly across from a Quebec/Montreal/Kingston Street parking lot on which a developer is proposing to build a huge tower which will dwarf all other structures in that James Bay residential neighbourhood.
While most of us living nearby would like to see the asphalt wasteland replaced by a substantial housing development, it needs to be at a sensible scale for traffic, safety and accessibility reasons, among others.
To proceed as proposed, that project requires significant exceptions to zoning regulations and Victoria’s Official Community Plan.
The developer has applied for these exceptions and council has approved the application for consideration at a public hearing.
I have a few questions about this decision by our civic leaders:
The project’s proponent contributed significant donations to the election campaigns of Mayor Marianne Alto and councillors Jeremy Caradonna, Matt Dell, Krista Loughton and Dave Thompson, all of whom voted to approve the proposal’s advancement.
Shouldn’t they have recused themselves from participating in deciding on a matter that will substantially enrich their benefactor?
None of the three councillors who opposed the project accepted financial donations from this developer.
During the public consultation phase, a large majority of participants expressed their opposition to this proposal. How does council justify the expenditures required in such citizen engagement exercises if they are going to ignore the undeniable results of that process?
On the three occasions when council considered input from the city’s professional staff, the experts advised them against moving this project forward. Since most councillors found their employees’ recommendations to be unacceptable in all of these instances, why do they keep using our tax dollars to pay their generous salaries and benefits?
It is rumoured that this developer intends to sell the parking lot rather than erect this inappropriate monstrosity on it.
When council considers approving major exceptions to its plans and regulations in order to authorize a particular construction, shouldn’t it first seek assurance that the developer will in fact deliver on that project?
—Robin Farquhar, Victoria