Link to letter on the Times Colonist website
Giant tower for James Bay is unwanted
I read in the Vancouver Sun last week that 4,840 brand new condos are unsold in Metro Vancouver. Off-plan sales, which are sales before a project is built, have stopped.
Developments have been cancelled or abandoned. Investment buyers, who fuelled the rampant condo price inflation of recent years, have given up. And no wonder. Economic uncertainty and increased costs have massively reduced demand for luxury condos.
The same applies to Victoria, and yet the city council is promoting a gigantic tower at the corner of Quebec, Montreal and Kingston streets. The development needs rezoning because it is out of all proportion to the rest of James Bay.
There have been many letters in the Times Colonist pointing out the reasons this is a terrible idea, most recently: “Six storeys is enough for James Bay.” 25 There will be a public hearing since the project requires rezoning.
Perhaps the most powerful argument against the tower is the fact that this “monstrous carbuncle” is unwanted by city planners, local residents, investors and homebuyers alike, and would be a dead loss economically.
—Diana Clift, Victoria