The District of Saanich’s plan to set priorities over how land near two major transportation corridors could develop over the next 20-plus years is returning for public consultation with some major changes.
The Quadra and McKenzie plan, which has been in the works since 2023, has prompted marathon and, at times, heated public meetings.
Some say the plan includes too much density in traditionally single-family neighbourhoods, while others feel it doesn’t go far enough in providing transit infrastructure on the two major Saanich corridors, among the top-five busiest transit routes in the region.
Council voted 5-3 in early July to send the revised plan out for public consultation.
From August to November, the district will host everything from pop-up events to open houses, webinars and an online survey as part of the $30,000 public-engagement process.
Cameron Scott, the district’s manager of community planning, said a previous round of engagement last year drew more than 12,000 comments.
He’s expecting to receive a similar amount — if not more — this time around. “There’s a lot of community passion around how this area changes in the future, so I would expect that will bring a fairly healthy engagement in the fall.”
23,000 new homes to be built over next two decades
Scott said the district’s priority is to direct future housing growth into areas that already have busy transit routes, as Saanich looks to meet its provincial housing targets of building 23,000 new homes over the next two decades. “We’re setting the future context for development.”
How and when privately owned lands are developed is up to their owners, so it’s hard to have an idea of how much — or when — those units might be built, he said.
“Even though the scale of changes seems quite dramatic, a lot of times the reality of how it is implemented is much slower.”
Scott didn’t give a number to the Times Colonist, but he said he’s expecting a “good chunk” of those new homes will end up in the Quadra-McKenzie area.
Apart from the Quadra and McKenzie areas, Saanich is looking at the areas around Uptown, Royal Oak Centre, Tillicum-Burnside and the Shelbourne Valley corridor to accommodate more growth, though Quadra-McKenzie is the largest of the five areas.
The district is aiming to build most of its new housing in those areas, which make up about four to five per cent of the municipality’s land mass.
The Quadra-McKenzie plan covers an estimated 25,500 of the 117,000 residents who live in Saanich — about 21 per cent of the district’s population.
Currently, 59 per cent of the homes in the Quadra McKenzie corridor lands are single-detached homes, apartments make up 27 per cent of homes in the area, while nine per cent are townhouses.
Six in 10 households are owners, while the others rent. Just one per cent of the current homes in the area are non-market housing.
Height limit cut from eight storeys to six in some areas
Scott said there’s not much of a distinctive identity to the Quadra-McKenzie area, as people tend to identify with their neighbourhoods, such as Lakehill, North Quadra and Braefoot — all of which are largely car-centric commuter suburbs.
However, from a planning perspective, the Quadra and McKenzie roadways stitch all of these neighbourhoods together, he said. “These are really critical transit connections where we can efficiently move people and connect them to work, destinations and social connections.”
The plan aims to make some of those connections closer to home. It divides the corridors into eight sub-areas, concentrating development around “hubs” providing amenities such as coffee shops or daycares within walking distance.
For example, the Falmouth hub, located around Falmouth Road and Quadra Street — where there’s currently a gas station and a four-storey apartment complex — would have commercial zoning and be zoned for residential mid-rises of up to eight storeys.
However, in the revised plan, the maximum height has been reduced from eight storeys to six for most mid-rise apartment buildings along roadways such as McKenzie, Quadra, Cook, Tattersall, Union, Cedar Hill Cross and Blenkinsop.
Other hubs farther from downtown core are smaller, such as a proposed hub on Beckwith Avenue near Quadra Street, which would only allow six-storey apartments on four sections of Beckwith Avenue.
Saanich planner Tami Gill said this will be the first full regional land-use plan for the area, which builds on the Official Community Plan that Saanich adopted last year.
North Quadra neighbourhood focus of most changes
Scott said the height and density limits for a number of properties in the Quadra North area have been reduced in the new plan under council’s direction.
The North Quadra neighbourhood has limited walkability and is mostly made up of single-family homes.
The area, home to dairy and sheep farms starting in the mid-1800s, only became a suburb starting in the mid-1950s.
Under the plan, density in the neighbourhood will be concentrated along the main strip of Quadra Street.
“A lot of the future growth is focused on being within walking distance of Quadra Street, and the area where we are looking at potentially [allowing] up to six-storey buildings has been narrowed fairly significantly from the previous draft,” Scott said.
The previous version of the plan would have allowed mid-rises to be built a full block away from Quadra Street, which would have made eight-storey apartments possible on Kincaid Street and Beckwith Place, as well as cul-de-sacs such as Panorama Place and Maltwood Close.
Bus lanes on McKenzie punted into future
Scott said the original plan had identified McKenzie Avenue as a potential spot for dedicated bus lanes. The revised plan makes no mention of that now.
“Essentially, that area between the curbs has been removed in terms of future direction,” he said.
Sidewalk and boulevard improvements are still planned on that roadway, but talk of bus lanes on McKenzie has now been deferred to the future, he said.
Under the old plan, the number of private-vehicle lanes in each direction on McKenzie would have eventually been reduced to one to allow bike and bus lanes to run from the highway interchange to the University of Victoria.
That change drew significant pushback over fears that it would send traffic down side streets. It was nixed by council earlier this year.
Up to 24 storeys near Quadra-McKenzie intersection
One change that was repeatedly brought up at the council table on July 7 as a potential concern was the increase in allowable heights at the Quadra-McKenzie intersection for some lots to 24 storeys from 18 under the revised plan.
Any proposed building of that height would be limited to specific lots facing either McKenzie or Quadra.
A staff report says the increased density was added to encourage redevelopment at the intersection where the two major transit corridors meet, and that it would help achieve the goals of the district’s Official Community Plan.
Other areas where towers of up to 18 storeys could be built include the intersection of Shelbourne Street and McKenzie Avenue and the intersection of Gordon Head Road and McKenzie, both of which are near UVic.
More details can be found at hello.saanich.ca/en/projects/quadra-mckenzie-study.
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