Posted Jul 13, 2022, 3:25 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,982
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Hey Scaper, did you get up to the top of Vista 18 to get your photo?
905er - yep, for a relatively small city Victoria offers a really good urban experience with tons surrounded by a great natural environment.
Arrdee - good question, as with any city there are pros and cons, and flip sides to the coin.
The city council appears to be widely loathed, yet the main group has been in power for a decade.. so? There are no business or even right of centre types on council, it ranges from communist (no for real) to idealist left-wing, to moderate left wing, to left of centre, with perhaps one who is slightly right of centre. One good thing that can be said for them is that they have approved a fair bit of development, although often putting developers through the wringer - 10 years and over a half a dozen different designs for one prominent proposal. They have done a good job of expanding the bike network, street calming, etc. They do a good job of expecting more from developers in terms of street presence for the most part (minimizing parkade entrances, etc.).
Developers know how to get approvals - don’t propose anything too tall or flashy to draw negative attention for being excessive (bad capitalism and rich people!), pay attention to how the building will connect to the street, the block and the neighbourhood. Most of the new builds are done by a relatively small number of developers from Victoria and Vancouver with long established proven track records, working with key local architects and those from Vancouver as well as Toronto and Winnipeg (5468796) in some cases.
Victoria developments are on small lots, most of the new condo/apartment construction the past couple decades on parking lots which have nearly been eliminated now. That 50 storey gold tower in Kelowna would never get approved in Victoria - for better or for worse. While quality of design is pretty good, the city likes to be cautious and play it safe. This has helped it avoid the excess of most architectural trends - thus is really doesn’t look much like Vancouver or many other Canadian cities. People here really care about beauty in their homes, buildings and gardens. It gives the city a refined look throughout, expressed in various ways regardless of wealth.
The city has always been one of the most expensive in Canada on all fronts. Because of the climate and natural surroundings people want to move here regardless, which has more cons than pros right now, including an increasing divide between rich and poor. Anyways, I could go down many tangents but I’m already boring myself, lol.
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