Quadra Cedar Hill Community Association
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If you haven’t done so yet, be sure to visit the Arts Centre at Cedar Hill Arts & Rec Centre, 3220 Cedar Hill Road. The two gallery spaces (main and cafe) have regularly changing exhibitions of artists’ work in varied media including sculpture, woodworking, textiles and the visual arts. The Centre also offers programs for all ages and levels in visual arts, pottery, dance and performing arts. In addition, spacious studios for ceramics, dance and visual arts are available.
Wesbild Holdings Ltd. has filed its application for redevelopment of the University Heights shopping centre with Saanich. An Open House to unveil the updated plan was held on December 4 at the shopping centre. The application is to redevelop a portion of the site as a mixed-use commercial/residential development including 528 rental units. Existing and proposed site plans are posted on Saanich’s website, along with elevations, landscape and streetscape plans. The development falls within the boundaries of the Gordon Head Residents’ Association but, because of its size and proximity to our and Mount Tolmie’s CA boundaries, QCHCA is also invited to comment to Saanich Planning. If you have input/feedback, you are encouraged to write to Saanich Planning and Council and to cc QCHCA so we can incorporate your comments.
Major plans have been undertaken for the Uptown Douglas Corridor and the Shelbourne Valley and Saanich proposes to work with the community to create a Quadra Corridor plan as part of the Quadra and North Quadra Local Area Plan updating processes. These processes are now ‘paused’ for approximately two years as a result of a Council decision on December 16 to focus on housing affordability and supply. There is an existing Corridor Plan from 1996 and an ‘Ideas Plan’ that resulted from a design Charette conducted in May of 1998 but that was never adopted by Council. These documents may provide useful background as we start to think about our updates. You may also be interested in reading our last Local Area Plan dated March 2001.
According to a Saanich News article on the recently released BC Assessment figures for the region, “average assessments dropped by three per cent in both assessment areas of Saanich to $785,000 for homes inside the boundaries of School District 61 and $979,000 inside the boundaries of School District 63”. Property owners who want to challenge their respective assessments have until January 31 to file an appeal. Property owners should check the various comparative tools available through BC Assessment.
A belated Happy New Year and an enthusiastic welcome to QCHCA’s new website completely rebuilt by the volunteer effort of our website team and our members. Our investment of time and energy gives our community access to news, events, opportunities for involvement, easier membership options and more. Most of all, we hope it provides new and better ways of engaging with you and the issues you care about.
Creating this new website was a top priority for the Association as we faced increasing publication costs and delivery challenges with the Community Roots newsletter. Together with our Facebook page, we believe the site will provide a better and more timely source of information. We welcome your comments, ideas and contributions. Please email our editor: editor@qchca.org
QCHCA continued to be very active throughout the past year. Special thanks to the members of QCHCA’s Board of Directors and committee members. Their dedicated support of the QCHCA organization, funding, activities and events has delivered important services to our community:
Your support of QCHCA has been and continues to be what inspires us to do the work we do. We also rely on membership fees and continued volunteer support to sustain a vibrant, beautiful, engaged, peaceful and sociable neighbourhoods for all members of our great community. Talk to us about how you’d like to get involved . . . we’d love to hear from you!
Susan Haddon, QCHCA President
The recently updated Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) identifies two key housing-related priorities integral to the long term livability and sustainability of the region: 1) the development of policies and strategies designed to promote and support a range of housing types and tenures to meet the needs of individuals of all ages, incomes and abilities; and 2) initiatives to improve housing affordability including the provision of a mix of housing types (market and non-market).
Its five goals are:
Saanich is one of 11 municipalities participating in the CRD-led Housing Needs Assessment, the results of which will be complete by December 2020. The data will be helpful to Saanich in developing its proposed housing strategy, a priority initiative that was the stated reason for ‘pausing’ our and subsequent Local Area Plan updates. Mayor Haynes has established a Standing Committee on Housing Affordability and Supply “to make recommendations to Council on means by which to improve access to affordable housing within the District”. These meetings are open to the public.
At its regular meeting on December 16, 2019, a motion was put to Council and approved to ‘pause’ the updating process for our Quadra and North Quadra’s Local Area Plans (LAPs). This was done “to enable resources to be applied to Saanich-wide housing needs and the pros and cons of doing so”. The ‘pause’ is for an indeterminate amount of time but likely about two years at minimum.
QCHCA’s and North Quadra’s LAP updating processes were to begin last Fall, according to a schedule approved by Council in September 2017. Our current LAP was completed in 2001 so is in need of updating. North Quadra’s process was to happen in parallel and the Quadra Corridor was to be treated as a ‘special area’ within the two plans. We hope that this is the way the process will unfold once the ‘pause’ has ended.
Council’s agenda package that includes Planning’s report and video recording of the discussion provide background.
The Association’s executive is comprised of six officer positions and nine Area Director roles. For details on the Association, our board members, a map showing the Quadra Cedar Hill CA boundaries and our nine neighbourhood areas, click here.
Come work your muscles and your mind with Saanich’s Pulling Together Volunteer Program. Volunteers work on high rocky outcrops, creek side forests, wetlands, wildflower meadows and waterways. This hands-on, inclusive, ecological restoration program has been in place since 1999 and is now active in 55 different parks and natural areas. Teams work with a lead steward in each park to remove invasive species, plant native trees and shrubs, improve wildlife habitat, plan and monitor the progress of ecological restoration work and to educate others about parks, invasive species and ecological restoration. To find out in which parks Pulling Together teams will be working and on which days and times, check here
February harvest!
A recent Huffington Post article suggests seven ways each of us can contribute to a more sustainable future. These include stopping eating (or eating less) meat, unplugging our devices, driving less, not buying ‘fast’ fashion, planting a garden, eating local (and organic) and line-drying our clothes.
