The Trade Mission

Last week’s trip to Long Beach, California, was a trade mission.  I helped staff a display for Carmanah Technologies, a Victoria based business that specializes in solar lighting systems for a variety of community and industrial applications.

Carmanah’s new crosswalk beacon system makes it safer to cross the street, a simple need at probably thousands of locations across North America where too many cars and too many roads are compromising the urban environment, discouraging kids from walking to school and creating a host of other problems in a society becoming too comfortably sedentary.

Solar powered systems are a fraction of the cost of hard-wired systems and Carmanah’s beacons have been well received by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.  The company’s previous forays into the marketplace connected them with the engineering or signal systems communities, but the Pro Walk – Pro Bike – Pro Place conference was a revelation.  The people at this conference are passionate about their work to humanize American cities and make walking and cycling an option for more people again.

I know a lot of the people working in the field, from advocates to practitioners working for cities or states, and some of those who play a major role in developing standards or approving systems for making walking and cycling safer and more appealing in the U.S.  The conference has always had a few handfuls of Canadians and international delegates in attendance, and it’s always good to keep those networks current.  I think if you check with Carmanah, they’ll confirm my impression that I provided a valuable addition to the team, making introductions and connecting their guy with the people who are looking for the kind of technology solutions Carmanah has to offer.

Taking Victoria technology on the road to markets that matter is good for business and I was happy to be part of that.  Carmanah paid the freight – covering my expenses for the conference, and I think they got a good deal.

Previous “trade missions” to previous editions of the Pro Bike conference helped me do my work in Victoria, and our standard bike rack design is a result of my first trip in 1998 (the conference was held in Santa Barbara that year).  The inverted “U” design is now being used in numbers of municipalities in the Capital Region and the basic design has been adopted in Vancouver too.  Our racks are finished and installed by city staff, supporting good jobs here in Victoria.

My next mission unfolded in Philadelphia (2000), where I starting putting together our bid to bring the conference to Victoria.  By 2002 when the conference hit Minneapolis – St. Paul, we had won our bid and, along with other local advocates and a politician in tow, we put together a great promotion to make sure delegates signed up to come.  Pro Bike (as it started out as) had only come to Canada once before, but so many were excited to come to Victoria.  When it arrived in 2004 nearly 600 delegates were here, along with spouses and family, and the various business exhibitors that populate the trade fair element of the program.  Estimates of economic impacts for Victoria approached almost $500,000 in local spending (and yes some of that was on beer).

Pro Walk – Pro Bike next hit Madison, Seattle and Chattanooga, and I made sure I was at all of them.  The Long Beach conference brought the National Center for Bicycling and Walking together with the Project for Public Spaces and attendance has hit 800.  My attendance over the years proved a good foundation for connecting Carmanah to new markets.  Our conference centre asked me a couple months back about bringing the conference to Victoria again and one of my connections from the city of Vancouver will chase me down soon to talk about bringing it to the big city.  Economic development isn’t handed to you; it’s something you have to work at.

I expect Carmanah will harvest all the contacts made and realize some successes at selling their technology to cities in need – and who doesn’t need safer walks to school, a better pedestrian environment, lower collision rates and better health outcomes, to name a few of the benefits of making walking safer again.

Multiply my experience by the many companies and businesses in Victoria who export product or expertise abroad – across Canada, into the U.S. or overseas to established or emerging markets.  Trade missions are good investments, not just junkets for the lucky few.

I worked hard (had a good time with old friends too), and probably added some value to Victoria’s economic prospects while I was at it.  Don’t be fooled by those that offer discount ideas about how we can prosper.  We have to build what we have at home, but we also have to reach out for ideas and take what we have to offer to a world equally as eager for what we can share. 

A week or so ago I dropped a note into the CBC's inbox and sent the same letter to our local newspaper.  It followed the news that Victoria City Council was facing signficant and costly challenges to upgrade the city's building portfolio, after seismic issues and the cost of fixes were shared at a council meeting.  The storyline suggested, incorrectly, that the last council was unaware of the issues and unprepared for the news.

Current councillors endorsed a motion to make sure consulting reports to the city were delivered and shared in a timely matter so council could consider costlier projects with the full knowledge of the pressures any new report might reveal about the city's financial challenges.  The motion and the story were founded on something of a fiction about how much was known about some of the elements of the city's infrastructure deficit, a liability councillors have known about for years.

Here's the unaired, unpublished letter I wrote in response to the flurry of news stories that followed the motion and discussion at council.

Kudos to Lisa Helps and Marianne Alto on pushing for timely release of reports to city council on the details of our infrastructure deficit.  They should know that a timely report to the last council began the discussion about the fate of the Johnson St. Bridge.

To Lisa’s question about whether or not we would have made the choice we did had we known about the costly seismic fixes needed for other city assets, the answer is yes.

Most of the cost of the bridge is unrelated to the fiction of architectural extravagance that Helps and others continue to promote.  Movable bridges are never easy and there are no off the shelf designs that can be dropped into place like a Spencer Rd. interchange. 

Even common models must be adapted to the idiosyncrasies of specific locations and extensive design work and modeling would have been required for any of the options that were considered.  The existing Blue Bridge, with its top heavy, overhead counterweight system, is not a good design for cities like Victoria, where seismic vulnerability is acute.  The engineer most experienced with our bridge told us that of the two choices Victorians had before them in 1920, they picked the wrong one.

Many Victorians, I think, would not, in any event, endorse Helps’ embrace of mediocrity in place of a more sympathetic design for a city that prides itself on presentation.

While the details of seismic issues facing numbers of city owned properties may not have been spelled out in detail, councillors past and present have been repeatedly warned about an existing and growing infrastructure deficit associated with aging infrastructure, including city building portfolios.  The bridge was at the top of the list and we chose a responsible course of action to check that project off the list and start planning for many of the other challenges Victoria faces.

It will be helpful to have timely and detailed reports on infrastructure challenges and other issues provided to council and the public, but councillors should take care to make sure not to re-shape the facts to fit their own storyline.

What's Up . . .

Social media and so many other websites are demanding my attention.  It's keeping me from updating my blogs on what's new or an issue in Victoria I'd like to comment on.  That will still have to wait for another day, but here's a news release I just popped out this afternoon.

Local tech company Carmanah is taking me on the road to help promote lighting and beacon systems that make crossing the street easier and safer.  Who could argue with that?

I haven't missed a Pro Bike conference since I started going in 1998 and brought the whole show here in 2004.  It's a growing event and nearly a 1,000 delegates will attend - engineers, planners, advocates, and companies that do business in support of cycling and walking (bike rack manufacturers, bike share promoters, and of course companies like Carmanah that have technology that can support active transportation.

Part of my mission is funded by the CRD - I'll look for sessions where I can steal ideas (I'm good at that), that will help us as we work here to implement a regional pedestrian and cycling plan.  Design and other programs are evolving fast and this is my professional development opportunity as well as my chance to take away ideas for a more sustainable capital region - part of my mission in life.

Don't be shy - visit my Capital Bike and Walk site at http://capitalbikeandwalk.org or my bike parking resource at www.bicycleparkingonline.org and donate to the cause.  Your support helps us continue the work we need to do to keep a firm grip on our title as the Cycling Capital of Canada, not to mention a most walkable, livable and healthy city too.

For immediate release

September 6, 2012

Road technology offers two way travel for ideas

Capital Bike and Walk Executive Director John Luton will travel to the Pro Walk – Pro Bike – Pro Place conference in  Long Beach, California next week to showcase local Victoria business with Carmanah Technologies and cover learning sessions he hopes will inform implementation strategies for the Capital Region’s Cycling and Pedestrian Master Plan.

Luton will be helping staff Carmanah’s exhibit at a trade fair element of the conference where the company’s innovative solar powered crosswalk lighting systems will be promoted. 

He’s also working with CRD staff to bring back lessons learned to share with local designers and advocates.   “Programs and engineering for active transportation are evolving fast and we need to embrace the most current and cost effective solutions to help realize our common objectives to grow cycling and walking for transportation”, says Luton.  “At Long Beach, I’ll have access to some of the best ideas at work in the world”.

Carmanah's solar flashing beacons can be found across the region and in jurisdictions throughout North America.  A strong Safe Routes to School component to the conference is an ideal target market that Luton hopes to help connect Carmanah with. 

“Making walking to school safer is key to getting kids back on their feet”, says Greg Miller, Managing Director of Traffic at Carmanah.  Carmanah’s new beacon system is known as a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon or RRFB, which is a new device that has been proven by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration to be effective at reducing dangerous pedestrian collisions.  The new device will soon be installed by the District of Saanich on Burnside Road near Marigold Elementary and Spectrum High School.  Saanich is the first municipality in the region that will be installing the new device as part of an evaluation process.

 Luton aims to look at bike share operations, separated bike lane designs, “complete streets” for buses, bikes and pedestrians, car-free streets or events, and more on the newest in bicycle parking.  Capital Bike and Walk continues to work with the Downtown Victoria Business Association, local staff and other user advocates to expand and improve bike parking options downtown to meet rapidly growing demand.

 “I’m excited to be promoting the best of Victoria business and anxious to help keep Victoria and the region building a more active, sustainable and prosperous community.

 For more information:

John Luton,

Executive Director, Capital Bike and Walk

Home:  22 Philippa Place

Victoria, BC  V8S 1S6

250-592-4753

250-886-4166 (cell)

johnluton@shaw.ca

 

About Carmanah Technologies Corporation

As one of the most trusted names in solar technology, Carmanah has earned a reputation for delivering strong and effective products for industrial applications worldwide. Industry proven to perform reliably in some of the world's harshest environments, Carmanah solar LED lights and solar power systems provide a durable, dependable and cost effective energy alternative. Carmanah is a publicly traded company, with common shares listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CMH”. For more information, visit carmanah.com.

 

Media:

Public Relations: David Davies

Tel: 1.250.382.4332

ddavies@carmanah.com

 

New letter off today as I work on various issues.  Lots still to do, but finally sent my letter to the Minister of Transportation about ferry terminal work on Salt Spring Island.  Today's news on building infrastructure to support cycling in the Capital Region reminded me that this missive was overdue.

Here's the letter:

August, 2012

Honourable Blair Lekstrom, MLA

Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure
Province of British Columbia
Minister.Transportation@gov.bc.ca

Dear Minister:

Your ministry and BC Ferries will soon begin upgrades to the Fulford Harbour ferry terminal on Salt Spring Island, the main access for travelers arriving from Vancouver Island at Swartz Bay, north of Victoria.

At this point, BC Ferries and your Ministry are not planning to provide on road facilities on the approaches to or treatments at the terminal to improve levels of service for cyclists.  There are a number of issues this oversight presents:

·         This is inconsistent with your mandate to provide for all modes of transportation along BC’s public roads networks.

·         It undoes much work we have done with the CRD, Islands Trust, and others to develop a cycling plan for Salt Spring Island that would connect locals and visitors alike with key transportation links like ferries and routes between communities on the island.

·         It undermines the work we have done with BC Ferries on equipping vessels with bike racks and inviting cyclists to use the system to reduce reliance on vehicles and;

·         It undermines efforts to create cycling tourism opportunities for Salt Spring and other routes connected to and through the Capital Region.

I’ve worked on a variety of projects to improve cycling in the Capital Region, on Salt Spring Island and also with BC Ferries to provide better facilities for cycling to enhance mobility, improve community and individual health, and contribute positively to our economic diversity and sustainability.

·         I worked as both a consultant and an advocate to develop plans for cycling on Salt Spring Island;

·         I worked with Island Pathways on Salt Spring to develop new trails and identify route and facility opportunities on the Island

·         I worked with BC Ferries to introduce a pilot program to equip ferries with bike racks and to ensure that new ferries in the system are equipped with better bike facilities;

·         I have worked for years promoting cycling tourism on the Island and surrounding area, including a project that profiled a “Tour de Ferries” concept that would help BC Ferries grow this important niche market.

Salt Spring Islanders need better transportation options – they have a new transit service and some cycling routes, but this needs to be knitted together and better connections provided to Vancouver Island and mainland destinations.   Your ministry must continue to work towards a more diverse and sustainable mix of transportation choices for British Columbians at home, when they travel in the province, or for our many out of province visitors who are looking for “green tourism” options for their holidays.  With falling passenger numbers and revenues, BC Ferries needs to grow traffic by offering new or improved services for current or potential markets.

We’ve made great strides in the Capital Region providing programs like Bike to Work Week (supported by your Ministry), extensive on and off-road infrastructure (supported by programs like Local Motion and the various cycling infrastructure funding initiatives administered by your ministry and that of your colleague in Sports and  Community Development).  We have a growing cycling tourism industry and are competing with many other jurisdictions, near and far, that are working to strengthen their tourism economy and enhance visitor experiences and attract more tourist dollars.

The failure to provide bike facilities at Fulford Harbour takes us backwards.  The recent Velo Village event that saw a dedicated ferry sailing fill with cyclists demonstrates  strong local and visitor interest in cycling in the region and on Salt Spring Island in particular.   We’ve made much progress in BC and we need to keep up the momentum.  Please work with BC Ferries to make sure that we provide a full service terminal, a road system that better serves all users, not just drivers.  Our health, our environment and our economic success depends on keeping those commitments.

Sincerely,

John Luton, Executive Director
Capital Bike and Walk Society
Victoria, B.C.

Copies:

·         BC Ferries
·         Minister of the Environment
·         Minister of Tourism
·         Local Ministers and MLAs
·         Opposition critics
·         Media contacts
·         Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition
·         Island Pathways (Salt Spring)
·         BC Cycling Coalition

Fresh letter to the city on bike parking - the low hanging fruit of bicycle facilities, but so hard, it seems, to get it right.

July, 2012

Mayor and Council
City of Victoria
1 Centennial Square
Victoria, BC
V8W 1P6

Re:  Bike parking and the city of Victoria

Last year Victoria completed and adopted a bicycle parking strategy designed to identify policies, legislation, guidelines, hardware choices etc., all in aid of increasing the supply of bike parking in the city and improving the parking hardware and services cyclists have access to when they visit downtown or other destinations around the city.  The new strategy will as well help to ensure that best practices are available to guide development of better storage at homes, workplaces or other destinations where people may travel in numbers.

Working with key stakeholders in downtown business and community groups, the city also introduced a new “Victoria” rack that sits in front of city hall and has lately been installed at many other locations around downtown.  The rack is aesthetic, functional and is now a signature piece of Victoria’s new street furniture.   That project, alongside a program of identifying and testing out “bike corral” locations, (where bike parking has replaced a handful of on-street parking spaces), is delivering more bicycle parking where it is needed and helping to raise the profile of cycling as a viable transportation choice.

The “Victoria” rack was unveiled by the Mayor and has been enthusiastically embraced by cyclists.  Through a unique engagement process that connected cyclists using the new racks with the Downtown Victoria Business Association and cycling organizations, refinements to the design have been introduced to improve the rack design.  More work needs to be done to build on the momentum founded on this partnership and to catch up to the increasing demand for bike parking created by a growing interest in cycling as a preferred means of travel for more and more trip purposes in Victoria and around the Capital Region.  New infrastructure investments like a more bike friendly Johnson St. Bridge, the E&N rail with trail, and new bike lanes in the city and surrounding municipalities are also helping to increase participation.

An installation plan that will replace numbers of outdated racks, expand the supply of bike parking downtown and pilot more new locations for on-street parking corrals has been completed by our task force and we are now looking forward to your continued cooperation to complete this element of the project.   Too many examples of old technology can still be found on city streets and many gaps remain where demand far exceeds the number of rack spaces available.  It creates frustrations for cyclists and often also presents hazards to pedestrians, poses operational problems for city workers, or damage trees or other street furniture installations.  We hope that the city can continue to work with us to celebrate another step in advancing elements of the city’s bicycle master plan by taking the bicycle parking strategy through to the next phase.

The benefits of providing well placed and high quality bicycle parking downtown reach well beyond the cycling community.

·         More and better bike parking invites people to travel to work or come downtown to shop by bike, go the movies or theatre or get to many other destinations that can only be found in downtown Victoria.  That adds to our economic and cultural vibrancy, it relieves traffic congestion for people who must or who choose to drive, and makes it easier for them to find accessible, convenient parking.

·         Well placed and well-designed racks also help make our sidewalks and pedestrian spaces work as intended.  The use of trees, utility poles or poorly suited street furniture for informal bike parking can impede pedestrians or create hazards in the walking environment, especially for those with mobility challenges or sight impairments.  Bikes can also damage trees or otherwise hamper city operations – bikes locked to garbage receptacles are just one example of informal bike parking that may interfere with the work city crews do to keep our streets clean and our downtown tidy.

Completing current initiatives to install more “Victoria” racks is one important step in implementing the bicycle parking strategy council adopted last year.  We are asking also for your ongoing cooperation to continue our work to implement other elements of this important city strategy.

Our downtown bike parking task force will continue to work with business and leaders from the cycling community to monitor the delivery of bike parking downtown, to identify new locations and new strategies to keep up with the growing demand for racks and security, and help roll out new installations.  In support of that initiative we are requesting that the city continue to participate in our task force, and follow through with the actions and deliverables identified in the city’s bicycle parking strategy, as well as continue to work on those ongoing measures that council and staff need to pursue to support a more comprehensive implementation plan.

We are looking forward to

·         Working with Parking Services and Planning to build an alternative transportation fund proposed to follow the retirement of the capital costs of implementing the pay by space vehicle parking system.  The city should allocate some of those funds for installation of more and better bike parking racks and enhanced security and weather protected facilities where practicable.

·         Continue work on parking variance exchange programs to recover some of the value-added benefits that are associated with reductions in vehicle parking requirements for new developments.  Some of the proceeds of such a program could be invested in a retrofit program to provide incentives and best practices guidance for owners and managers of older commercial and multi-unit residential buildings that missed the bicycle revolution and need help in building solutions for better bike parking and storage, and for other destination facilities.

·         Introduce legislation to add destination facility requirements of change rooms, lockers and showers for new or refurbished commercial, institutional or other public and business construction into zoning bylaws to supplement the rack formula requirements adopted by a previous council.

·         Work with our task force to establish more prescriptive and appropriate guidelines for hardware choices or rack designs, as well as installation schemes  to ensure that bicycle parking is functional, convenient, secure and aesthetic, and also ensures practical delivery of the number of spaces identified in site or building plans, or for which hardware choices have been designed for.

·         Add a function to inspections to ensure that developers deliver on requirements identified in their building and/or site plans.

Our task force is happy to work with the city to help design further implementation plans for the bicycle parking strategy, provide letters of support for external grant applications and provide on the ground feedback to help ensure installations meet the needs of cyclists. 

Available programs may include:

·         Green municipal funds from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities or Gas Tax funds administered by the Union of BC Municipalities.

·         New funding options being explored by the CRD.

·         Various provincial programs that may be available to leverage investments in cycling infrastructure.

We look forward to working with you to help more of Victoria’s citizens make the switch to sustainable transportation.

Sincerely,

John Luton, Executive Director

Capital Bike and Walk

Partners in this initiative include:

·         Capital Bike and Walk Society
·         Downtown Victoria Business Association
·         Bike to Work Week
·         Greater Victoria Cycling Coalition
·         Mountain Equipment Coop
·         City of Victoria

Photo:  Raised bike lane, No 3 Rd, Richmond, BC


Fine Tuning the Bridge

The Johnson St. Bridge and road approaches will be back in the public eye on Saturday.  Another open house will be held at Swan’s Hotel, within spitting distance of the bridge.  Turnout for the last open house was good.  Much feedback was provided for city project managers to incorporate into design features, particularly around the public realm.  For cyclists and pedestrians, a much better level of service will emerge on the new bridge.  Still the opportunity to tweak designs to reflect current understanding of target travel markets among cycling populations should not be ignored.

Pedestrians are being well taken care of, though a keen eye needs to be cast on the harbour pathway elements, new sidewalks on the downtown side, and the timing and connections through crosswalks that will help make foot travel more comfortable and convenient.  Now is the time to ensure that we get the details right.

For cyclists though, something is still missing.  To be sure, the new bridge offers a dramatic improvement over current conditions, and the features incorporated into the project a clear winner that helped secure endorsements from the cycling community that were key to the successful referendum.  Despite skepticism from some commentators, the much improved level of service for cyclists is likely to generate significant increases in the number of cyclists crossing the bridge every day.  On occasion, the numbers already exceed 4,000 trips a day – almost 20% of all vehicle trips counted on the bridge.

At every occasion though, when bridge designs were presented to council, or when I had the opportunity to share my ideas with staff and engineers, I pushed for a more emphatic design that would provide better physical separation from adjacent traffic on the bridge and along approach corridors.  It doesn’t have to be a cycle track like Hornby or the Dunsmuir projects in Vancouver, but there are other, more simple treatments that must be considered. 

Raised bike lanes are cheaper and more easily implemented than these more aggressive designs.  They make sure cars stay in their travel lane and raise cyclists a few centimetres above the vehicle lane, a few centimetres below the sidewalk.  It still features a “roll-over” curb that allows cyclists to move off the facility when or where they need to change lanes or direction, and it would still work for emergency vehicles when the situation requires it.

As the city works with firms that have made it this far in the process, they need to propose options for fine tuning pricing and design elements, and they should at raised bike lanes for the bridge deck and road approaches.  No doubt it adds some cost and complexity to a design that has faced enough challenges already, but support for shifting travel choices has always been key to the project and support in the community.

It won’t sit well with my colleagues who remain on council, nor, certainly, some who have taken my place around the table, that I am proposing another cost escalator, but there is an option.  Thus far the Province of BC has contributed not a penny to help build Victoria’s new bridge.  They recently regurgitated their fragments of cycling infrastructure funding programs and an innovative treatment like raised bike lanes should be eligible for support.  A sensible approach, though currently absent from program criteria, would have the province fund most of the cost of those improvements to help implement what is really an innovation rather than a routine project.   It might help them better design projects on their own bridges or provide a model for other municipalities so it may serve more than just local needs.

We need to get creative here – the bridge is designed for a 100 year service life and we can expect bicycle transportation to grow and maintain a very significant share of traffic using the bridge.  It’s not a major scope change requiring a new referendum or, like the illusory simplicity offered by those who would start all over again, a significant impact on project schedules.  It’s a feature that can work and can usefully help achieve city, regional and even provincial objectives.  It’s an option that deserves to be back on the table.

Dockside Green and Good Neighbours

Dockside Green, the languishing development project across the street from Point Hope Shipyards and likewise a stone’s throw from downtown and the Johnson St. Bridge, has been an issue of late, and truth be told, for much longer, as the second guessing continues in fits and starts.  To be fair, this and other way stations in the evolution of Victoria are targets of legitimate debate and discussion.  But or what it’s worth, here are some of my latest thoughts on the past and the present, and why Dockside still makes sense and well-tended, a promising future, and why the critics are off base.

Dockside was sold to private developers more than a decade ago, and with a grand vision to create a mixed use neighbourhood on what had been a busy rail-yard and a hodgepodge of industrial properties, long ago abandoned amid convoluted ownership arrangements.  City, provincial and private owners faced the challenge of contaminated soils needing millions in cleanup before it could be rescued for new uses and once again contribute to a vibrant local economy (a once again familiar issue as Transport Canada and BC Hydro struggle with more costs and more delays with Rock Bay lands north of downtown) .  As those issues were peeled away, with land exchanges between the province and the city and strategies for reclamation worked out, councils of the day and city staff began conversations with the community about the future use of the land and the unique opportunities and the now familiar challenges posed by its location.

The first fiction that continues to be promoted by more recent arrivals aggrieved by the busy shipyard across the street is that “the city should never have approved a residential development” on the site.  The city, it needs to be remembered, did not act alone in defiance of either good planning principles or contrary to the wishes of its citizens.  Whatever the hiccups in the evolution of the development, the project still makes the most sense for this particular corner of the city core.

The Dockside plan, the choice of developers, and the sale of the lands were all the subject of one of the more extensive public engagement processes in the city’s history.  The council of the day would have been pilloried by local neighbours and residents from across the city had they not gone ahead with the chosen development.  Everyone involved had a very clear picture of what the existing site was and who their new neighbours were going to be.  Point Hope Shipyards has been there since 1873 and nobody involved at the city, living in the residential Vic West neighbourhood, or among the diverse stakeholder groups invited into the tent had any misconceptions about the future of the shipyards and the ongoing presence of industrial activity.  They well understood that, while the shipyard business was going through some difficult times, it was not going away.  In fact, within the planning framework laid out on the table, Point Hope showed they were ready to make some changes to their business operations that would generate an increase in then current business activities; perhaps even expand operations across the road and onto Dockside Green property.  A paint shed planned for the Princess Mary site (and owned outright by the shipyard) was eventually conceded to the development in exchange for options on city land on harbour-side properties now under attack by some councillors.  Nice gesture.

Today’s grievances point fingers at the city, but that’s at best willful blindness on the part of those who bought into a development knowing that an active shipyard was operating right across the street.  Promotional materials and sales agreements spelled that out pretty clearly.  Good home buyers do their homework – they explore locations, find out who their new neighbours will be, get a feel for levels of noise and activity in the area, and should take some measure of responsibility for understanding what local zoning allows for.  Farm and rural communities get it all the time – people move in next door and start complaining that agriculture is noisy and smelly.  The shipyard is no different.  For many Dockside residents, fortunately, the shipyard is an asset – an always entertaining venue of industrial theatre with an ever changing flotilla of ships dropping in and out for maintenance and repairs.

To be fair, some of those new residents probably thought that the condos they bought would be a little more sheltered, and that is indeed what the plan has called for.  With any luck, they’ll soon be exchanging shipyard noise for construction noise as yet another development company takes the reins and starts again to grow the new condos, townhouses, affordable housing and the rest of the commercial space planned as part of the original development.  Many of those projects stalled in the world economic crisis that began in 2008 and one can’t imagine that Victoria alone would be immune to the turmoil.   The city has the authority for zoning and development permits and the like, but council cannot oblige owners to spend money they don’t have to build what they can’t sell.

The tricky part now will be to ensure that today’s council keeps an eye on the development agreements to make sure the original plan is followed.  That’s more likely than the councils of the day when much of Songhees was built.  Councils in the ‘80s and early ‘90s routinely buckled to developer demands to zone out mixed use in favour of a mono-culture of residential buildings that have created their own problems for residents and the city.  People living there like what they have, but there are no services and the neighbourhood is devoid of street life and commercial activity.  The quietude is so entrenched that existing marine dependent businesses now face constant pressure from Songhees and residential owners across the harbour to shut down the float plane industry and stand firm against the return of any marine commercial activity.  The prospect of a marina on their doorstep, although envisioned in the original development plans for the neighbourhood, fomented a small rebellion.  The city got onside very quickly, though in part because the new look marina was not the small pleasure craft moorage people imagined, and more of a parking lot for oversize luxury yachts captained by distant owners looking for cheap storage.

Dockside will have some distance to go before the neighbourhood becomes what the city and the community envisioned when plans were first unveiled.  Hundreds of units need to be sold, then built.  The right market conditions will be necessary to encourage timid investors to bulk up the built presence along the barren length of Harbour Road with the commercial, office, retail uses that the city must protect from rezoning pressures.  Once in place, many of those buildings will provide a buffer between the shipyard and the upland condos generating the current complaints.  Those projects too should also help calm the runway traffic some drivers feel entitled to enjoy along a straight, wide road without destinations, a mature tree canopy or other elements of design that would otherwise close in the corridor.  Equally unhelpful complaints emanate from those in Vic West who wanted a more residential feel to the street.  Harbour Road is still, in service to the shipyard and  other industrial neighbours, and that has always meant a more generous design for the trucks and service vehicles that come and go.

Ironically now, for some of the critics who were leaders in the fight to preserve the old crumbling blue bridge, the way forward now with the new bridge is one of the comforts the new development company has in hand to convince them that their Dockside projects can go ahead too.  Knowing well enough how badly the old bridge was deteriorated and how problematic any rescue operation might have been, no developer was keen to forge ahead and invest heavily in Dockside without the assurance that a sensible project and robust, durable, and attractive gateway crossing was going to complete to connect their market with the city’s downtown.

Ultimately, Dockside is well designed to work as intended, and both residents and the broader community need to understand again that change is a process, not an event, and the neighbourhood evolution will unfold over time.  We don’t have the tools to force development to satisfy every condo owner.  Neither can we, or should we, force a shutdown of the shipyard that some residents have only recently discovered is across the street (and a more counterproductive economic strategy would be hard to find in this city).  For those looking for sustainable communities, this is actually what it is all about – mixed use, workplaces and housing, services and shops, all bunched up together to create more walkable, affordable and accessible neighbourhoods.  It’s Victoria’s past come to life again.