The controversial Roundhouse development has received its final stamp of approval following last week’s city council meeting.
Roundhouse at Bayview Place is a 10-acre property encompassing 251 Esquimalt Road, 355 Catherine Street and 210 Kimta Road. It’s situated on the massive lot between the Vic West skate park and Spinnakers.
According to the greenlit plans, developers Focus Equities, owned by Ken Mariash, will build somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 residential units throughout nine towers.
The towers were finalized at heights ranging from 10 to 32 storeys. It was the height of the buildings that brought this project the most contention in nearby neighbourhoods, whose residents say the heights will impact skylines.
The developers will have to include at least 215 units that will be intended as affordable rental units, and the City stipulated that a childcare facility had to be included.
Developers had their contentious application originally approved in January of last year, but the City had to wait on collaboration from Transport Canada to get back to them on whether there would be any impacts on the harbour airport.
“This is probably one of the most complex sites in Victoria, with the heritage buildings, with the rail going through it, site contamination as well as the harbour airport pointing right at it,” said Mike Angrove, Victoria City Planner.
“So that would most likely explain the length of time it took to get that master development agreement completed.”
This latest hurdle took a year-and-a-half to get over, but this project has seen many before. Developers have been trying to get this approval since 2008.
All councillors voted in favour of the latest application being greenlit, except for Councillors Marg Gardiner and Stephen Hammond, while Councillor Krista Loughton was absent from the meeting.
Gardiner said the project would make for too much density and that the towers would curtail the area’s historical significance.
Hammond and Gardiner are not alone in their skepticism of this project, as some residents of Vic West have been fighting to halt the project since it was conceptualized.
StopBayviewRezoning is a group on Facebook that has been avidly calling on council to reject the Roundhouse development, as well as many who want the E&N Railway to be reinstated.
The development’s timeline is projected to be 10 to 15 years before completion, following the Roundhouse breaking ground.
