New Centennial Square designs have been revealed as discussions around whether or not to cancel the project continue.
This week, City of Victoria staff presented a newly revised design for the proposed Centennial Square Revitalization project—a project that has been in the works since 2017.
The latest push for this project to get underway stemmed from July 2024, when council was presented with a design.
However, the initial design contained some controversial matters, such as removing the square’s iconic sequoia tree and removing the fountain in favour of a splash park.
This approved design came with a price tag of $12.1 million.
Since this project was initially approved, it was then altered and partially postponed during the summer, as council decided to move ahead with only half of the scope of the project.
This postponement saved the sequoia tree for the time being, but would still see the fountain replaced.
When council made this decision, the project’s budget was reduced to $9.6 million.
Dialog Design handled the redesign, which included a civic plaza, expanded green area and a reimagined heart of the square as its three key features.
One contentious part of this plan included the monoliths in the fountain being removed and stored for a future phase of the project.
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Before this redesign was brought to council, in early November, Councillors Marg Gardiner, Stephen Hammond and Chris Coleman brought forth a motion to cancel the project in its entirety, as council looked to begin making difficult budget decisions.
The first 2026-30 Draft Financial Plan needed to have $8.38 million cut from the 2026 budget in order to keep property taxes below 4%, for the City’s portion.
In order to cut this percentage down, council had to look at slashing many services and projects of which the Centennial Square Revitalization was one of many.
Additionally, one hurdle this project has been facing has been losing $2.5 million that was originally allocated to the square’s revitalization.
These reallocated funds went instead to the Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan to combat street disorder.
During the committee of the whole meeting on November 27th, council heard a presentation from City staff regarding the design changes.
Council then voted on whether to “receive” this information, as there is another matter regarding the Centennial Square project coming before council during next week’s meeting.
“There are a lot of strong opinions on this,” said Mayor Marianne Alto. “We are not discussing the intent or content of this today.”
The reason that no decision was made to move forward with or pause the project is that there is an item of unfinished business from a council member motion that was presented on Thursday, November 6th that was postponed until next week’s meeting.
This motion was to cancel the project in its entirety, and was brought forward by Councillors Marg Gardiner, Chris Coleman and Stephen Hammond.
That motion to postpone was passed 5–4, with Coleman, Hammond, Gardiner and Councillor Susan Kim voting against, wanting to cancel the project.
If the project is approved during next week’s meeting, it will impact the budget and property taxes, but construction can get underway and the revitalized square can be opened to the public by 2027.
