The Birth of the Capital Culture District
Over the last few years we have seen an endless stream of development in Harris Green. At the same time, with the exception of one large project at Government and Herald, the area north of downtown has been relatively quiet. It seems things are beginning to change. We have recently seen Chard Development break ground on their Douglas and Caledonia project. In Rock Bay, we have seen the first glimpses of what the Matullia Lands could look like. And on January 7th, the long in planning, Capital Cultural District (CCD) will be finally having its public hearing. For those that are not aware of what the CCD is, this is a major reimagining on the land between Chatham and Discovery from Government Street to the waterfront.
I think that I first heard that something could happen here was in 2018 when the lands went up for sale. A couple of years later, in 2020, the property was bought by Reliance Properties. At the time, I was quite excited as this was after they had completed the Janion building and there was still hope for the Northern Junk Buildings getting rebuilt. Adding a massive project in the same area was an enticing thought. Since then, Reliance has been working on a project on Dallas Road and has a few more projects in planning, one of which I wrote about at the beginning of last year. It went quiet for a couple of years through the pandemic and then in 2023 I was invited to a design jam at Kwench hosted by the city to get some input from the public on what we wanted to see in this space. The design jam finished with a push for a radical vision for an area focused on light industry and the roadways focused on pedestrian, bike and commercial vehicle usage. This was problematic for the proposed development. Despite the need for light industrial lands in Victoria, the ability for developing new light industrial lands is more problematic from a financial perspective for new projects. This has led to a couple of years of closed door discussions between Reliance Properties and the City on how the lands in the CCD should be used. I have not been able to get a sense on how this discussion unfolded. What I do know is what is being proposed now.
On January 8th, the City will hold the public hearing on the full plans for the CCD. The hearing documents can be read here. I have had a look at them and I am really excited by certain aspects of it and have some concerns about others. I thought I would go through some of what I can see. I should note that for the majority of the project, what you see in pictures are detailed massings and not necessarily the final product of what the buildings will look. This applies even more so to the art gallery which has not been designed at all to my knowledge.
The Good
As has been highlighted, the site will be the new home to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. While the size of the building has not been confirmed, it has been indicated that it will be five stories high and larger than the current one. I vaguely recall early iterations indicating that this would be a satellite site and that it would be smaller, but that seems to have shifted to this being a larger and full replacement of the Moss Street site. I do like the currently gallery and its location, but its diminutive size given the amount of art that remains in storage has always been a problem. I really hope that the plan lives up to this being a new, premiere art gallery that will really attract both visitors and locals. With any new facility like this, I have to hope that it remains financially accessible to the public. The museum has become more and more out of reach for locals and it would be unfortunate for the Art Gallery to do the same. I have said before that there should be residency rates for the museum and the art gallery could have them as well.
Public Realm Improvements
A second part of the plan that is very enticing is the public realm additions. While the project has not incorporated some of the elements from the design jam regarding the prioritization of pedestrians and bikes through either full road limitations or turning all of the roads into shared spaces, it does contain a significant amount of pedestrian space and pathways. I should note that Store Street between Chatham and Discovery will be a shared street with the possibility for festival closures. The most important addition is likely what is being titled ‘Street-Meet Square’, which sits at the corner of Chatham and Store Street. It will be an open plaza that will also serve as the entrance area for the new art gallery. According to the plans, there is also a space for a restaurant with a patio that will spill out into the square. I am also really happy to see that a mid-block walkway will be part of the plan, so Chatham and Discovery will remain connected. Another interesting piece is what is called Flour and Rice Alley which will connect Store Street with the harbour though due to the height difference there will be an elevator. Future plans call for a waterfront walkway, though I will come back to that in the part about some of my concerns. I would say overall from a pedestrian perspective, the plan looks really good.
The plan only mentions bike lanes once, though the City has put in a requirement for one-way protected bike lanes along Chatham for the whole block. Once the bridge from the Matullia lands to Bridge Street is put in, I would expect this area to see quite a bit of bike traffic.
The last positive point I want to bring up is the fact that at least as of the plan now, there is mention of art studios and live/work units being part of the plans for some of the buildings. I hope that Reliance and the City can clarify and specify where those units will be. Having art studios here, near the gallery opens up a lot of possibilities. I do give Reliance a lot of runway when it comes to support for the arts however, as they currently own the Rockslide Gallery building and continue to allow it to operate in the building they own. I still hold out hope that the City and Reliance can come to some sort of deal to allow for the Rockslide to remain in perpetuity.
Concerns
No plan this big is going to satisfy everyone, and I am likely harder than most to appease, so take my comments with a grain of salt. I would say that I have two big concerns with the plan and they both focus around the light industrial portion of the site. As I said before, the waterfront lands that currently sit behind Capital Iron are designated for marine light-industrial and there is already mention of Finest at Sea moving their operations from James Bay (I really hope that means that I will be that much closer to their amazing fish tacos here). I think that maintaining the land here for industry is the right idea and necessary for our city’s health. I am concerned about the inclusion of residential just to the north of the Capital Iron building though, which would look over top of this industrial land. As we have seen at Dockside Green, having industrial uses adjacent to high priced apartments and condos creates significant conflicts. I personally think that this is a clear issue of buyer beware, but that does not stop a significant amount of complaints going into the City. In the Dockside Green example, tenants and buyers need to sign an agreement that they won’t complain about the industrial uses, but that has not stopped them from being made. We need to do whatever we can to ensure that our very limited amount of industrial land in Victoria is able to continue to provide jobs and services right in our city centre. Not only is there the significant economic benefit of these businesses, but having them near us actually has a positive impact from an environmental perspective. I hope that there have been significant learnings from the Dockside Green experiences and we can ensure that anyone moving into these buildings really understand that there will be smells and noises that they may not like and that is just the way it is.
My second concern is along the same lines, though as I alluded to before, about the waterfront walkway. I love the fact that we are getting closer to having a walkway along most of the harbour (Though I refuse to use its ‘name’). That said, a public walkway should not trump all other uses along the water. Here, with a plan to have marine light-industrial, having the public be able to walk between the water and the buildings where there will be things built and need to be transferred to the water, is a significantly bad idea. I understand that the walkway will be controlled so that there would be times when access is limited while work is being done, however this just means that we are limiting the types of industry that can go here. There could easily still be a contiguous pathway that would maybe run on a raised walkway connected to the backs of the buildings planned for Store Street and the problem would be solved. We are not going to have a pedestrian walkway go along the outside of Point Hope Shipyard, the Coast Guard Base in James Bay, Camel Point along the outside of the Helijet pads or the end of the Ogden Point terminal, so why are we trying to put one here? I think that City Council strongly needs to reconsider this element. That is really it, apart from those two small issues that are both ‘fixable’, I think this is a great plan. I really hope that the City passes this and we can see the northern part of Downtown Victoria continue to grow and improve.
As I said before, I strongly suggest looking at the planning documents available here. If you have something to say about the plan, head down to City Hall on January 8th for the public hearing. I expect it to be a good one. I would love to hear what you think of the plans. Do you have concerns that I haven’t raised? Do you think my concerns are overstated? Are you excited for the prospect of a new Art Gallery? Let us know in the comments!
