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CONSERVATION
PLANNING IN VICTORIA:
THE MANAGEMENT OF URBAN DESIGN
The spirit
of Centennialism in Victoria (1858 Crown Colony of British Columbia established;
1866, colonial union of British Columbia and Vancouver Island; 1871 British
Columbia enters Canadian Confederation) was highlighted by a flood of
progressive architecture and Old Town preservation. In January 1963, Mayor
R.B. Wilson, acting on a Council resolution, requested that the Capital
Region Planning Board, undertake a Overall Plan for Victoria. Victoria
was facing drastic changes. That year B.C. Ferries opened their Swartz-Bay
Tswassen service; the Provincial Museum was under construction; and spot
zoning for high-rise office and apartment development - challenging the
1956 comprehensive zoning bylaw-was becoming commonplace. Council noted
it was facing major decisions relating landuse, plans for Centennial
Victoria Square, the Cathedral Hill Precinct, Harbour-Causeway Improvement,
Urban Renewal, Downtown Improvement, park development, traffic, wand waterways....The
resulting document, tabled in early 1965, set the terms for thirty years
of debate regarding the future of the City. It noted "a measure of
a city's maturity is the extent to which it will on the one hand, encourage
in the proper setting well-planned modern office buildings or high-rise
apartments and on the other hand, preserve a building constructed in the
last century..". The reference was in particular the City's plan
for Centennial Square. The documents
recommendations were both specific and sweeping. "Retention of the
ingredients of genuine character" was encouraged but dramatic increases
in density were recommended to spur economic renewal. Chinatown should
be rehabilitated. Bastion Square
should be rejuvenated Revitalization of the Inner Harbour and Downtown
by means of recreational use, reducing though traffic, improving pedestrian
use and providing parking were all laudable objectives. However also on
the order paper were a major 250,000 sq. ft. shopping mall in the vicinity
of Johnson and Pandora, a sweeping reording of traffic circulation via
a major urban "high-speed truck route" (West Victoria Freeway)
that would slice through the heart of Victoria West, leap the Inner Harbour
Narrows at Laurel Point, then feed Ogden Point Terminal or snake round
the Parliament Building on Superior and return out on Douglas Street.
This would also provide for the densification of James Bay with high-rise
residential towers.
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