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.