Council just approved 87 rentals on a Telus office one councillor called a 'blight'
The vote was unanimous, but Jeremy Caradonna wanted it on the record that a town centre with no shops downstairs sets a bad precedent.
For years, the corner of Foul Bay and Bourchier near Victoria's border with Oak Bay held a two-storey concrete Telus office that Coun. Dave Thompson called "dead space that actually brings the vibrancy of the neighbourhood down." On Thursday, council voted to replace it with a six-storey, 87-unit rental building.
The approval was unanimous, but it wasn't quiet. Coun. Jeremy Caradonna argued the site sits in a designated town centre, where the official community plan expects mixed-use, and that waving through a building with no ground-floor commercial sends the wrong message. He called it a mistake and a missed opportunity, then voted yes anyway rather than block 87 rental homes.
The project comes with one level of underground parking for 61 cars, room for 108 bikes, and an outdoor space with a barbecue area. Residents would land within a block of Fort Street retail, a grocery store, and a rec centre half a block away.
It's one of several housing files moving through City Hall this month. The city also opened a $1-million Community Housing Renewal Grant, funded by Ottawa's Housing Accelerator Fund, to repair existing non-market buildings while provincial money for new ones is paused.
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