Brian and Josee Smith were at the Central Saanich council meeting two weeks ago when a motion to bring the proposed affordable housing development in Saanichton to a public hearing was rejected.
On Monday (Nov. 4), council voted to review the project again in their next meeting.
Mayor Ryan Windsor says it will be on the Nov. 25 council agenda when he expects all of council to be present to debate and decide if the item will move forward to a public hearing.
The Smiths call council's decision to reconsider, “unfair”, questioning why there needs to be another vote because there wasn’t any new information presented to council during the meeting.
“The only reason they mentioned was to give Coun. Sarah Riddell a chance to vote on the matter, something she failed to do on Oct. 21 when the motion was rejected in a 3-3 vote, with Mayor Windsor and Couns. Zeb King and Robert Thompson opposed.
“You take a vote, and you lose, then you can have a revote – is that democracy? It shouldn't be allowed as far as I'm concerned. Not unless there's a really good reason that something came up. There wasn’t any," Brian said.
The Hovey Road residents of 24 years have been burdened by the imminent threat of the destruction of a zoned land they have been developing in favour of a housing structure for many months now, adding the “uninvited” Aryze business plan would adversely impact the neighbourhood and disrupt their quality of life in a place they had worked hard to grow old in.
“There are no words to describe the shock, the immense sadness and unfairness of this situation imposed upon us by an outside commercial interest,” Josee added.
For the record, the Smiths said they are not against a housing project, it's the disproportionate plans that do not support the vision and intent of the official community plan (OCP) and Bill 44 that are the crux of their problem. The bill allows up to 28 units to be built on their street, which does not align with Aryze's proposal of 197 units.
Bill 44 is one of several pieces of provincial legislation put forward in fall 2023 to enable more “homes for people”. It requires local governments to update their zoning regulations to permit small-scale multi-unit housing (SSMUH) by June 30, 2024, among other things.
In the previous council meeting, the mayor and Couns. King and Thompson voiced their concerns about amending the official community plan bylaw for the development, which was adopted in 2023, with Thompson explaining that the building density was not in accordance with the OCP.
"The OCP has a lot of really clear criteria of what sort of things you can do in order to amend it," says Luke Mari, Aryze principal of development. "Seniors housing, health-care housing, affordable housing are really clear criteria that the document lays out in order to justify an amendment."
The Smiths are proposing, as an alternative to building two six-storey buildings, cutting down 70 trees and demolishing five homes, Aryze builds townhomes instead that are two to three storeys high, to preserve the area's rural landscape with the least impact to the residents and the environment.
The longtime Hovey Road residents also suggested building additional housing within the five-acre property of their next-door neighbour, Legion Manor, which was also involved in the project planning together with Saanich Peninsula Hospital & Healthcare Foundation and the South Vancouver Island Housing Society.
Aryze said they've met with all the neighbours and put forward a lot of things to try and mitigate impacts to them.
"We just have a differing philosophy. We're in the business of housing people and the Legion Manor predates their property and needs to be protected in the future. They provided an important community service. And so we're helping expand their facilities for the next 50 years," Mari added
Aryze recognizes where they failed in the last meeting was in the bylaw reading and are looking forward to making their case again on Nov. 25, hoping to bring their proposal to a public hearing, where the community gets to weigh in on whether the project is good enough to amend the OCP bylaw.
"As with any public hearing, we approach the meeting with an open mind and look forward to hearing from all residents affected by this application" said Coun. Niall Paltiel. "I am willing to afford the legion, the hospital foundation, and our community the democratic opportunity to be heard."
Brian and Josee Smith will be there too, as they have been in the past meetings. Only this time, they're asking council to exercise "discernment" to vote on what will be good for all.
