It’s a wild world
NEWS: Roads need $1.3 million in upgrades /A10 ARTS: Life as a comedy diva revealed on stage /A12 SPORTS: Grizz triplets seek NCAA package deal /A14
Museum features awardwinning photography. Page A5
OAK BAYNEWS Watch for breaking news at www.oakbaynews.com
Friday, December 7, 2012
Tree takes a tumble Pete Friesen, owner of Top Notch Tree Service, removes dismembered pieces of a tree at the University of Victoria, after strong winds uprooted the estimated 150-year-old Garry oak. Gusts reaching upwards of 93 km/h struck southern Vancouver Island. The felling of the tree at UVic, which occurred around 7:45 a.m., blocked one lane of traffic on Finnerty Road, resulting in a fourhour closure of Finnerty between Ring and Sinclair roads until the debris was cleaned up. Nobody was injured as a result of the tree falling. Kyle Slavin/News staff
Regulating beauty, taste in development Review of Floor Area Ratio report fills council chambers
Natalie North Reporting
During a review of a report on building size limits, Oak Bay architect Franc D’Ambrosio kept the mood light, for what could have been an emotionally-charged follow up to community concerns over so-called “monster homes.” “Has anyone seen the movie Being John Malkovich?” D’Ambrosio said to a packed house during a committee of the whole meeting Monday night (Dec.
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3). “In that building, the subject of that movie, the owner cleverly inserted a level 13-and-a-half, to get an extra floor. … from the outside, the building appeared the same as if it didn’t have that additional floor. That’s what jumped to mind when I started thinking about how the bylaws work.” D’Ambrosio’s synopsis of the Spike Jonze flick exemplified how quantitative regulations on floor area ratios and density are being used to regulate qualitative and difficult-to-regulate aspects of residential development. “I’m pro-regulation,” D’Ambrosio said. “Maximums and minimums have to be set relative to development, but
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they also have to be acknowledged as very crude, hatchet sculpting … whereas the effect on neighbours and the populous in general, the experience of the street, is a surgical process. It’s very, very small scale. It’s very personal and very emotional. … What bothers people about change is change itself, but also the nature of the impact of that change on the outside.” The gross floor area regulations review, prepared by director of building and planning, Roy Thomassen, provided an overview of the current size restrictions and presented six potential options to consider. The
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review follows concerns brought forward by Thomassen, and later residents’ group Oak Bay Watch, who argued bylaw changes made in 2007 set the stage for large homes to be built on small lots, jeopardizing the streetscape. According to the review, since 2007, variance applications (see sidebar on page A9) have increased by 500 per cent with an approximately 96 per cent approval rate – a stat that has members of Oak Bay Watch up in arms.
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