It is my understanding that Citta will re-submit their development proposal with a request for re-zoning in order to build a four-storey, 25-unit strata-titled apartment on 986 and 990 Doumac Ave.
It is an attractive building and they have revised the height down. However, it is still a four-storey building.
I would like to express my opposition for the following reasons:
The present zoning is for single family dwellings. The change to Apartment-Village Centre, and therefore allowing a four-storey building, is in contradiction to the development permit guidelines for the Cordova Bay Village Centre. These guidelines call for two storeys and a maximum hight of 7.5 metres for new buildings in the village centre.
Allowing the rezoning would set a most undesirable precedent.
A four-storey apartment absolutely does not fit the “form and character” of Cordova Bay, which has a street scape of one or two stories only. The higher buildings are far back from Cordova Bay Road, as you see in the neighbouring Cordova Bay beach estates or further north at Mattick’s Farm and Sayward.
In order to build the proposed apartment many existing trees would have to be removed, while relevant Saanich documents call for preserving trees and other vegetation. As a matter of fact, Doumac Avenue has been designated as part of a green corridor.
Traffic is an issue not only for the Doumac proposal, but in the whole of Cordova Bay, considering other proposed development projects, small and large.
I urge council to reject CITTA’s request for rezoning and the proposed development plan for a four-storey high apartment building on 986 and 990 Doumac Ave.
Hanny Pannekoek,
Saanich
