The Greater Victoria Harbour Authority is preparing to show off its plans for a re-imagined and built-out Ogden Point at a public meeting ahead of planning and rezoning meetings with the City of Victoria.
On June 22, the GVHA will offer an update on the status of its Ogden Point master plan and lay out the next steps in its development.
“It will be more of a final look at what we will be proposing to the city [later this year] as part of our rezoning application,” said GVHA chief executive Ian Robertson, who was quick to point out there will still be plenty of time for the community to have its say on how Ogden Point evolves.
“Through the rezoning there will be ongoing opportunities for stakeholders and residents to have input,” he said.
This year, the GVHA showed off early drawings of what a revitalized Ogden Point could look like over the next 30 years.
The design suggested the project, estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, could become one of Victoria’s largest developments, featuring a hotel, retail stores, cruise ship and other marine services, parks and walkways among other amenities.
Robertson said there is no target for the number or kinds of buildings that will be on the site, or rules about where to put them.
He said the overall plan hasn’t changed since the spring, but he has included a proposal for
on-shore power for ships.
Robertson said he wants to conduct a feasibility and assessment for a power supply at the site.
While he notes that kind of project has been rejected in the past because of the cost — estimated to be in excess of $10 million — Robertson believes it is prudent to study it.
“This master plan and the development of a new cruise ship terminal gives us an opportunity to look at that,” he said.
The terminal is one of the GVHA’s key priorities for the rest of this year.
The other priorities include plans to enhance and refresh the causeway in the Inner Harbour and continuing to push to establish Victoria as a home port for a cruise ship by 2020.
Robertson said they have already made some progress in that regard.
“It’s an ongoing conversation, but we have made excellent progress in talks with the cruise lines,” he said. “We have gone from not being on the cruise lines’ radar screens a year ago to very much being on the screen as a port of call and with capabilities to become a home port.”
The public meeting on the master plan will be at Ogden Point’s Pier B, June 22 from 4 to 7 p.m.
