The fate of the contentious Roundhouse development in Vic West will be decided next week.
After watching more than three and a half hours of video submissions Monday night on the massive development plan, Victoria council opted to adjourn the public hearing until Jan. 25, when it will deliberate and make its decision.
According to the city, council heard from more than 100 people via video message Monday night, following a marathon first night of the public hearing last week when it heard from more than 80 people in person or online.
In adjourning Monday’s session, Mayor Marianne Alto cited council’s policy of wrapping up meetings before 11 p.m. “and in the interest of good governance and our obligation to make decisions in an informed, focused and alert manner.”
More than 15 years in the making, the proposal includes nine buildings ranging in height from 10 to 32 storeys, renovating and restoring the heritage buildings on the site, and adding 70,000 square feet of commercial space, and 1,870 residential units, 215 of which would be deemed below-market rentals.
Rezoning the land at 251 Esquimalt Rd., 210 Kimta Rd. and 355 Catherine St. is required for the project to go ahead.
The Roundhouse project, proposed by Focus Equities has divided the city.
Many have said that it’s time the 10 acres of empty land surrounding the Roundhouse national historic site was developed, while others have asked that the proposed project be scaled down, and still others have suggested that it’s time for developer Ken Mariash to hand the lands over to someone else.
In the final part of the public hearing on Jan. 25, council is expected to pose questions to the project developer, deliberate on the proposal and render a decision.
Alto reminded the public Monday night that council can receive no new information on the project and will ignore any communication about it until the hearing reconvenes.
The E&N Railway Roundhouse, completed in 1913 on the site of the original 1886 railway terminus for Victoria, was designated a national historic site in 1992.
Built by the Canadian Pacific Railway, it serviced locomotives and rolling stock of the E&N Railway, and later the E&N passenger dayliner until March 2011, when the dayliner service was discontinued.
“Surrounded by various well-preserved related shops and railway outbuildings, the roundhouse is a particularly fine example of an industrial structure associated with the steam railway era in Canada,” the Canadian Railroad Historical Association says on its website.
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