In the seven years Tate Dunne has managed Four Mile House, he's seen an increasing number of new faces in the historic pub at the corner of Old Island Highway and View Royal Avenue.
When he started, regulars who lived nearby bellied up to the dark wood tables and tucked into conversations on local news as they dined, discussing the latest happenings in their small community.
That still happens, Dunne says, but now the regulars have to make room for the new clientele.
"We've noticed a whole new influx of people in the last few years," Dunne said. "Younger people, families. We don't know what's attracting them. Maybe it's the sports bar."
Maybe. Maybe not.
But one thing is certain: the neighbourhood is changing. When Statistics Canada tabulated the results from the 2006 census, it discovered that among municipalities with a population of 5,000 or more, View Royal is the fastest-growing in the province, logging a 33 per cent population increase in only five years with a population that ballooned from just under 3,900 to almost 5,200. Much of that growth is in pocket developments on the west side of the district.
Second and third spots went to two adjacent neighbourhoods in Langford, which grew 30 and 27 per cent respectively in the same period, from 2001 to 2006.
View Royal fire Chief Paul Hurst takes news of View Royal's growth spurt with a grain of salt.
"That's only because we were so small to start with," said Hurst, who has spent most of his 41 years here. Not that he hasn't noticed the increase in residents.
"Twenty-five years ago, when there was a fire call and volunteers needed to get to the hall, traffic wasn't a problem," Hurst said.
Not so now. Emmet McCusker, View Royal's director of engineering, said traffic averages show 78,000 vehicles a day passed through View Royal on the Trans-Canada Highway and 25,000 daily on the Old Island Highway in 2007.
View Royal's location as a motoring through-way has its drawbacks, but after a requisite grumble about the problem, residents here are quick to extol the area's virtues.
"Taxes are low and services are good," said Hurst. "It sounds corny, but you can drive down the street and recognize people. View Royal hasn't lost its sense of community."
Gillian Petrini, who moved from Esquimalt into a new development on the west side of View Royal three years ago, said she loves the community. "I love the green spaces, being so close to Thetis Lake and the Galloping Goose."
Nicole Seymour, 19, said parks are the best part of living in the area. "They are a well-kept secret. They're behind houses and schools -- you have to know the area to find them."
Phoebe McDonald, 13, who moved here with her parents in December 2007, loves that she can walk to her favourite places: Thetis Lake, Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre and the library. "We felt at home immediately," Phoebe said.
Kevin Burke lives in View Royal's harbour precinct, where luxury waterfront homes stand side-by-side with 1940s cottages.
Pausing with his golden retriever, Micky, as they return from a stroll at a rock-lined cove at the foot of Beaumont Avenue, Burke noted that neighbours in the area talk to each other. "No one puts on airs." As if on cue, a man coming down his driveway to pick up his recycling bins waves at Burke and they exchange a few friendly words.
The amount of shoreline that stretches through View Royal might explain why newcomers are flooding here. Freshwater beaches and water-side hiking trails at Thetis Lake, kayaking in the sheltered waters at Portage Inlet and sequestered rocky coves with postcard views of Fisgard Lighthouse make this isthmus of a community feel more country than city.
Gillian Petrini's husband Ron Petrini boiled down the municipality's virtues to a familiar catch-phrase. "Location, location, location," he said. "Minutes from Home Depot and big box shopping on one side, and a short drive to downtown on the other."
The growth is not accidental, said View Royal Mayor Graham Hill. An 18-year-resident, Hill, 74, said a workshop on communities he took early in his three-term mayoral career impressed on him the importance of smart growth that fits the neighbourhood.
And there's more to come, said Hill: "There's still space to grow." What that growth will look like is up for discussion as the town prepares to draft an official community plan over the next 18 months.
Hill notes that newcomers have brought a vitality to the community, but they've given more than that. The increase in the residential tax base has enabled the town to revitalize its infrastructure, improve sidewalks and stormwater systems, and draw funding for amenities from developers, such as trails and parks.
Paradise? Not entirely.
Hill said the residential-to-commercial tax ratio needs to change. "We need more commercial tax revenue," he said. "What we have now is not sustainable."
Gillian Petrini laments the absence of neighbourhood associations, saying she misses the community dinners, dances and festivals that are part of neighbourhoods in other parts of Victoria.
Then there is the slow squeeze in which View Royal finds itself: From the west comes increasing traffic, from the east, a gradual migration of vagrants from Victoria's core.
"As they put pressure on the homeless downtown, they are starting to shift out here," Hurst said.
"There are now sections of the Galloping Goose where under the bridges, you can find people have taken up residence. That's something you'd never, ever see up here before.
"We've got people living in parks."
jhatherly@tc.canwest.com
THE PEOPLE IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD
Times Colonist reporter Joanne Hatherly continues her series with the fourth of five parts on neighbourhoods of note around the capital region. Drawing on Statistics Canada data, which breaks the region down into 69 areas called "census tracts," Hatherly profiles some of the enclaves that stand out from the rest.
- Sunday, March 29: Gordon Head South is home to the region's highest number of visible minorities and foreign-language speakers.
- Sunday, April 5: Most places in the region are getting bigger, but a neighbourhood around Colwood's Esquimalt Lagoon is actually losing residents.
- Sunday, April 12: Single and looking for a match? Hang out in Fernwood South, where more than half the people have never married.
- Today: More and more people are moving here -- in fact, it's the fastest-growing place in the province.
- Sunday, April 26: This area may have swanky new abodes, but it's home to the poorest people in the region and has the highest unemployment rate.
