Tall buildings & bike lanes: Victoria issues for mayoralty candidates

Victoria Mayoral All Candidates Meeting 2018

by Eryn Chaney for West Shore Voice News

Sunday, September 30 ~ VICTORIA. Victoria residents flooded the room at the All Candidates Meeting for City of Victoria mayoralty candidates on Sunday, September 30 to ask the 10 candidates whatever questions mattered to them most.

Members of the audience were called up three-at-a-time to ask a question of two candidates of their choice.

The hot button issue among those attending the meeting was city development, particularly the rise of tall buildings in Greater Victoria, and the new bike lanes.

“What I hear from all the business community is there’s no homes for people that are working here,” said current mayor Lisa Helps. “In terms of all the tall buildings – that’s the trade off. If we want our neighbourhoods to stay intact, to stay single family feeling, we need to concentrate density in the downtown.”

“My vision and the vision of council is looking 50 years ahead. To say, what kind of groundwork do we need to lay now so that we have a sustainable, affordable, inclusive, and dare I say loving city for the next four years, and the next fifty years?”

Popular mayoral candidate Michael Geoghegan has a different idea for how to create affordability. His platform aims to build more low-income, mixed-income, and co-op housing using his provincial and federal connections as a lobbyist.

“We are sleepwalking towards a future where Victoria consists only of the very rich, and very poor” said Geoghegan, pointing to the BC Energy Step Code as an unnecessary expense and an unsustainable plan. “By Step Code Part 3 you won’t even be able to sell these condos to the wealthy”.

Geoghegan wants to speed up decision making timelines, share the density among the city’s municipalities, and relocate the bike lanes to secondary streets, such as Vancouver Street.

The Victoria municipal election will be held on Saturday, October 20 2018. Voters in Victoria will elect one Mayor, eight councilors, and nine school district trustees.