Thursday Call to Action to Save Mason Street City Farm

Details: Published on Wednesday, 26 August 2015 17:15; Written by editor

Join us at the Public Hearing on August 27th, 7pm at City Hall We need 200 people to come and have their voices heard. Help us secure year round food production at Mason Street City Farm.

Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you plan on attending and speaking and Join the Event on Facebook!

Thursday: 7pm
Corner of Pandora and Douglas
1 Centennial Sq, Victoria
Victoria City Hall

A little background

What is the Bosa Development?
A proposed block of apartments on top of a large commercial box store proposed for the former St. Andrew’s Catholic school. Bosa has applied for a permit to re-zone the site for residential use, and we are currently asking the City Council to reject its application as we have several concerns with both the process that has been followed and the facts of development itself.

The development poses a threat to the continued growth of Mason St. City Farm, and as such we’re asking for supporters to join us at a Public Hearing at City Council on August 27th. Those opposing the development have been characterized as a small, vocal minority who are afraid of change. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, the developer represents a small, well-financed minority. Let’s show Council that we are a large, passionate community with a love for our city and a desire to see progressive developments that reflect our values. Please help us to spread the word, write letters and most importantly, show up for our city on August 27th.

We support innovative development
We are not against the development of the site, and we are in full support of the OCP goals of increased density for the area. However, a mediocre development with unaffordable “affordable” housing units that shades Victoria’s oldest urban farm on top of a big box store is not the progressive direction that many Victorians had envisioned for a development on a downtown/neighbourhood border. There are several concerns that we at Mason St. City Farm have about the development, both as a business with an interest in increasing food security in the city, and as community members.

Shade shade shade
An important issue that affects Mason St. City Farm specifically is the shade that the building will throw over our site. Obviously sun is a vital ingredient in growing food. While the shade won’t impact our site during the height of summer, we will be dealing with increased shade in the spring and fall, and our farm will be completely shaded out by the development in the winter months. The combination of the existing shade and new shade from the development in the spring and fall would affect our food production. The impact of the full shade in the winter months will also drastically affect our planting schedule and growing capacity in the months following as it will take our soil longer to recover from cold temperatures. This development will thus mean that we’ll be permanently unable to meet our goals of being a year-round source of food for our community.

Food Security

The threat the development proposes to our farm also contradicts the OCP’s stated goals in Section 17 “Food Systems”, which declares support for “Mechanisms to encourage and support food production sites on City-held lands, other publicly-held lands, and on private lands” (17.4.3) and “enabling infrastructure and human resources needed to support small-scale commercial urban agriculture as a home occupation.” (17.14.1).

We stand with North Park

The North Park Neighbourhood Association is comprised of a very informed and active group of neighbourhood residents that have stood in opposition to this development for 3 1/2 years! Here are some more concerns that the neighbourhood has and it is important that any Mason Street Farm supporters that come to the public hearing to speak, speak to a variety of issues with the design. Not just the shading of the farm. If council hears 100 people speak to just the shading on the farm and food security, it will likely fall on deaf ears.

Here are the neighbourhood concerns:

large footprint needs to be broken up with public access through the site

gated design takes up entire footprint of the site with all greenspace on inside for residents only

site is over half a city block with 210 residential units plus commercial space: too massive

all traffic access off Mason St turns a unique one-way street with heritage homes, small businesses, urban farm and a kids' playground into a service lane for the development

shading of Mason Street city farm, a unique urban farm supplying greens to local businesses

Vancouver Street greenway and cycling route is diminished by increased traffic and commercial trucks turning on Vancouver and Mason

35,000 sq ft for a single retailer (3 times the size of Market on Yates and larger than Fairways in Quadra Village) is too big and will increase traffic in an area where walking and cycling should be encouraged
not Leed-certified for energy efficiency and no significant attention to carbon footprint

rental units for ten years but no guarantee of rental housing in the future; market rates

11 units of affordable housing at 85% of market rents is not affordable, especially for North Park demographic

Bosa is just one developer that has tried many different tactics to see their development get approval and each time they have been told their development does not meet the communities standards. Another developer is out there that can meet with the community in North Park and develop North Park and the St. Andrew’s site in line with North Park’s vision. We are not opposed to development at the St. Andrew's site. We would just like to see a progressive development that addresses the concerns of the neighbourhood.

August 2015 27
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