Is the Notch the Next Harris Green?
It has been a crazy month so far and I have been sitting on this article for a couple of weeks. Given the current state of the world, I thought maybe something a little normal for Sidewalking might be just the right thing.
The recent designation of the Times Colonist building on Douglas Street as a historical building is the first step forward in it becoming the new showpiece for Humber Green. What is Humber Green? Well the Burnside Gorge Community Association thinks it is an Urban Village. It isn’t yet, but the Times Colonist Building redevelopment could be a very small first step. I might do a post just on the Humber Green plan someday. Today I wanted to talk about what I think is a necessary step in Humber Green ever having any sort of momentum to become an urban node in Victoria and that is the development of the NotCh. If you have been with Sidewalking Victoria since the beginning, you may remember that back in 2016, I was feeling sure that the NotCh (Or North of Chatham) would be the next place we would see downtown expand. The NotCh is the area bound by Blanshard, Chatham, Bay and the Gorge.
Since 2016 Harris Green has boomed, at least as far as that can happen in Victoria. There is even more change coming to that area over the next few years. But looking just at what has either been built or started construction since 2016, I came up with the following map.
That is just the twelve blocks of Harris Green (okay two projects just on the edge and I forgot to add The Wade), there is obviously a lot of interest in the area. The NotCh is almost exactly the same size, and yet in the same time we have seen just two buildings completed in the last four years, the Azzurro and The Great Canadian Oil Change. We have also seen a couple of buildings along the southern edge with the two Hudson Walk buildings and now the Ironworks Buildings at Store Street. There is also the beginnings of the rumble of work happening in the Powerhouse Building down on Pembroke, but no clear idea as to what kind of places will be going in there. One might ask why so little is going on this area.
When you look at the map alone, the NotCh seems to have better location. Easy access to shopping both Downtown and north at Mayfair and Uptown. The lack of a grocery will be an issue, with the Fairways in Quadra Village likely the closest one currently. That said, the Save On only opened recently and the Market on Yates opened just as the City finished its original Harris Green plan that began the shift to residential in the area in the 1990’s. Before that Harris Green plan, the area was the focus of car storage for downtown and car dealerships, which is the reason that we have seen the transition happen so fast. The NotCh also has the benefit of being closer to the water which should provide some additional impetus for new buildings as views and water access are generally sought after. Another benefit is the access to the main transportation spines along Blanshard and Douglas as well as Bay Street going east/west.
The NotCh does have some things going against it too. While it certainly has a lot of open space and some car storage, it is nowhere near the scale of what you saw in Harris Green in the 1990s and much of the open land in the NotCh required significant remediation. There is also a lot of area that is already built up with small buildings and some older historical buildings. From a planning perspective, one of the main challenges is the fact that the area is part of the Burnside Gorge Neighbourhood, rather than Downtown. The final issue and the one that most people will say is the reason why we shouldn’t have new residential in the NotCh is that it is almost totally zoned light industrial. There is a worry that we could lose this rare industrial land if it is turned over to residential but I think the most obvious counter to that, is that if the land is so necessary and sought after, than why aren’t we seeing new projects going up that take advantage of that (apart from The Great Canadian Oil Change).
I personally think that if the City can create some interesting zoning we might see some very positive results. Just to the east of this neighbourhood is North Park, which has a significant mix of light industrial and residential. When I lived on North Park Street there was Canadian Linen across the street and Flynn Printing right next door, it all worked just fine. The City could even take it a step further and create some unique Live/Work zoning that could encourage artists or tech residents to move into the neighbourhood. So it would be like Harris Green, except way cooler.
Apart from the potential energy caused by the development of the Times Colonist Building, there is an even bigger potential engine here and that is the old BC Hydro lands on the western side of the NotCh which was partially transferred to the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nation a few years ago and more of the land was potentially going to be sold to them as well. At this point, apart from the apparent commercial space in the Powerhouse Building, there is still no clear plan as to what is going to go into this space, but one would hope for a mix of commercial and residential with a large piece of public open space as well.
We will see what the next four years brings however unless the City, provides some concrete guidelines, like they did with Harris Green, it is going to be a slow march forward for the NotCh. What do you think? Could this be the cool, new Harris Green?