900 block Pandora

Proposed Community Centre at 926/930 Pandora Ave 

Timeline of events and communications

June 2021

  • the City announced that they are collaborating with the Province, through BC Housing and the Capital Region Housing Corporation (CRHC) to build 220 new non-market rental homes and create a new neighbourhood community centre with a gym and child care spaces on City-owned land at 930/926 Pandora Avenue.

July 2021

July- August 2021

  • From July-August 2021, the NPNA and DRA participated in two meetings hosted by the City to learn more about the proposed community centre at 930 Pandora.
  • In this letter we request that the executive administration of the City return to the Mayor and Council for explicit direction on the project plan and direction of the 926/930 Pandora project based on the concerns highlighted in this letter.

October 2021

  • October 2021: In response to our letter, the NPNA and DRA were invited to attend a meeting with the Mayor. During this meeting, we discussed a longer timeline to include community consultation, not solely relying on the feedback from the Crystal Pool project to inform the design of the community centre, and restructuring the project team to include the NPNA and DRA more meaningfully.
  • October – November 2021: The NPNA and DRA began attending weekly meetings hosted by the City. A longer timeline had been negotiated that included time and resources for a community consultation process. The consultation was scheduled to begin in mid January and would include a mail-out, an online platform with information, a survey, in person open house, and online small group meetings.

November 23, 2021

  • The NPNA asked that the goals of the community consultation for the new community centre ask the community to:
    • identify the characteristics of a suitable community centre (ie. access to green space, transit, accessibility, location within neighbourhood, safety, co-location of services), and
    • to assess whether or not the community believes that a community centre at 926/930 Pandora Ave would meet the neighbourhood’s needs for a community centre. 
  • The City project team felt that this did not align with the goals of the consultation process and as a result the project was put on pause.

December 2, 2021

  • The following letter was sent by Mayor Helps to the NPNA and DRA.
    • “I’m writing on behalf of Council to thank you and members of the DRA and NPNA for your engagement to date on the potential for a community centre at 930 Pandora Avenue to be co-operated by the Downtown Residents Association and the North Park Neighbourhood Association. Council received an update on the project today in a closed meeting with respect to the real estate and intergovernmental aspects of the project. At that meeting, Council gave direction to staff to bring back for Council’s consideration plans for the ground floor of 930 Pandora that makes room for some or all of: community use space, a gymnasium, a community kitchen, childcare, and space to achieve some of the aims in the Create Victoria Arts and Culture Master Plan. Council is proceeding directly with this approach in order to ensure that the potential for 220 new units of much-needed housing – with significant provincial government funding preliminarily committed – moves forward for public consideration through a rezoning process as quickly as possible. An operator or operators for the community use space, the childcare, and the arts and culture space will be determined later in the process.“

December 7, 2021

  • The NPNA responded with the following letter. The NPNA board does not feel that a “community use space, a gymnasium, a community kitchen, childcare”- which normally constitute a community centre – is suited to this location given the confluence of issues that has been caused by a concentration of support and services in this area.
  • This new direction from Council means that the 18,500 sqft ground floor space is longer being pursued as a community centre for North Park and Downtown-Harris Green.  
  • This also means a change in process – The NPNA and DRA will not be participating in the design or planning of this space. According to the project team, there will no longer be a community consultation as originally planned for January 2022. Although, they did say they would be reaching out to stakeholders.
  • If you have any questions about this process or the use of the ground floor space at 930 Pandora Ave, please contact the project team: Derrick Newman, Trish Piwowar, Bill Eisenhauer, and Jeff Brehaut. 

January 20, 2022

  • Councillor Loveday and Mayor Helps brought a motion to the January 20, 2022 Committee of the Whole meeting regarding the dedication of the ground floor of the building at 926-930 Pandora as an arts hub to provide affordable space to artists in perpetuity as well as a daycare
  • This motion did not pass. Staff will continue to work on plans for the community use space based on the December 2, 2021 direction from Council (see above)

May 4, 2022

  • At the May 5 Committee of the Whole meeting, Staff presented a report to Council with the proposed functional program for the new community space at 926 Pandora Avenue. See the report and attachments here under F.1.  From the report “The main floor space, consisting of approximately 1,626 square meters (17,500 square feet) includes capacity for a 36 person childcare operation, along with six small to medium size multipurpose rooms, a large multi-purpose room, a kitchen facility, administration space, and an outdoor program area. The facility design is intended to ensure the spaces are flexible and adaptable to meet community needs over the long term.” 
  • Council responded by approving the following: 
    1. Approving the functional program for the new community space in the development planned for 926 Pandora Avenue, as shown in Attachment A. 
    2. Directing staff to apply to the remaining process the Council’s equity values. 
    3.  Forwarding this motion to the May 5, 2022 daytime Council meeting for Council’s recommendation. 
    4. That Council forward the 2019 Pandora Task Force Report and Recommendations to staff to be considered for implementation alongside the redevelopment of 926-930 Pandora. 

December 2022

March 2023

As of March 28th, 2023, the applicant, BC Housing, updated the submitted plans of the proposal to the City of Victoria, and they are currently being recirculated for staff’s review.

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