If you live, work, shop, play, study, worship, or just like to hang out in North Park, now’s your chance to have your say about not just the present, but also the future of our great neighbourhood!

May 10, 2021 — The conversation continues!

The City of Victoria is starting to engage neighbourhoods to see what they think of several proposed neighbourhood boundary changes across the City. The proposed change that would impact North Park is to move the current North Park/Fernwood Boundary from Cook Street to Chambers Street. 

A survey will be launched by the City engagement on May 10. To answer any questions you may have before completing the survey you are invited to participate in a neighbourhood meeting on Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 7:00pm. This conversation will be focused on the proposal to move the boundaries between North Park and Fernwood (from Cook to Chambers), as well as the boundary between Oaklands and Fernwood (from Haultain to Bay).

This event is being organized by the Fernwood Community Association. Staff from the City of Victoria, as well as representatives from the North Park, Fernwood, Oaklands, and Downtown Neighbourhood Associations will be in attendance. Everyone is welcome!

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9333505704
Phone in: 778-907-2071
Meeting ID: 933 350 5704

The City of Victoria is working with North Park Neighbourhood Association, Fernwood Community Association and Hillside-Quadra Neighbourhood Association to update the Local Area Plan (LAP). We need your input so that the revised plan will truly reflect needs and desires of the people who love this area.

LAPs are part of creating sustainable, vibrant communities. While the Official Community Plan (OCP) provides broad guidance for development and growth, a LAP guides where new housing will go, where new businesses should open, and what services and amenities are needed. Developers can refer to it for guidance on new plans, and the City will use it to evaluate proposals and set priorities for projects.

Early engagement between the City of Victoria and community stakeholders provided input and ideas for how the neighbourhood should look and feel and how public spaces can be improved. Results of this October 2020 survey are available at Community Values Survey. These results will be used to draft design guidelines and policies for the LAP. A more recent community survey was introduced with the purpose of gaining understanding of how those who live, work, and spend time in North Park want the neighbourhood to be shaped over the next 5, 10 or 20 years. Its results will help the NPNA advocate for what’s important to our residents, make budget and resource decisions, and guide land use decisions as new developments are proposed for the neighbourhood. You can learn about evolving ideas based on the early results and can voice your opinion of these ideas in a survey at engage.victoria.ca/fernwood-north-park-hillside-quadra (on the site you will be guided to register and create a password to participate). There is comprehensive information, in a variety of formats, that you can see at this site. Both the information and survey are based on the ideas and opinions from the early phase of engagement.

Second Round of Public Engagement: Spring 2021

It’s not too late for you to contribute your own thoughts. We need to hear from all of you who care about North Park!

We’re all aware of the kinds of emergencies that can come our way in Victoria and elsewhere in British Columbia.

Vic-Alert is the City of Victoria’s free emergency notification service that informs you by text, phone and email of major emergencies or disasters that may impact you in Victoria. Vic-Alert is powered by Alertable, which is highly rated, made in Canada, and free for the public. It provides many  options to receive notifications including text, email, phone, mobile app, social media, home smart speaker, and more. You can personalize notifications by type and severity, and you can choose notifications for more than one location such as home and office. 

Unless you have subscribed to Vic-Alert since the transition to Alertable as of January 11, 2021, you are NOT an existing subscriber and will need to sign up again as a new subscriber.

For more information and to subscribe to Vic-Alert, visit: https://victoria.ca/VicAlert

On the same page there also are links to useful information about what to do in an emergency.

Victoria’s system, Vic-Alert, is different from the Provincial ‘Alert Ready’ system. Alert Ready is used only for Amber Alerts and tsunami warnings.

Provincial notifications are automatically sent to compatible smart phones and news/radio and do not require subscription. The City’s Vic-Alert system is used for a wider variety of hazards and includes geographically specific information which will only be sent to those subscribed to Vic-Alert. 

Don’t be unprepared — get as much information as you can!

Our great little neighbourhood is getting international media attention!

Check out this item about our mural from the May edition of Air Canada’s EnRoute Magazine

And there’s more of the mural to come – stay tuned!

If you want to read more about the story of the mural, go to http://fernwoodnrg.ca/story-line/

 New Online Archives Search

The stories that form the collective history of BC’s Capital City are now more accessible through a new City of Victoria Archives Online Search, a searchable database containing over 10,000 digitized archival photos and records.

For the past 50 years, the City of Victoria Archives has been the caretaker of these unique records, carefully stewarding the stories of Victoria’s past. Now through the Archives Online Search these stories are even easier to find and access.

The Archives Online Search uses AtoM, an open source, standards-based application. AtoM is an acronym for Access to Memory. AtoM is used by many other Canadian archives and international institutions, including BC Archives, The World Bank, NATO and UNESCO.

The City of Victoria Archives continues the legacy left by Ainslie Helmcken, who became the City’s first archivist in 1967. The Archives continues this stewardship of the City’s historical records and enabling open access to this material.

You’ve probably already seen the great orange and teal mural at the northeast corner of Cook and North Park Streets. It was created for the North Park Village by a group of artists under the leadership of Luke Ramsey, Victoria’s artist-in-residence.

Now we are excited by the news that grant funding has been approved for the next phase of this beautification project, which is a joint undertaking of the North Park Neighbourhood Association and the Fernwood Community Association. Phase Two will extend the orange “story line” to two more corners of this intersection at the heart of our village – specifically to the north wall of Toes ‘n’ Taps Dance Shoppe, and the front windows of Cook Street Castle Building Centre

Huge thanks to Toes ‘n’ Taps Dance Shoppe, TriEagle Developments, Cook Street Castle Building Centre and Garside Signs & Displays for their participation in this project. And of course the City of Victoria’s Great Neighbourhood Grant Program.

Also, keep your eyes open for new banners at the Pandora and Caledonia Avenue ends of the village.

Victoria City Council unanimously adopted a strategy designed to get more youth involved in local government. The three-year Youth Strategy, written by a team of 10 youth between the ages of 12 and 25, includes practical and creative initiatives that will help the City strengthen its relationship with youth and involve them in City activities.

Youth aged 12 – 24 make up over 15 percent of Victoria’s population yet are underrepresented in the City’s planning processes. This strategy is intended to give young people a voice in local government and be part of planning the future of their community.

“A lot can be gained by having youth involved in the City,” said Sol Lindsay, youth team member (aged 18). “Not only can youth provide a unique perspective on city issues, but involvement in the city can build a relationship with government that is fundamental for the future. This strategy will help the City design programs and processes to get young people involved, and it will connect the city with the generations of the future.”

The strategy includes more than a dozen ways for the City to involve youth in their municipal government such as:
• developing a learning tool in partnership with the school district so children and youth are learning about the City in classrooms
• opening a youth hub as a safe space for youth to hang out and find out about programs and services
• creating a channel for direct two-way dialogue between City Council and youth
• getting more youth working at the City through mentorship and co-op programs

“It’s really important to get youth involved in planning the future of the city,” said Councillor Jeremy Loveday. “We are making decisions today that will shape the community for a long time to come. Youth deserve to have a say in what their city will look like. I’m pleased we have a roadmap that will help us to support youth to get more involved.”

The City will begin implementing the strategy immediately.

Read the full youth strategy at http://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/youth.html.

Youth Strategy excerpt: “The Youth Strategy is a painting made with the brushstrokes from local youth from all walks of life, adults who work closely with youth, City staff, Council and us. It is the result of our best efforts to build a better city for all youth in Victoria.”

This November’s blog post by Thomas Guerrero has a lot of wonderful things to say about our neighbourhood. Check it out here: sidewalkingvictoria.blogspot.ca/north-park-village

We appreciate your interest Thomas, and want to give a shout out for your work years ago organizing North Park Village’s first placemaking workshop.