VICTORIA The Capital Regional Hospital District board (CHRD) is looking for the public’s input to help decide the future of Oak Bay Lodge, a former long-term care home. The future use of the four-acre site will be discussed during a pair of virtual open houses planned for Jan. 21 and 26. On Jan. 6, the CHRD launched an information page on the Capital Regional District’s website to provide information on the redevelopment of the former Oak Bay care home. “We’re asking people in the region to tell us what they see for that property for health-care, because it s a health-care facility,” said Capital Regional Hospital District board chair Denise Blackwell. “For example, we could do multi-use on the main floor and we could have some kind of health-care use – like an urgent primary care centre like the one we have in Langford.”
Online open houses are planned for Jan. 21 and 26, with the first round of consultation already underway at crd.bc.ca/oakbaylodge. Capital region residents can visit the site to review information, weigh in via an online feedback form and sign up for the open houses. Consultation will continue until Feb. 4, with a second round expected in the spring. “Working with the community to reimagine the future use of the property is a high-priority project for the region,” said Denise Blackwell, who chairs the board for the Capital Regional Hospital District, which is overseeing the planning and consultation process. Blackwell said the property will continue to be used for a health-care facility. “So for example we could have an urgent primary care centre on the main floor like we have out in Langford, or maybe a pharmacy, and then have care beds up above.”
Future use of the four-acre property now home to Oak Bay Lodge, which is expected to be demolished, is up for discussion at two virtual open houses this month. Built in 1970, the 235-bed facility. . .
No court action is imminent. “We are going one step at a time,” Scott said. “We’re just going through the steps to hold Langford accountable.” The feeling is that people are being “shut out of the democratic process,” she said. Coun. Denise Blackwell said the apartment complex proposal still had to come to council and then perhaps proceed to a public hearing. “We’re hoping to reduce the number of storeys.” She said it would be easier without COVID-19 and be able to speak to people face-to-face. Scott said the core issue of two apartment buildings being proposed for a neighbourhood on a narrow street with single-family homes, at the corner of Fairway Avenue and Goldstream Avenue, has been complicated by Langford council’s “secrecy” in deciding this month not to livestream its meetings. She said it was unusual the decision was made in camera. “That’s the thing that really is odd to us.”
The land, part of a larger 50-acre parcel, is set to be sold next week, with plans to reduce the park to 41 homes. Peter Kedge, president of the Tri-Way Park Residents Association, said residents understand landowners have the right to sell, and provincial and federal legislation provides residents with financial compensation, but that money won’t be enough to keep some adequately housed. “The level of anxiety is very hard to overestimate. There are some folks here who may have some financial cushion. There are others who have literally month-to-month and the equity in their homes. So the possibility that the park will be closed is daunting for many,” Kedge said.