We continue to meet with the community to provide updates on some changes to our proposal for the development of 4011 Rainbow Street. We invite you to view the recorded sessions by clicking on the video below. In addition to the videos, we have included a bulleted summary highlighting the thoughts and ideas that came from the community through our conversation. We encourage and welcome feedback on this proposal.

Meeting recording.

General

• With 5 visitor stalls and only 4 additional on-street parking spaces for 26 units, will visitor parking spill over to the Lyra?​
• Blackberry Road is already maxed out with parking and will only get worse with new development. Is there possibility to create more on-street parking for neighbors or additional visitor parking within the proposed development?​
• Possibility for a Parking Study to be undertaken by Abstract?

Parking

• Residential permit parking – must be enforced
• Taxi, delivery drop off and pick up
• Construction parking needs to be managed

Speed

• Speed is a problem on Rainbow Street. There is no traffic management plan in place. Any speed mitigation will save lives.​
• Possible contribution to future speed limit change/reduction from Abstract.

Traffic

• Will an all-way stop or traffic light be added to the intersection of Blackberry Road and Douglas? Any plans for this from Saanich/Abstract/Developer on the south side of Rainbow Street?​
• 2 new developments of roughly 100 additional units to the neighbourhood will require attention to traffic impacts/concerns. How will this be dealt with?​
• What numbers are actually used in Traffic Impact Studies? Real or averages?​
• Concerns of congestion and speed can be brought to Saanich Engineering.
• Due to the sharpness of the curve and change in elevation, the visibility of oncoming traffic when travelling up Blackberry or down Rainbow is extremely limited.  Vehicles parking on the north side of Blackberry against the yellow curb along with vehicles stopped to pick up mail on the south side of Blackberry add to the dangers of this intersection.

Building design

• What are the elevations of the townhomes in relation to the existing homes in the neighbourhood?​
• What will the site lines be like for residents on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floor of the Lyra?​
• Height is a concern. Some would prefer to keep the building heights at 2-storeys.​
• Scaling down the project would alleviate parking/traffic/height concerns.

Tree protection

• What is involved in root protection? What measures are taken in this process?​
• Under what circumstance would a tree be removed when it was originally intended to be preserved?​
• Which application is the proposed laneway included? How many trees are going to be removed to accommodate this?  

Pedestrians & accessibility 

• The corner of Rainbow Street and Blackberry Road needs a crosswalk. Is this in Saanich’s plans? What is going to be done to protect pedestrians at this corner?​
• Will residents of Lyra be able to walk through the proposed project?​
• Increased pedestrian traffic on Rainbow Street to access Christmas Hill is becoming problematic. Need signage such as “no pedestrian access” or some measure to help mitigate this.​
• Stop signs and cross walks will be important for residents accessing the mailboxes and the overpass to Rainbow Park.

Additional comments

• The Douglas/Blackberry intersection is not a problem for everyone. Adding a traffic stop may make it more bothersome.​
• Walking from the Lyra through the existing townhome development does not happen currently. Don’t foresee this as a problem with the proposed townhome development.​
• Building B has a nice elevation from the perspective of the Lyra residents from upper levels. The project seems to have good visual sight lines from all angles.​
• The developer to the south of 4011 Rainbow is looking into stop signs and cross walks.​
• Not so much worried about the 26 units, more so the combined unit count of both projects on Rainbow Street.