Transcript: Committee of the Whole - 2026-06-08

Speaker A · Good evening everyone. I'm Councillor Judy Brownhoff. I'm Acting Mayor for the month of June and I'll be chairing this meeting. I'm going to call the June 8, 2026 Committee of the whole meeting to order and as we always do, I'll have Councillor Chambers read out our territorial statements and diversity statement, please.

Speaker B · Thank you very much. Chair Brown off. Hello. It is appropriate that we begin by acknowledging that the district of Saanich lies within the territories of the Lakewangan peoples represented by the Songhees and Esquimalt nations and the Weissanich peoples represented by the Sartlep, Paquichan, Saot, Sicom and Malahat Nations. We are committed to celebrating the rich diversity of people in our community. We are guided by the principle that embracing diversity enriches the lives of all people. We all share the responsibility for creating an equitable and inclusive community and for addressing discrimination in all forms. Thank you.

Speaker A · Thank you. Public input has always been an important item on our Council meeting agendas and welcomed in person. Saanich encourages public input via email or written submission in person or by video on Ms. Teams. For those wishing to address Council via Ms. Teams, the link is available at www. saanich. ca. agendas. The Deputy Corporate Officer will provide further details on providing input prior to the public input portion of the agenda. This meeting is being live webcast and by participating in this webcast you are consenting to being recorded. Personal information, including your image and personal opinions may be collected and disclosed as part of the Council proceedings on the video.

Speaker A · The recording will be available on the District's website for further access. When presenting to Council, please do not provide any third party information. For example, talk about others as you may be disclosing other people's personal information without their consent. We require respectful dialogue at this meeting. If your behavior or language is disruptive or harmful, we reserve the right to stop your input or remove you from the meeting. We also ask that you consider others when listening and reacting to any comments this evening. Whether you may support or oppose a particular item, we want everyone to feel comfortable and welcome to participate and share their views. Thank you for making this a space for thought, thoughtful, constructive discussion.

Speaker A · I'll now request the Deputy Corporate Officer to please introduce the next agenda item.

Speaker C · The agenda item is public input and this is specific to the committee at the hold at this point for 330-833-12 Tennyson Avenue and there is no individuals that pre registered to speak. So for those wishing to address Council via Ms. Teams the meeting link is located as Chair Brownoff mentioned at Saanich CA Agendas. The information is also displayed on the screen for convenience and for those participating through Emma's teams, please leave your video display off and microphone muted except when addressing council. If you wish to speak you must use the raise your hand function to join the speaking queue. Speakers are going to have up to three minutes each to address council on this application.

Speaker C · If you're representing a community association, please let us know and you will have up to six minutes. And in accordance with the committee of the whole terms of reference, the applicant will have up to 30 minutes to address council. As there is nobody who has pre registered to speak. I'm just going to look to within chambers if there's anybody who wishes to come forward or as I mentioned, if you're on teams please use the raise your hand feature.

Speaker A · Please come forward.

Speaker D · Good evening council. My name is Matt McGee, I live in the Brayford area. I want to talk just briefly about the Tennyson development project. Whatever you want to call it, I hope you turn it down. Industrial land, once it's gone, will never come back. I was at my granddaughter's grade 12 graduation yesterday at UVic. She goes to Royal Bay and I was amazed at how many of the graduates were saying, I'm going into Camosun, I'm going into the trades. You know, it used to be everybody was going to university to be a teacher or something like that, but I was, I mean probably more than half, well, I don't know, some, some didn't declare.

Speaker D · But I would suggest that most more people were going to camosun than UVic and into the trades. And if you think about, you know, the implementation of AI, a lot of jobs are going to go sideways but one of the things that's not going to go sideways is trades, hands on kind of stuff. And I think you need to preserve as much as possible what you have here. What's being built is basically a storage building which probably is appropriate in some places, but in this case we don't know the kind of jobs, especially with, you know, sourcing stuff back into Canada and things like that.

Speaker D · I think we need as much of the industrial land as we as we possibly can. I can't see anything, you know, we have a lot of people going from, you know, office, commercial to housing, but I can't see anybody going the other way. So we should keep what we have. Thank you.

Speaker A · Thank you very much.

Speaker C · If there's anybody else wishing to address Hansel, please come forward at this time or use the raise your hand feature within teams. And a reminder, this is specific to the Tennyson application.

Speaker A · Welcome.

Speaker E · Welcome.

Speaker F · So my name is Tim Smith. I own the property at 3311 and 3309 Tennison, directly across the road from this proposal. My family built our business in 1975. It was the first commercial building on Tennyson. I view this new building as a new chapter for Tennyson, as the first original building there of commercial. There has been no significant change. Basically there's a lot of parking lots, lumber yards, towing yards and whatnot. There is two other storage facilities nearby. I don't see how this would be out of that realm, but I do see it as a new chapter for

Speaker E · Tennyson and the Douglas corridor building up

Speaker F · and improving and really making a nicer

Speaker E · neighborhood and a better commercial usage of

Speaker F · the property than what it currently is. So I would ask council to support

Speaker G · this

Speaker F · as myself, being a direct neighbor across the road. Thank you for my time. Thank you.

Speaker A · Thank you.

Speaker C · If there's anybody else who wishes to address council, please come forward at this time.

Speaker G · Good evening. So this is the proposal on the eight story storage facility.

Speaker A · Could you give us your name and.

Speaker G · Oh, I'm Nathan. I live in Saanich.

Speaker E · Thank you.

Speaker G · This is the proposal on the, you know, eight storage. Storage unit. I mean, I see there's other storage unit facilities nearby, so I wouldn't be against it. But, you know, as the staff report says, you know, they say this proposal doesn't bring much employment to the area because most of it is just storage. So I think it's important to look at kind of the broader region of Uptown Douglas. You know, if we want some more, you know, employment in the region. You know, I think we need to think about what the zoning regulations in the area is. You know, I looked at the Uptown Douglas plan that's going to be reviewed upcoming, and they say, you know, financial viability of projects is important in terms of, you know, how tall, you know, we can, we can keep these.

Speaker G · How tall we allow the developers to go. So, you know, so I think that that broader region needs to be thought about. I mean, I heard some of the residents here, they're not there, they support this project and it's got. The proposal has gone on for a few years, so maybe it's. It's time to make a decision. Or maybe we need to, you know, put in that Uptown Douglas plan. We want to include it in that region. All right. Yeah. Thank you.

Speaker H · Thank you.

Speaker C · Nathan, do you mind Just providing your last name for to include in the minutes.

Speaker G · Nathan Ng.

Speaker C · If there's anybody else who wishes to address council, please come forward at this time. Or if you're participating via Emma's Teams, please use your raise your hand feature.

Speaker A · Welcome.

Speaker I · Good evening Council. Sir, my name is Carol Hamill. I'm here on behalf of the Mountview Claquik Community Association. Thank you for this opportunity to speak tonight to this issue. We were first made aware of this project application in January of 2023. That's more than three years ago. It should be noted that the Mountview Calcutt administration has not had any contact with the developer or with the owners of the neighboring properties. I would like to clarify the comments, the brief comments that we sent in in January. It is because Mount View Community association takes a broad view of the type of projects that are supportable within the Tennyson industrial quarter.

Speaker I · I say supportable, maybe they don't meet the letter of the law, but this is certainly to me a supportable project. I would like to see this application proceed without any more delays. The Tennyson Industrial Corridor was envisioned during the Uptown Douglas process as an area of businesses that really are not acceptable within housing areas. Not specifically that we stressed how many people were being employed, but that we were stressing that there was a likeness to the projects, that they needed to be there, that they had no other place to be, that they weren't wanted in housing areas areas.

Speaker I · At that time I understood it to be a place of necessary services, not only activities that are labor intensive. Workforce employment is changing and it would be a mistake to think that all light industrial work is labor intensive. We see the new kinds of jobs that are being done by machines and in light industry and that we find that it is not the same as what I envisioned when we first talked about this. Currently the Tennyson area contains a wide range of uses, not just light industry. The vision of what the Tennyson area can become needs to be reviewed because there are changing needs of what is broadly defined as light industry.

Speaker I · Looking it up on the Internet, I found that it is perhaps something that I have misunderstood over the years. There does not appear to be a lot of interest in light industry companies moving into this area. We need to find out why. We need to find out what the modern needs are of light industry and how Saanich can support this kind of growth. If self storage buildings are to be regulated, then start the process after this project is approved so that future applicants know what to expect. Thank you very much thank you.

Speaker C · If there's anybody else who wishes to address Hansel, please come forward.

Speaker J · Okay.

Speaker C · In accordance with the Council procedure bylaw, if the applicant wishes to provide their presentation, it would be done. Done so now during public input. And you would have up to 30 minutes to address council. I know that we have a PowerPoint loaded, so I believe that there is an intention to do a.

Speaker A · Thank you. Welcome.

Speaker K · Great.

Speaker L · Good evening everybody. It's nice to see folks. My name is Kaylee Wiseman and I'm the planning consultant supporting this proponent on the application. I'm just going to quickly do introductions and I'm going to turn it over to some of the other team members and I want to thank all of the public as well who have spoken within, sharing their thoughts. Every time I hear Carol speak, I think I should hire her as a planner. I'm sure you feel the same. And thank you very much, Councillor Chambers, for starting us off in a good way with a territorial acknowledgement. So I'm going to turn this over briefly to the owner and the applicant to go through a brief history of the site, the current use and the long term vision for the site.

Speaker L · I'm going to turn over to our architectural team to talk about the project design, the buildings and the highlights. And then I'm going to share a bit about policy alignment from our perspective as well as a summary of the process to date. As a planner, I found that has been quite interesting and I just joined the project approximately a year ago. And then we'll wrap up with some of the community socioeconomic benefits as well as some opportunities based on the staff report. So I'm going to turn it over to Brent. He's the owner and operator of the site. And then he'll be followed by Jackson Lowe, the principal at Lohan Roe Architects. And then I'll step back up.

Speaker E · Thank you, Kaylee, thank you for the introduction.

Speaker A · Welcome.

Speaker E · Thank you. Councilwoman and council. My name is Brent Timchak. I have been in business in Saanich for 33 years. I've been a neighbor of Tim's for 33 also. I started my business in Saanich. I'm not a developer, I'm not a real estate speculator. I'm actually a journeyman lineman by trade and I employ 40 people on that site presently in various construction companies, all heavy construction, excavation, trucking, power line utilities and pump stations, etc. I have journeyman welders, journeyman pipe fitters, journeyman linemen, journeyman electricians. Myself personally on that site I have indentured and trained over 100 tradespeople. Now, my vision for that site is to continue, that is to continue the industrial aspect of the area. But business has changed over the 33 years that I've been on that site.

Speaker E · But nothing in that area has during that same time period. So I've been wanting to use that site to its highest and best use, still focusing on its industrial heritage and the need for industrial, because I obviously am one of those people. So I contacted Jackson Lowe and we came up with a plan of what would be the highest and best use for that area and that facility. We came up with a building plan that is not perfect, but it's in alignment with the parameters that are presented to us. The building is very versatile. It is always called self storage, but really it is an empty industrial building. So rather than taking too much of your time here to explore my vision, I will pass it back to the experts in the field.

Speaker E · I hope you support this. It is important for the future of Saanich. That area, Tennyson, is kind of the forgotten Oak Street. It is just one block over on the other side of the road and it doesn't get much attention. It needs something. Thank you.

Speaker J · Good evening, Acting Mayor, Council, thank you for allowing us to speak this evening. I will briefly talk about the current design. The existing sites that the two buildings are on, current buildings are on, are currently zoned residential. And with this proposal, it's an opportunity to rezone it accordingly to light industrial uses. And that's sort of part of our goal as well, to bring it back in line to what Saanich wants it to be. Here you see the general layout of the site plan where the building basically fronts onto Tennyson and it sort of wraps around Bangor Place and then all the parking and all the access for underground parking and so on is off of Bangor Place, off of the cul de sac.

Speaker J · In the back here you'll see the proposed uses on the main floor plan, which is basically light industrial uses on the main floor plan. We originally started off with what was asked of us to have the first and second floor of this building to be basically 50% light industrial. So we did that and we were asked to create two, three CRU units within that main floor to create an active sort of frontage, which is also why we have the huge setback from Tennyson to create a more public realm space off of Tennyson, so that if there are sort of crus and uses that will have people come and visit and can stay and sit for A while that that space has created that.

Speaker J · Then as we moved down a few more months, we were asked to turn the whole floor into light industrial. So we did that because we weren't. That wasn't up to us to determine. So we did that for the main floor and we did that to the second floor which is all light industrial. So this property will remain light industrial. And you'll probably find that in this area and other areas there are very rarely more than a two story light industri building. So the stories above that are not light industrial. So what we've proposed was from levels 3 to 7 would be the storage unit facility which will occupy those spaces once again, large open spaces, generally just a, just a grid of columns and it will be infilled with storage units if that's the use that we're allowed to do.

Speaker J · And so largely as Brent has said, it's a large light industrial building with open spaces, save for the seventh floor or eighth floor rather, which will house Brent's office and operations for his many companies that he's operating out of. So it gives them a consolidated sort of office space because currently they're sort of spread out between a few buildings and it'd be nice to just consolidate his staff back together in one location. So having said that, we were asked to design a building which, which will start to uplift the area and create some renewal and regentification of this light industrial area that is largely mixed mix of one story older buildings built in the 70s and some existing residential buildings that have been used for offices for light industrial use, such as the current two buildings that are on Tennyson that, that we're planning to remove.

Speaker J · As you can see, we're, we're not creating a box, you think of a storage unit or a light industrial building would be just a simple box, metal siding. That's it. You know, you get, you get very little, very little fenestration, no windows and so on. But here you have a building that actually expresses itself a little bit more and is a little bit more unique and creates a bit of an image in the whole area. And hopefully that will spur on other landowners to think, yeah, we can upgrade this area a little bit more and create new buildings, larger buildings that may suit like industrial use as well.

Speaker J · The building, if you can, as you can see, that's a sun shadow study basically. It doesn't cast much shadows because it's on the south side of the street and Bango Place is on the north side. So the shadows are cast basically on Bangor Place. So from this rendering you can see that there's a mix of materials. Basically the whitish areas are basically a polycarbonate material which allows for light to come in and to go out, but you can't see within it. Which is perfect for a light industrial sort of scenario where the uses aren't meant to be for you to be able to see out or for you to see and it's just an empty space.

Speaker J · The first two floors are taller for light industrial use. So they're 16ft floor to floor. So that allows for light industrial uses. And it basically has it's inset from the street and the storage units are sort of overhanging the front of the building that way. And then up on the eight floor is his offices which is set back from the street. So its perception is not an eight story building but more of a seven story building from Bangor Place because the street basically dips down pretty well. A story from Banga Place. It may be conceived as a eight to nine story building. From that part of it we've got a mix of sort of wood like material. We've got steel material, we've got cement fiber material as well.

Speaker J · And you can see up on the roof there's a sort of a screen that will screen all the H VAC equipment that's going to go up on the roof. At this point I'll turn it back over to Kaylee. Thank you very much.

Speaker L · All right folks, I have content heavy slides which is. I know a.

Speaker M · No, no.

Speaker L · However, I wanted to share with everybody the history of this project in general. As I mentioned, I just joined it about a year ago. But while Brent's been in the community for a long time, this proposal has been in process for over 8 years and then therefore been subject to multiple OCPs and multiple policy and plan changes. So for example, you're now looking at a pre zoning process for Uptown Douglas. But this project was already in play when the previous Uptown Douglas or existing one was approved. Similarly, the first application was subject to the previous ocp. And now we found ourselves in this ocp. We've also had multiple planners in different directions throughout that time.

Speaker L · And for example, the December policy that brought through about the definition around self storage I believe was in part informed by the process that this applicant has gone through where there really has been a lack of clarity and definition about is self storage industrial or is it a commercial use? And so in part I think kind of, you know, the proponent and the design team has really kind of listened to staff and taken their direction over Time to land on where we are today. And yeah, I've got a long litany of alignment in the policy pieces. So as I mentioned, this place site is located in Saanich CORA in Tennyson industrial area. It does support all of the uses that we're proposing.

Speaker L · We're proposing a unique spot zone on the site that I'll touch on briefly and it does respond to an economic development plan that the owner engaged a consultant years back to look at as he mentioned, the best and highest use to make sure he was making an informed decision about what the future demand is for this area and in Saanich.

Speaker L · We've had multiple conversations with different residents and different neighbors about the demand for self storage. I think it's no surprise to everybody when you see your housing applications come forward these days that we're building smaller and smaller units and less and less storage and expensive non rentable space in these dwellings. And so we know there's an absolute demand for it both in Saanich across the crd. So we've listed many, many policy alignments both with the OCP and the current Uptown Douglas. I'm not going to go through these, but in our opinion the staff report touches on a few of them. But we worked really hard to make sure this most recent submission made as much direct alignment as possible, especially understanding that this is the first somewhat substantive application to come forward in this neighbourhood.

Speaker L · Brent, the owner spoke to the socioeconomic opportunities but equally I think the viability going forward in this current market and supporting somewhat substantive economic development and construction opportunities is important to consider. The Uptown Douglas plan also right now does really embody a lot of what this land use change is looking for. You'll see on Jackson's plans as well. He didn't speak to but the street frontage and street improvements as well. It meets a lot of the urban forestry canopy and a lot of the active transportation targets that Saanich is seeking through a commercial industrial project which is quite unique. It's also very centrally located as folks know and so it's not including Saanich.

Speaker L · Residents want to go to Langford or to further afield to access some of these not just industrial and job skills employment opportunities but also storage needs which are frankly what residents require. Here's another long list of them. We've gone through as well various iterations to consider some of the cpted and safety and construction concerns that are happening in this neighborhood because there's a lot of day activity in the Tennyson corridor as you can all imagine. And very little night activity. And so there will be 24 hour employment as well as 24 hour surveillance because self storage, if that is ultimately the end use of portion of the building is a 24 hour and secured site activity.

Speaker L · So I will just say that industrial use is still the primary use of the site. 96% of the two bottom floors are still dedicated to industrial use. That's where we've landed right now after going back and forth with Saanich multiple times. There's not just space for this owner operator to be retained in Saanich and not lose him, but there's space for future industrial tenants. Our understanding at Saanich is increasingly being requested to provide space for it does advance the Uptown Douglas plan, which is great for the neighboring neighborhood and the units adjacent to it as you've heard folks speak about tonight, as well as it does enhance that streetscape and helps kind of slowly, maybe incrementally implement some of those public realm improvements that everyone wants to see.

Speaker L · So here's our site specific zone. What we've tried to achieve is flexibility while providing some certainty to Sanich and the neighbors and residents. Of course we've only got 50% lot coverage that I'm sure you noted when Jackson showed his plans. And the first photo we showed right now shows very little site coverage. It's actually two historic duplexes that Brent has been operating out of since the beginning of his business. It's currently a split zone. So we're actually moving this whole zone kind of rectifying these non conforming uses. One of the sites is currently still zoned residential and the other is commercial. So we're looking at a site specific zone that will meet not just these current needs but the future given the flexibility of the build proposed for long term needs as well.

Speaker L · So we've got quite a diverse use of primary permitted uses and a 3. 5 floor space ratio and setbacks that so far I haven't heard any criticism from staff I would say on that. So just quickly to run through the council motions and the recommendations in the staff report, we just want to provide a couple clarifications. We're still getting requested to increase that industrial gross floor area to better align with policy. It really wasn't until the staff report came out that we heard the overall they wanted the over 50% of the first two floors which we have of course provided. And then they've additionally requested commercial and different iterations of the project.

Speaker L · And so we now as I mentioned have over 96% of industrial floor area on the first two floors and we have not changed the self storage units in the middle given it's been under process for eight years, as well as the fact that that self storage policy just came through in December. And so we are really hoping that the current Design council understand the rationalization behind it and move forward with our industri gross floor area use. As it stands, the staff report is also recommending some design changes so increasing the floor to height or floor to floor heights which provide even more flexibility and use in the future.

Speaker L · That of course comes with additional cost as well as ultimately additional height in the building. As you can imagine, our current floor plans do provide a range of industrial uses. This will be a concrete building. This will not be a light wood frame building that will be able to be flexible for ultimate other uses in the future. And so in our opinion we provide a lot of flexibility for current and future uses. And further, there was also some requests about surface parking which we've the current plan proposed is reflective of previous staff comments and direction the surface parking plan as well as the screening and frontages, we've also been asked to provide more higher quality bicycle parking stalls.

Speaker L · A parking study and transportation demand study is previously been done and it showed that 14 stalls are actually over overly sufficient based on the current proposed uses in the building. There's a variety of outstanding technical pieces which we are happy to provide, some of which has already been provided. And then the final piece in the staff report was requesting that we do update that parking report and at this point our opinion is that we'll just delay the application further. Having considered, we've redesigned the parkade and the service parking multiple times throughout the project. And so in brief summary, we really do feel strongly that this is a very centrally located opportunity and is reflective of both changing needs as the owner has seen over the duration of his business as well as future forward needs.

Speaker L · It both preserves and actually increases and enhances the existing industrial use as well as providing a long standing local business owner with expansion opportunities, it will create new job skills, employment and leasing opportunities for tenants or potential partners and it truly does improve the site function for anyone that's been in this area including access, use and street frontage safety and security for the overall neighborhood.

Speaker L · As you heard tonight, we've had strong support and some letters were sent in as well from the neighborhood and neighborhood owners and businesses and we really do feel like it is a project that sanitizer can support based on the current policy and where it stands. So we really appreciate everybody's time.

Speaker A · Is that the end of your presentation?

Speaker K · It is.

Speaker A · Thank you.

Speaker C · Okay, as public input is still open. Just wanting to check one final time if there's anybody who wishes to address council on this application. If you're within teams please use the raise your hand feature. There is nobody who's come forward or raised their hand. So the item on tonight's committee of the whole agenda is 3308 and 3312 Tennyson Avenue development permit and rezoning application. This is a report from the Director of Planning. The purpose is to present to committee of the whole the rezoning and development permit application to allow the construction of a nine story mixed use building with primarily industrial use at grade and with industrial office and self storage.

Speaker C · On other stories also to direct staff to continue working with the applicant to increase the amount of industrial gross floor area and resolve the outstanding design and technical issues related to compliance with the development permit area guidelines and zoning bylaw.

Speaker A · Council Councilor Plan thank you Chair I'm

Speaker N · not going to make a motion. I'm going to ask some questions. Just so that I don't run out of time. I'd like to ask some questions through you to staff. I'd like to just first of all ask is it accurate that the applicant has been working with Sanish for eight years on and off.

Speaker H · Through the mayor to Councillor Plant? The applicant submitted an application in December 2022. Prior to that there had been some pre app conversations. I guess it was before the pre application process was in place but they had some preliminary conversations with staff. I'm not sure kind of the full timeline of that but the application has been in progress since December 2022.

Speaker N · Okay, thank you for that clarification. The applicant made a comment that they are hearing that there is a request for more industrial and I'm just wondering if staff have had that same sort of inquiry. I as a member of council have never said had someone say to me we need more industrial industrial land. Not that anybody's been in a hurry to say we need less of it. But I'm just wondering if staff hear that at the desk

Speaker H · through the mayor to Councillor Plant. So speaking with our economic development strategy advisor Mitchell Edgar, he did say there is definitely different businesses that are looking for various specific industrial uses and having a hard time finding the right space. I think they're they like the tencent area because of its central location. They don't necessarily want to be on the other edges of the region. So he is definitely seeing the demand but the demand doesn't match what's available within Saanich.

Speaker N · Okay. Two other themes for questions. Thank you for the answers thus far. I did send a question earlier to staff about the economic impact of the decision regarding taxation. If it is zoned for light industry, it will in my understanding from the response from staff, it would generate less revenue because the multiplier for light industry is significantly less than commercial. So if Saanich was looking through a lens of trying to what would provide the higher degree of taxation, is it accurate that commercial is actually going to provide more tax dollars to the municipality

Speaker H · right through the mayor to Councillor Plant? So this one is. I won't lie a bit out of my purview, but I will kind of go with what we heard from our manager of finance earlier today. So my understanding is the rate of industrial specific to taxation from the municipality would be higher with the commercial uses. That said, I think there's during the industrial use in itself provides a bunch of other spin off benefits to the economy and employment. So it has different benefits other than just strictly that comparison against taxation.

Speaker N · Thank you for that.

Speaker K · Just.

Speaker N · If council was to go with an alternate direction of saying to work with the applicant, is it accurate that a development permit would come back to this council for approval

Speaker H · through the mayor to Councilor Plant? Yes, there still would be. We'd be coming forward with rezoning, potentially an OCP amendment as well as the development permit and it would come together as one decision.

Speaker N · Apologies for cutting you off. That was well said. Thank you Madam Chair. I have no further questions.

Speaker A · Thank you Councillor Chambers, please.

Speaker B · Thank you very much to the chair. I guess I do have a few questions. Thank you. I am a long standing person of supporting industrial land and actually think it's so valuable that we should have an industrial land reserve to protect it. Because if we don't protect it, vehicles and whatnot are vacating are situating themselves on farmland. So I'm wondering what type of industrial uses would no longer be possible on this site with the rezoning?

Speaker A · You need to ask staff, not the applicant.

Speaker B · Thank you. Sorry

Speaker A · staff.

Speaker H · I guess I've been calling you the mayor but you are the chair so apologies. Motor practice through the chair to Councillor Chambers. So I guess the zone is not yet written. The applicant has proposed a zone that would have a diversity of uses. So technically all of those uses would be would be still permitted. It would be a range of. We would ensure there would be a range of uses. However there would be the self storage use would be prevented in that. So that is a use that staff has identified as being more of a commercial use. And, and I think whether the use would change over time or not. So currently what's being proposed is like five and a half stories of the commercial self storage use.

Speaker H · And so what would happen with that over time, we do not know. But it's not common for these uses to flip once they're established.

Speaker B · Thank you. I have a. Thank you. I have a few more things. So sometimes to protect through the chair, sometimes to protect things in the agricultural land reserve, we use covenants. So is there any way to covenant the future of this land to consider that it would continue to be industrial over time and not turn into something else over time?

Speaker A · Staff?

Speaker H · Yeah, through the chair to Councillor Chambers. I think the covenants are always a tool we could use. I don't think we've explored it for this site at this time. I think the way it's going forward, I think there is like there would be some of the self storage commercial uses. Right. As part of the initial development permit. So then we could look at through the zoning as well. This might be what Eric was going to get at too is we could be saying restricting the industrial uses to those two ground floors like the first and the second floor here. I'll let Eric keep that over.

Speaker F · Yeah, I'll just supplement that. Through the chair to Councillor Chambers. Zoning has the power to control the location of uses as well. So we can kind of work with the applicant to establish a zone that would have a certain amount of industrial uses and possibly in certain parts of a building say, so there's some flexibility. We can be creative in that regard through zoning.

Speaker B · Okay, thank you hearing that. Thank you. Through the chair. Has anyone spoke with the applicant about potentially doing something like this?

Speaker F · Through the chair to Councillor Chambers. We do have some advice in the letter here where we have recommended a mix of uses, including say 50% industrial, which is a number we can talk about. This has been included in the letter here, but we haven't gone into details with the applicant.

Speaker B · Okay. Thank you very much for answering my questions. I would, I. There's. I'll save my comments for a minute. I'm kind of excited about them. Thank you.

Speaker A · Councillor Harper, please.

Speaker O · Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, through the chair. So just to be very clear, the zone that's being proposed is broadening but not limiting the uses. So it can still include light industrial, industrial, but what's being added is a new. So it's not, it's not saying only one thing or the other. It can be Any of them. Is that correct?

Speaker H · Yeah, through the chair to Councillor Harper. That is correct. So it would include a range of

Speaker O · uses and I'm hesitant as this because I'm not sure I actually know the answer to this question. But generally speaking, when we have a zone and it provides a multitude of uses, we do not generally, in my recollection, direct owners the percentages that they should have in different parts of their buildings. Do we or have we. I don't recall that.

Speaker F · Yes. So through the chair, we do have zones that specify certain uses on certain floors already. And council has seen some zones that have come forth with percentage floor space of institutional uses.

Speaker O · Is that the actual zone or is that a specific proposal? Because.

Speaker F · Through the chair it would have been. There are some broad zones that have the specific floor regulations. It would have been a specific project that I can think of personally. But just as an example, that would have given council the chance to consider a zone with a percentage floor space.

Speaker O · Thank you for that. So then another question is if this proposal is approved as is, if I can put it that way, and if as part of the process, once it's approved, obviously development process continue on and discussions go on in the community, including in the economic community, in terms of businesses.

Speaker O · Because I too have had major discussions with economic development. As you might imagine, as chair of the Economic Development Advisory Committee, if opportunities came forward through that process to perhaps have more light industrial or industrial, for example, which could either result in some of the floor spaces, I don't think they actually even need to change because they're so generic in the middle section.

Speaker O · But nonetheless, if those changes occurred, and they might even involve theoretically a need for more floors, for example, would staff see those changes as needing to come back to council, or would they be dealt with through the delegation that you currently have? I just need to understand what. How you would view if any opportunities came along, for example, during the process that might have changed how some of the floors are used, if that would need to come back to us, or if you would feel that staff had the ability to. To adjudicate that.

Speaker H · Sorry, through the chair to Councillor Harper. I think, like if there was additional stories, that's something that would be coming back here for a development permit amendment. I think that's the scale of the decision within the use. I believe we would have some flexibility with working within the use. I think there where we may run into problems is with parking variances. So that's something we've been trying to work with the applicant is to better understanding what the use is and how the parking relates and just the nature of the current zoning bylaw and the current parking standards which are under review, it's quite specific. So that would be something we'd have to be. If the uses are changing, we have to go through the process of understanding how that impacts the parking ratios and the variance.

Speaker H · And so if the parking is built, it may be more of a paperwork exercise, but it at least needs to go through the, the process to understand what that is. Depending on the scale of that, it would be a council decision or it would be a delegated decision.

Speaker O · I guess I should be a little more specific then. So on the floors that are currently specified as storage, if a proponent came forward and wanted to have more space for industrial and that would take away the use of storage and turn it into industrial, do you feel that you have the ability to adjudicate that as opposed to that coming back to us.

Speaker F · Through the chair with that scenario? The issue would partially be through parking. I think there would likely be a development permit amendment that staff would not be able to carry forward through delegated powers. However, self storage use is unlikely to require much parking. So if another use came in, it is likely it would require more parking. And so we would be looking at potentially a larger variance than staff have the authority to consider under delegated authority.

Speaker H · I guess if I could supplement that through the chair to Councillor Harper, I think staff would feel like they have the ability to support it though. So if that might be what you're getting at, I don't think there would be concerns about the change in the project. It's just whether, whether it meets the terms of our zoning bylaw within the authority of our delegation. But I think if we did see more industrial coming in, then that would be something staff would support and we would find is better in alignment with policy.

Speaker O · But it would be okay. I think I understand your answer and I'm going to leave it to that. Thank you,

Speaker K · Council.

Speaker A · Ponderoff, please.

Speaker P · Thank you. Madam Chair. A couple questions I guess I'll pick up on the parking point. Given the current use, what is the current parking requirement? I know it's somewhere in their staff report, but it'd be helpful

Speaker F · through the chair to Councillor Phelps Bonderoff. Well, the current use, like the existing youth. Was that the question through the chair?

Speaker P · Yeah, I guess I'll ask to the chair. It's a two part question. That would be the current use as it is at the moment, and then the parking requirement for the proposed, with the proposed model that's in front of

Speaker M · Us

Speaker F · through the chair to Councillor Phelps Blonderoff. The current use, I'm not sure, but I could get that information. The proposed use is not clear. The zoning has been proposed by the applicant. Staff have not worked through that zoning yet, however. But there is a range of uses. So if there were a research establishment or laboratory that could require more parking. And so we aren't sure based on what's going in those floors, what the parking requirement could be and how we would I suppose evaluate that. Because I haven't seen kind of research be mentioned in say the parking report.

Speaker P · No, I appreciate it, thank you. And I apologize for not asking the first part of the question a little earlier. We usually deal with residential parking and the industrial parking is new to me. In that context, the staff report mentions EVSE electric parking. And I was wondering if staff, just through you, Madam Chair, could just elaborate a little bit on that tension. That not tension, but the difference of views on specifically electrification for parking that's currently proposed and what the expectations be from staff or our policies rather,

Speaker F · Through the chair to Councillor Phelps Blonderoff. Yeah, I definitely wouldn't characterize it as tension, of course. I think it is more of a detail that we're happy to work out. The evse, of course, is essentially the. The charger. It's not really a charger, but I think that would be a design consideration that we could work through. Of course, we are very big proponents of having infrastructure like that and supporting that kind of thing. So that is something we will work through.

Speaker P · Thank you so much. Clarification through that through Madam Chair, would that be considered an outstanding technical item or would that be something that would need to be specifically listed in a motion for that to be worked out with staff and the applicant.

Speaker H · Through the chair to Councillor Bonderoff. I think staff will be working through that component as a technical item as we confirm the zoning and the variances as we work through the parking. However, if this is an important issue for you, I would recommend including it in the motion.

Speaker P · I appreciate that. And then I guess this is a question to the chair again. And this is again an open one, which I don't think our staff. I didn't let our staff know in advance. I apologize if they aren't prepared for this. But how are the other two self storage areas that are in close proximity zone? I found a pen from one of them in my pen collection two days ago and it reminded me that it's just around the corner. But do we know how those are zoned? And I don't want to put you

Speaker F · on the spot through the chair to Councillor Phelps Bondorov. That is great question. They are zoned something industrial but they are in fact non conforming uses. They're the results of past decisions reflecting the way we did or didn't consider industrial lands. In December 2025 council did approve changes to the zoning bylaw to clarify the self storage use and that would have stated that the OCP and the economic development strategy does not really support self storage uses in industrial lands or primary growth areas.

Speaker F · So the proposed changes were to define self storage and put it sort of into a commercial zone. The other self storage areas were rendered non conforming because they don't contribute in a way that other commercial uses or industrial uses might. Sorry, they don't generate employment as much contribute to area vibrancy. And that was in the report in December 2025.

Speaker P · Thank you, thank you. That was a perfect answer. I appreciate that Madam Chair. I'm happy to move a motion once the questions are exhausted but also I see other questions so I'll wait.

Speaker A · I have another speaker. You can. Councillor Bryce, please.

Speaker K · Thank you. Chair staff, in through this discussion it seems the touchiness is on the issue of the storage floors. And so I am wondering if this individual who's owned this property for 30 years and has operated light industrial on that property had come forward with an application for a couple of stores of high ceiling industrial use topped with a layer of say commercial office space such as is envisioned now would they have been accepted.

Speaker H · Through Councillor Brown? Off to Councillor Bryce. I guess I'm a little anxious to speculate on a hypothetical project. I think, I think for this one with the UDP there are, they are looking for taller buildings in that area. So that's the one area where I'm a little hesitant. But for us, I think with this project the component of it is it's the proportion of the use. So we're looking at I think around 23% of the floor space is for industrial use in the whole project. And so when it's really focused on having that primary use, we're struggling to say it meets the primary use definition, which is why we're here to have the conversation.

Speaker H · But yeah, I think for that I would need to take it away and look at the range of policies. But I think like if it's an industrial project, industrial lands, it's more supportable I think. But I just don't know the height components of the udp. I'd have to double check the base height.

Speaker K · So. Thank you so the bottom line would just be that. That from a actual use point of view there wouldn't be a problem, but that it probably would not meet the desired height in a planning scenario.

Speaker H · Yeah, it's through Councillor Brownlock to Councillor Bryce again. I would need to check the policies because it's a very different project. But I can do that now. I have it here. But it's like there's a few components. So it's the form and the, the form, building form and the function of the use. Right. So it would meet the use for sure. It's just whether it fully meet the. The form and I would have to double check.

Speaker K · Thank you.

Speaker A · Okay, Council, can I ask if you're ready to put a motion on the floor? Councillor Harper.

Speaker O · So I'm going to move a version of the alternative motion which is that it be recommended that council provide staff direction to prepare the council report and bylaw for decision based on the concept as proposed.

Speaker A · Okay. Do you want to speak to it?

Speaker O · Is there a seconder or not?

Speaker A · It's been seconded. Thanks.

Speaker O · So thank you for every. To everyone who both contacted us by email and who were here tonight. I am prepared to support the concept as proposed for a variety of reasons, one of which is it has taken a very long period of time. This is not casting fault at anyone between from the time it became sort of a glimmer in someone's eye to the time it came to Sandits, and that's about five years as well. But during the course of that time period the playing field has changed significantly. And so it illustrates, you know, we sometimes talk about when we look at proposals, whether we grandparent things in terms of what were the rules back in the day versus now, for example.

Speaker O · So I think that because of that we have to take that into account. And quite frankly I think it's. If we send it back for further discussion, it could be another several years and this is not going to be helpful to anyone and it's certainly not going to be helpful to the other, to Tennyson itself and to the development of Tennyson. I think that we heard from a few of the people who are already there and working and basically this is an opportunity for a new start. It is an opportunity to sort of set a bit of a stage standard about what industrial can look like. And quite frankly this is a really attractive looking building which for industrial.

Speaker O · And I think one of the things that I also feel the need to say is that because this is a building, it's not harming industrial in Any way. And in fact, and I thought long and hard about the storage portion as well. But in terms of how it's designed and how it's working in the building, these are ultimately large open spaces that when things change, should things change in the future in terms of needs, whether it's for other types of life, industrial or not, these are areas that can be easily reconfigured. Whether when that might happen, I don't know. But as was pointed out by the community association, the future doesn't necessarily look, look like the past. And we should be planning for a more flexible future.

Speaker O · And I think that's very important. I would note that the advisory design panel gave a big thumbs up to this. I've already said that. And so I think. And we've already. And we're already talking about reviewing the plan on a go forward basis. And I certainly think that Tennyson itself should be a part of that review. But I think that I understand that there may or may not be, because I've also been in conversations with businesses, other businesses that might be interested in this. And that's why I was asking some of the questions that I asked. But I think that if it can be taken that the building is designed in a way to be flexible for future needs.

Speaker O · So right now, if the need is in fact, and it appears to be for many reasons, not just for small sizes of apartments, but quite frankly because older people, as they downsize, they also need storage. And there's getting to be a bigger and bigger, bigger cohort of older people as well. So I think that this is not only an attractive building, but it's designed in a way that makes it very flexible. So while it may be used for one thing today, that doesn't mean it has to be used for the same thing in the future. And so the two main floors are 96% for industrial, which I think is important.

Speaker O · And as my colleague asked above, that is space that is sort of bonus space. So at this point, perhaps its primary use will end up being other than industrial. But I think we should move forward on this because I think that the longer we wait, the longer Tennyson is going to have anything happen on it. So I am hopeful that my colleagues will support this. Thank you.

Speaker A · Thank you. Councillor Phillips Bonderoff, please, as the seconder.

Speaker P · Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick question of clarification through to staff or the mover, just to get the motion reread, because I know it was slightly different than we had on the green sheet. I just wanted to clarify that the language was there.

Speaker C · Yeah, it was just a slight change to the alternative in that it be recommended that council provide staff direction to prepare the council report and bylaw for a decision based on the concept as proposed.

Speaker P · And then just one quick question through the chair to staff. I noticed that we've had a couple notes in the green sheet about just finalizing outstanding technical items. Presumably those final outstanding technical items would be resolved in order to prepare the development approval process

Speaker F · through the chair to Councillor Phelps Vonderoff. Yeah, that's correct. A few of those will be required, so you will see them.

Speaker E · Excellent.

Speaker P · Thank you very much. Now I wanted to make sure we had. I assumed we would solve the technical problems before the development permit went through or was and presented to council. But I want to just double check. My colleague has already sort of espoused on this quite in a lot of detail. So I'll be relatively brief. The street frontage is nice, I know the neighborhood, I live around the corner from it. And we are talking about old sort of bungalows that have been adapted for industrial use. So it's quite a handsome building in that context. It's good location. And one thing that has already been sort of mentioned, but this is a neighborhood that's getting lots of density in the near future.

Speaker P · And in my building we have a storage unit and I've also annexed my neighbor's storage unit and they're both full of books, as you can probably imagine. But a lot of the projects we're approving don't often have external storage facilities. And so as we add density to the area, much needed density to the area for much needed housing and much needed multi use, we create a need for much needed for storage. So I think this is responding to a very quite important need in the community. And as my colleagues already mentioned, what I think that the sticking point was was a reduction in overall percentage of the property that's being used for light industrial.

Speaker P · But when you look at what we actually have and what we're actually getting, we still have two floors of light industrial, which seems larger in my view than the two bungalows that are currently there. So we're actually getting sort of equivalent or more light industrial plus. And I think that's kind of the added element here. And then the plus part has an addendum which is maybe plus three if you will, insofar as it's not just storage space, but it's also flexible space that could be easily converted to other uses. So I think that's quite useful. So it's responding to those needs. It's flexible use. We are still maintaining that light industrial use, but we're getting more space as well. The design is quite good.

Speaker P · We've had good support from the community and from the neighbors. I'm glad you folks have been amicable neighbors for over 30 years. That's always a good sign. The only real concern I had was some minor things around the EV parking and the bike parking and I think those are not adequate enough to send us all the way back to a longer planning process. So I think it's supportable and it'll be good to see a nice project in a beautiful and growing part of Saanich and some much needed resource amenities for folks and again, maintaining that light industrial use. So very supportable. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Speaker A · Thank you, Councillor Chambers. Please.

Speaker B · Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I, I'm excited because this is something that is not my usual train of thought and I am very much convinced that this is an exceptionally important area for this use to continue. And you know, There is basically a 0% vacancy rate for non compliant industrial uses and it's come up at many, many meetings. We have people that do not have a place to do their use and as I mentioned before, doing it in the agricultural land resources does not make me happy. So you know, this is much needed. I love the concept of a love and work. Live and work. Love and work too. But live and work is a very nice thing and to maintain that industrial zoning which is so incredibly important.

Speaker B · And I am heartened by hope that staff have a delay delegated authority to change the parking if in the fact the future there is larger trucks needing to park and the, the parking can be reconfigured. Can I just please get a confirmation from staff that I did in fact hear that correctly?

Speaker H · Staff through the chair to Councillor Chambers. It's a strong maybe it just depends on the scale. But yes, we have some power.

Speaker B · Okay, that's good, that's good. We granted it to you.

Speaker A · Okay, thank you.

Speaker B · So basically I want to thank the applicants who are making a very large investment in Saanich for the future of this area and providing, you know, a much needed form of building. So I'm very happy to support, support this rezoning and I do really like the idea. I like the sort of Bay street area and the industrial living and the different uses. So I think that this is a really important thing and I'd like to thank you for your creativity here in getting into compliance and creating a future for others to also Continue working. I like that you have a lot of workers there and I like that they will be continuing there. That's correct. Right. That the workers and the current use will be continuing. Can staff just.

Speaker H · Through Councillor Brownloff to Councillor Chambers. I guess we don't know that for sure. That's not secured through the zoning process. The applicant has communicated that they intend to use the, the facilities, but that's not something we would be securing.

Speaker B · Okay, thank you. I'm getting nods from the applicant, so I, I just want to thank them for their investment in Saanich and creating this use.

Speaker A · Thank you, Councillor Bryce, please.

Speaker K · Thank you, Chair. As has been stated, lots of positives on this potential new building. And I too give it my support. I sit here and listen to maybe some of the reasons why there's a reluctance to sort of fully green light it and think that certainly hypothetically we could have had a design, a plan that had all light industrial floors and ticked all the boxes and it would never get built here.

Speaker K · We have somebody who owns the property, has worked the property for a long time, has worked it in a light industrial manner, is prepared to continue to have that use on the property, along with other related business space in perpetuity.

Speaker K · And so to me, this is taking all the good advice that we can, but then facing the reality of this is a proposal, one that is

Speaker O · a

Speaker K · local business person prepared to continue to invest in the community and this will be a good addition to Saanich. I'm confident and I support this motion on the floor.

Speaker A · Thank you. Councillor Devries, please.

Speaker M · Thank you. I also support the motion on the floor. I in many ways agree with the staff analysis. I think if we were looking at this through current policy alone, that would be the appropriate direction to go in. But I do recognize two things. One is that that this application has been in for some time in various iterations and so the context has changed through that duration. And I think it's important to acknowledge that the other piece is that while this undoubtedly is a lower value use than the potential highest and best use for this site, it is a necessary use and one that is very much in demand.

Speaker M · And so on the go forward. I fully support what our current policy says, which is to look at carefully citing these in the future to ensure that we're not undermining things like housing supply and industrial land as well as urban vitality. That being said, on balance, I think that this is an appropriate location. As it was mentioned by Councillor Phelps Bonteroff, this will be approximate to a lot of New housing, many of which may for either points of transition or long term have a need for individual storage. I think there's a clear market signal that there's not enough industrial land in the region. We see that with the vacancy rate being pretty much just as low as metro Vancouver, that is not a reason to penalize.

Speaker M · One individual application, I think is something we should be turning our attention to and focusing on as part of the next regional growth strategy to ensure that that strategy includes industrial lands. And that's something that I've been taking on as chair of the CRD's planning and protective Services Committee. And I think it's appropriate that we do it at that work looking region wide as opposed to blocking investment in a certain area of Saanich because of a laudable policy ambition. So that is where I think we should take up that cause. And for today, I will support the application. Thank you.

Speaker A · Thank you, Councillor Plant, for a second time. No, first time.

Speaker N · It's the first time, but.

Speaker A · Sorry.

Speaker N · No, no, no need to apologize. One of the things about going later in the speaking order is that your colleagues have often said the things that are on top of mind. The only piece that I'm going to to add beyond saying thank you for the applicant for wanting to do business in Saanich and reinvest in Saanich, I want to acknowledge the comment made during the public input about the importance of industrial land. And if this was the loss of industrial land in perpetuity for housing, then I think that comment really, really would land. And in general, I tend to agree with the speaker. We don't want to lose industrial land.

Speaker N · But what I see in this case is actually we're going to, to ensure that it actually has industrial use into the future. Will it be as much as what some people and perhaps even our staff are recommending to us? Perhaps not. But I do think it's time to have some catalyzation in this neighborhood.

Speaker J · Thank you.

Speaker A · Thank you. I don't see any other speakers, so I'll just add my comments. I want to thank the applicant for the presentation and hanging in there and recognizes that Sanich is a great, a great municipality to build your business in. I do also recognize the need in the region for industrial land, but I think that this, this project has a little bit of everything and it actually probably will kick start the Tennyson area. As your neighbor across the street, I think you said he was, was across the street supported it. So I'm hopeful that because of your goodwill with your community in that area we might see some more opportunities for Saanich industrial use and employment as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker A · I think it's also a key employment area as well. So thank you very much. I do support the motion on the floor. So, Council. Council, I'll call the question. All those in favor, Opposed, if any? None are opposed. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Next item I think is adjournment. You are correct.

Speaker C · The next item is adjournment of the committee of the whole meeting. Council will take about a five minute break while we do some resetting of the AV. And then the special council meeting will be conveyed convened. So if council would consider a motion. Motion to adjourn.

Speaker A · Okay. Councillor Plant, Councillor Chambers. All those in favor? Opposed, if any. We're adjourned for five minutes. Thank you.