The Committee of the Whole Meeting

We prepared for our first City Hall meeting by reading through 6 months of minutes. All reasonable variances were granted. We also attended a "Committee of the Whole" meeting and watched folks as their variance requests were discussed and passed. The meeting was very low-key - three requests presented, three passed. Lots of empty seats.

We headed to City Hall on October 17th. Stopped for coffees, feeling pretty confident. We walked into the meeting room and it was packed! We ended up way at the back of the room; number 4 of 10 variance requests. We just hope the first 3 kept the committee folks in good moods. The first one came up and was presented, complete with presentation board, by the designer. The the next, with a package of info, by an architect. Then the third, by an architect reading a prepared speech. What the...? Being that we had NO IDEA that we might have to present our variance requests, Dave decided to take the lead.

He started by commenting that we had enjoyed our years in the neighbourhood and would like to stay, but that we had outgrown our house. The renovations proposed would have a "domino effect." By extending the kitchen, the current kitchen becomes an eating area. By gaining an eating area, we reclaim the dining room as a living room. By reclaiming the living room, we turn the current living room into a master bedroom, and by doing so, we can move one of our three boys out of their shared bedroom.

"You have three boys in one room?" a councillor asked, incredulous, staring at the plans. There was a general murmur of surprise in the room and we knew things were looking good.

One councillor thanked us for looking into renovating an existing home, rather than tearing it down and rebuilding, "as so many have chosen to do." Then, she went through the four variances, and asked about the garage. Dave explained that the existing garage had not been used since at least 1976, when a new concrete driveway was poured, leaving a three-inch drop into the garage. "It is," he added, "three and a half inches too short for our van. Although we have no intention of changing the garage's purpose from what it's used for currently, we don't want to spend thousands of dollars sealing and upgrading the garage to make it vehicle worthy to be allowed to create our kitchen space."

The councillors had clearly looked over Dave's awesome variance application (complete with photos!) and said that since we had a double-non-conforming driveway, parking did not appear to be an issue, so the variance was granted. Woo hoo! We are now one of the very few homes in Oak Bay that doesn't need covered parking.

We slipped out after the next presentation and did a little happy dance out in the parking lot. WE heard someone mutter "they must have taken their happy pills today!!" Hooray for happy pills (and the upcoming election, perhaps?).

Next step? They send letters to our neighbours, inviting them to "comment" on our variance request. Then, November 14th, another meeting with full council. We hope to sneak into that one, as the municipal election is looming (Nov 19th), but unfortunately, there is a controversial agenda item on the 14th. I'm just waiting until the agenda is posted online to find out if we are before or after that item...