Not only Victoria is working on their OCP, so to is View Royal

I have been aware for sometime that View Royal is working on their OCP, but I have been busy and not really paid attention.   They have reached the point where they have a draft OCP for the community to look at.   There is an open house on Saturday June 12th for people to comment on it.

The council adopted

Here is the part that resonates with me:

A Central Community Gathering Place

The visioning process revealed a strong desire to have a central community gathering place that will the civic and cultural heart of View Royal.   This will be unique from the smaller neighbourhood centres in that it will serve the entire town and and will be designed to accommodate community events - such as community picnics or outdoor celebrations - and meet a diverse range of needs.  Some ides that received support include a mixed-use, transit-oreinted town centre or developing a large public park or plaza in close proximity to other community amenities.  Regardless of the final location and form, the creation of a central gathering place is intended to complement, rather than replace, a connected network of walkable neighbourhood centres.

This speaks the heart of my complaint about View Royal - there is no there there.   Where and what is View Royal?   I know when I raised this before there were those that disagreed with me.

Within the nine goals of vision, the first one is:

Promote a strong sense of community in all areas and neighbourhoods of the Town, and create an enhanced sense of place and identity throughout.

This again speaks to my issue of the lack of a cohesive sense of a place that is View Royal.   The parts close to Shoreline feel like they connect to Esquimalt, the area near VGH feels like Saanich, and the areas by the Casino feel like Colwood.   This really covers the majority of the town.

I am very interested to see how the plan suggest dealing with the problem, I would go to the open house, but I have to be in Prince George on that day.