The University of Victoria will head back into the community later this month to get more feedback on the parkade it hopes to build as part of a new sports facility on campus.
After a series of open houses were held last month, where five different parkade options were presented, the university says that most residents who provided feedback indicated they want to see the parkade partially buried underground.
"We'll take this information (we collected at the open houses) and come up with a revised design," said Kristi Simpson, UVic's associate vice-president of campus planning.
She added, however, that there is no guarantee that the revised parkade will even be buried. "We're still in the process (of creating the revised design)."
The buried parkade option, which was favoured by 59 per cent of people who provided feedback, included five levels of parking above-ground, and two levels below. A total of 496 stalls were presented in that option.
The next series of open houses will be a more scaled-back version of what the university previously hosted.
Only one parkade option will be presented, but three aesthetically different versions of that one design will be shown.
UVic will then vet the feedback received, finalize a design and send it to the Saanich planning department.
UVic's parkade first came before Saanich council last August, but it was sent back to the drawing board after councillors said it was "too big" and "in the wrong place."
Little had changed when the school returned to council chambers in the fall – save for a variety of ways to camouflage the same building. Councillors sent UVic away, again. They wanted UVic to seek meaningful public input.
The parkade first came about as a joint application for a new Centre for Athletics, Recreation and Special Abilities sports facility, with an attached parking garage.
kslavin@saanichnews.com
Parkade open houses:
• Saturday, Apr. 28 at St. Aidan's United Church (3703 St. Aidan’s St.) from 12 to 3 p.m.
• Monday, Apr. 30 at Mount Douglas secondary (3970 Gordon Head Rd.) from 5 to 8 p.m.
• Tuesday, May 1 in the Michele Pujol room at UVic (Student Union Bldg) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Wednesday, May 2 at Cadboro Bay United Church (2625 Arbutus Rd.) from 4 to 7 p.m.