The draft community plan intends to encourage an increase in the population of Oak Bay and its population density and is doing so by infilling residential neighborhoods.
Oak Bay is a stable and complete community. Its residents enjoy a high quality of life. There is no risk of that changing.
It is obvious when one looks at other large urban areas in Canada that a community like Oak Bay will become a worse place to live if its population and the population density of its residential neighborhoods are increased.
More people will mean more vehicles, more congestion, more traffic, more parking problems, more noise, more buildings, more overshadowing that darken adjacent residential properties, more demands upon and repairs of the infrastructure, more interpersonal conflict, more animosity, and more unhappiness.
The list can go on and on.
It is clear that the effect of the draft plan will be to the benefit of non-residents of Oak Bay who want to live here, at the expense of current residents who will no longer be able to enjoy their properties as they presently do.
The plan shouldn’t promote an increase in the population and the densification of residential neighborhoods, both of which will have patently obvious and permanently harmful effects.
It should promote the preservation of what is good in Oak Bay, the improvement of what is not, and the protection of homeowners’ current level of enjoyment of their residential properties.
Oak Bay should not be subjected to fundamental changes that will only harm it.
A plan which promotes an increase in the population of Oak Bay and the population density of its residential neighborhoods will be a shot in Oak Bay’s foot
Bruce Filan
Oak Bay