Victoria’s Harris Green neighbourhood is densifying, and while some welcome the change, others are concerned about the impact on affordability and the vulnerable.
Currently, the building housing Wellburn’s supermarket is slated for redevelopment, but final plans have not yet been announced.
It’s among several properties that are changing as the area develops.
The North Park Neighbourhood Association says that while it’s not opposed to development, it wants to maintain the area’s affordability and mix of incomes.
“We want [developers] to be helping us to stay vibrant and affordable and dynamic, not to create a city and a neighbourhood of gentrified areas and ghettoes areas, of haves and have nots,” said association president Jenny Farkas.
There are also concerns that with a greater population, there could be increased pressure to push homelessness out of the area.
“That’s the big thing that we hear a lot is that people want homelessness to be solved and they want places like Our Place to help solve that which we are trying to do, but then they want them hidden out of sight. But that doesn’t work,” said Grant McKenzie, communications director at Our Place Society.
A date for a public hearing on the Wellburn’s development has not yet been determined.
Calvin To
