A proposal by St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church to build a nine-storey office tower on church hall property at Courtney and Douglas streets was turned down by Victoria councillors this week as too big and tall.
The church wanted to replace its Kirk Hall, at 680 Courtney St., with an office tower that would include ground-level retail and assembly space topped by offices.
The proposed building would be linked to the historic church sanctuary and have underground parking. Revenue from the office space would be used for ongoing maintenance of the heritage-designated church.
Council had received more than 100 letters of support for the proposal and members of the congregation packed the council chambers for Thursday's debate.
But the project really didn't have a prayer. City planning staff had recommended against approval, arguing that the proposed building, which would be more than twice the allowable height limit, would erode the historic integrity of Old Town.
In fact the church, built in 1889, is considered so significant to the city's landscape that rules prohibit nearby buildings from blocking the view of its tower.
Coun. Pam Madoff noted that the nearby Canada Trust building and the building at Douglas and Courtney both predate the Old Town height-restriction policies.
Other nearby taller buildings, such as the CIBC building, Sussex Place and the Falls condominiums now under construction, are not within Old Town but are on the other side of the Douglas Street Old Town boundary.
"The value of Old Town is not simply relegated to the value of individual buildings. It is the value of the district as a whole and a great part of that value is the scale of that particular area," Madoff said.
Coun. Geoff Young expressed frustration that St. Andrews's application couldn't have been part of an application incorporating the adjacent property owned by Westbank featuring the John di Castri-designed Ballantyne Florist building.
Young said that that property, which is also deemed to have historic significance, will eventually be subject to its own rezoning application. There could be advantages in attempting to develop the two properties together, including economies of scale -- such as in building underground parking.
"I'm considerably frustrated by the failure of the two parties to come forward together and I'm told that is because we have not really sent a clear signal as to what we are prepared to do in terms of the development of these sites," Young said.
Jim Kempling, spokesman for the church building program, said St. Andrews had been working on the project for three years but has been unable to get a sense from any regulatory agency as to what would be acceptable.
Kempling said 15-metre height restrictions on the site don't make economic sense.
"The reality is that this building is allocating somewhere in the order of 20 per cent of the available space to public-church program uses. If you're going to support that much in the building, you need to have a building of nine storeys. If you take one storey off the top of this, you effectively lose a net of $150,000 a year," he said.
