Minutes
St John the Divine & Social Service Groups (“Trio”)
August 19, 2011 9:00
Present:
St Johns - Graeme Brown, Deborah Curran, Patricia Lane, Larry Scyner, Peggy Wilmot
Chesterman Properties - Robert Brown (by phone)
Silver Threads – Terry Prentice, Susan Brice, Edie Copeland, Brian Blair
1Up – Liz Bloomfield, Christine St Peter
Centennial Daycare – Su Sidu, Karen McCauley
City Spaces - Dean Strongitharm
1. Introductions
2. Update on current planning and process – St John the Divine
Refined our process and outcomes over the next year
Initiated conversations with First Met United Church across the street who are going
through the same process
We are comfortable with where we want to go: housing, social services, green
components
Over the summer and early fall we will be doing the Master Development Plan looking at
square footage and mix of uses; delving into the legal aspects
- this is the groundwork for a rezoning application
Have raised some funds that will keep us going for the next 9 months or so
Will go back to the Parish later this fall to gain approval, which we anticipate will be
forthcoming (uncontroversial)
Christine Lintott, the architect who is involved, will be doing some massing and space
needs assessment
We are excited about the prospect of working with the Trio and the opportunity that it
presents
The housing niche we are targeting is women who have been low wage earners. Some
will be single parents, but the majority will be single people or couples
The housing we envision are small, energy efficient, well-designed units
We are not anticipating hard to house people
We assume we will continue to feed the 5000 per year who we currently feed
There are at least two large environmental NGOs who are interested in being tenants, and
they would be happy sharing back office functions and engaging in the space sharing
model
We house the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra and provide practice space for Pacific
Opera Victoria
We are about to undertake a space needs assessment and continue discussions with First
Met where they have use needs and also a couple of large spaces that can be used much
more efficiency
A co-designed master design will be much better and ensure that the overall site and
building design works for all groups
One of our key values is sustainability and the concept of cathedral thinking – that we
design buildings with the expectation that the use and internal configuration will change
over time
3. Update on current planning and process – Trio
Originally Centennial Daycare approached Single Parent Resource Centre to see if they
would like a daycare, and Edie then suggested that an intergenerational component would
be wonderful
Trio obtained funding from the Victoria Foundation to evaluate the feasibility for
proceedings (financial and size). Engaged City Spaces Consulting
The reality is that as social service agencies there is a difference in ability to pay, and
translating that into a business plan, it won’t make sense to pay for Victoria level land
prices
The question became “what can we live with?” to hone in on how space sharing could
create efficiencies in space usage/sharing
We gave numbers to the architect Christine Lintott that are really bare minimum
At the end of the day we are realizing that we need to look at this type of situation
(sharing with an owner of property)
4. Moving Forward: Draft Collaborative Framework (MOU) between Task Force
and Trio
a) Working together for a period of time working toward feasibility analysis and
joint business plan
Want to ensure that there is a commitment on both sides to work together until a decision
needs to be made about whether it works or not (in particular, Trio will cease to look at
other sites)
Be transparent about our commitment – we understand we are working together between
now and perhaps year end
Once we have had the design workshop we would model the options and look at the
financial feasibility (it is as much or more about the operating budget as the capital
budget)
b) Understanding the financial expectations of the Church
This will become clear or decision considered towards the end of the year as well
c) Development of a roles and responsibilities framework
Moving forward, Robert and Christine are working with the Church, the Church is
undertaking master planning and the Trio will be involved and provide support
The funding for City Spaces has been used, so the Trio will be relying on St Johns to
carry the ball for a bit
2
It would be useful to have a conversation about joint expenses and whether any are
shared
At the same time we will be exploring landholding models (legal) – corporate
entity/governance, landholding and tenure/tenancy. This will likely be a parallel process
to the design process. Deborah and Robert will work with Dean and others to
define/develop this process
d) Capital Financing – issues and opportunities
i. Pre-development funding
St Johns has secured adequate funding for this design phase. Additional applications are
in the works for the rezoning phase.
ii. Fundraising
Both St Johns and the Trio have outstanding applications into funders. In December when
we have the numbers and make further decisions we can start fundraising together, and
can strike a fundraising committee.
5. Next Steps/Tasks
a) Develop timeline and task schedule
Robert will provide the Project Plan to Dean and the Trio that can serve as a basis for a
timeline and task schedule.
Will look at how First Met ties in as well. They will be invited to the charrette.
b) Design workshop
Likely late September – the week of September 19.
While the provision of housing is entirely complementary and a dream, it is likely that the
Trio organizations will not be the housing providers
c) Overall functional programming
This will evolve, as will the land tenure options. It will likely happen after the charrette
process
3