It鈥檚 good that the City of Victoria wants to make the Ship Point parking lot 鈥渁 more vibrant, unique, memorable and welcoming space鈥� for a few months. It would be better to make it a beautiful and interesting place year-round.
Among the beautiful gems that line Victoria鈥檚 waterfront, Ship Point is a piece of dull glass. Keeping it as a parking lot is a waste of tremendous potential.
City council last week endorsed a proposal for a design competition to see what teams of interested artists, designers and architects might come up with if given the opportunity to design, build and install a temporary or 鈥減op-up鈥� public space at Ship Point, the waterfront parking lot immediately north of the Inner Harbour.
The aim of the competition is to inspire an amenity that will make the space 鈥渁 more vibrant, unique, memorable and welcoming space that will encourage people to socialize, explore and wander,鈥� says a staff report.
The plan is to have something installed by mid-July and in place until at least October. That鈥檚 good as far as it goes, but why not let it be the start of a process for developing a permanent plan for the site? In 2014, the city approved the Harbour Vitality Principles, which envision the area as a location for year-round special events and festivals, with venues, fountains and a plaza. Let鈥檚 get moving in that direction.
Victoria鈥檚 Inner Harbour has come a long way since the days when it was surrounded by industrial operations that turned the water into an open sewer. The 鈥渏ewel鈥� of Victoria in those days shrank to the corner overlooked by the legislature buildings and the Empress Hotel.
It took decades to clean up the water and transform the shoreline, and the process continues. The redevelopment of the stately CPR Steamship Terminal Building was a good step forward. A new, attractive floatplane terminal is in place; work has begun on replacing the dingy Belleville Street ferry terminal. We鈥檙e getting there.
The development of the Inner Harbour has been propelled by the realization of how valuable waterfront property is, and how beautiful it can be. Almost any developer would pay a king鈥檚 ransom to acquire a parcel of property as ideally located as Ship Point is; hardly any developer would give even a second鈥檚 consideration to keeping it as a parking lot.
When the city held a brainstorming session on the future of the Inner Harbour in 2014, parking was one of the uses favoured for Ship Point, but it was low on the list. Ideas put forward included a performing arts centre and a museum, but more important was the consensus that Ship Point is a special area, that careful planning is needed to ensure anything developed there is in harmony with the rest of the waterfront. It should be open, people-friendly and in sync with the environment.
Ship Point is regularly used in the summer months as a performance venue for such events as the Blues Bash, the Buskers Festival, JazzFest and the Dragon Boat Festival.
When Ship Point comes alive with people and music, its potential is clear. Who wouldn鈥檛 want to party by the water in such a beautiful harbour? Plans for development should take those events into consideration. A flexible, permanent venue could bring more such events to the harbour, and yet the area could still be designed to be appealing for year-round use.
Ship Point is an opportunity to continue the good work that has been done to make the Inner Harbour such a gem. It has the potential to be many things, but a parking lot shouldn鈥檛 be one of them.
