Neighbours united last year over the proposed redevelopment of Oak Bay Lodge came together again Tuesday night (March 27) for the founding meeting of the Hampshire Hill Neighbourhood Association.
About 40 people who live in the vicinity of Hampshire Hill – the site of Oak Bay Lodge, located at the junction of Cadboro Bay Road and Christie Way – met at Oak Bay High to share ideas and concerns.
“The thing that gave rise to the neighbourhood association was the redevelopment of Oak Bay Lodge, but what’s come out … is that traffic and pedestrian safety are high on everyone’s list of concerns,” said Michael Hayes, Hampshire Hill spokesperson.
In addition to Oak Bay Lodge redevelopment, residents spoke to Oak Bay’s need for a formal traffic strategy – an issue Hayes says the neighbourhood association is prepared to take on.
The Hampshire Hill Neighbourhood Association currently consists of a steering committee, to which Hayes belongs, and an email network of about 120 residents. The group plans to expand its contacts and become a conduit between developers, council and community groups before embarking on the formal process of creating a constitution and bylaws for the association.
“Our goal is to get the neighbourhood connected, both to itself and to council,” Hayes said. “There seems to be a lot of interest and engagement in how neighbourhoods connect to development processes, to traffic and community issues.”
Contact hampshirehillna@gmail.com for more information.