Posts Tagged ‘Katherine Maltwood’
Royal Oak Community Gardens
Community Gardens in Saanich play an important role in helping maintain the rural ambiance of our Municipality. The land is available in Royal Oak along with a group willing to spearhead the initiative.
(The above photo was modified from a copy posted on the Saanich District Web Site) (Jun 2019, 2810)
June 2019 Read the updates coming from cfair and Saanich.
Article Summary:
The small parcel of land on the east side of the Royal Oak Shopping Centre on West Saanich Road has never been developed beyond the historical building, now called the Fireside Grill, that sits at the north end.
In 1964, John Maltwood gave over the entire property, including a sizeable endowment and valuable art collection, in trust to the University of Victoria. After maintaining the building and art collection into the late 1970s (ten years after the death of John Maltwood) the University began proceedings to divest themselves of house and property.
Photo (September 2012): View of the 2.77-acre parcel looking south from West Saanich Road at the entrance to the Fireside Grill.
After a successful court challenge, the University removed the art collection and sold or gave the remaining property to the Municipality of Saanich. While the details of discussion leading to the transfer is not known, it seems likely the University was anxious to see the property transferred as quickly as possible as they were receiving a great deal of adverse press over their decision to break the Maltwood trust.
After taking possession, Saanich administered the building and property for several years as a lease, with the first lessee opening the popular Chantecler Restaurant. After the Chantecler closed, Saanich sub-divided off a portion of land around the building and through a bid process, sold the building and small parcel of land to the current owners and operators of the Fireside Grill. At some point in time, the entire property was rezoned as C-2 (commercial development).
There is little doubt Saanich realized a sizeable profit on the transaction and at the same was able to retain clear title to the 2.77-acre parcel. The question that remains — what is to become of that 2.77-acre parcel of valuable green space?
Both historically and presently, residents and businesses in the Royal Oak area have expressed a strong preference for keeping the property in the public domain either as green space, parkland, allotment garden or some combination of the three.
The purpose of this article is to provide additional background on the property, of previous attempts to develop a strip mall and of the recent community-based suggestion of turning the property into an allotment garden. No one in the surrounding residential area or the present business community has either now or in the past, openly expressed interest in seeing the property turned over to commercial development.
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