New Student Housing

The two new student housing buildings will include 783 beds. 621 of these will be new beds for students currently living off-campus and 162 will replace beds from the current housing buildings. The new student housing will respond to a broad range of student needs, including people with a wide range of physical abilities. The buildings will offer traditional dorm rooms, and new "community-living" style rooms which include single rooms with a shared kitchen and living area.

The creation of the 2016 Campus Plan involved extensive community engagement. Part of the Campus Plan renewal process involved identifying a number of different sites on campus that might work for a modern building for student housing. The university has selected two sites, “Ring Road” and “Cadboro Commons,” that will accommodate two new buildings for student housing on campus. These sites were supported by Campus Planning Committee and the President in November 2017.

The proposed student housing project will provide housing on campus for 621 students currently living in the community. The project will not displace existing parking stalls. Students living on campus generate less parking demand than those students living in the community. As a result, daily commuting trips to and from the campus will decrease and demand for parking on campus is also expected to decrease by 74 parking stalls.

Uvic offers the following transportation alternatives on campus to support sustainable transportation:

• SPOKES is a unique bicycle upcycling and loan program that provides low-cost, long or short-term bike rentals
• There are two car-share programs available on the UVic campus including Modo and ZipCar.
• U-Pass provides students with unlimited access to Victoria region public transit and the new student housing project is located within 200 m of the UVic Transit Exchange.
  
• UVic also offers the UVic Employee bus pass program that offers more than 50% off the regular price.
• The new student housing project will also integrate 56 secure, indoor bicycle storage (32 in Site 1 and 24 in Site 2), 46 short-term uncovered and 193 long-term covered bike parking stalls, and end-of-trip facilities in each building.

The buildings will be designed and constructed to meet both LEED and Passive House standards, a first for the campus. 

Passive House can reduce energy consumption by up to 80% by using techniques like: triple-glazed windows, solar sharing, a reduced window to wall ratio, and more insulation to reduce heat loss. 

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) results in more energy and resource-efficient buildings with techniques including: low flow fixtures, drought tolerant plantings, low VOC interior finishes, and energy efficient fixtures and appliances. 

The project will incorporate the following Sustainable Design Principles: 

• Build up rather than out and use an efficient building footprint to conserve greenspace. 
• Use passive design principles to reduce energy use and GHG emissions, creating a showcase project for the university.
• Focus on user comfort, health, physical and mental wellness, personal growth and development. 
• Minimize waste from construction, deconstruction, and operations. 
• Design durable, adaptable, and low maintenance buildings to reduce life cycle costs. 
• Foster sense of community through an inclusive and welcoming design. 
• Display sustainable element and operations to inspire positive behaviours and stewardship. 
• Incorporate Indigenous design elements to create opportunities for learning and promote mutual understanding and respect. 

As we consider the future, we will preserve the spirit of place inherited from the past, respecting and supporting the commitments to environmental stewardship and sustainability that are so widely shared in our community and our culture.  

As part of the design and process, the project will explore opportunities to recognize and preserve the spirit of place inherited from the past, and connect students to Indigenous communities and the history of the traditional territories where UVic resides. Building on UVic’s Indigenous Plan, the project design process will explore opportunities to include design elements that can educate the campus community about Indigenous history and culture.

We acknowledge and respect the Lkwungen-speaking peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

Over 1,200 campus and community members have engaged on planning principles and early design concepts. 

In November 2018, the campus and neighbouring communities were engaged on the proposed designs for final feedback before applications were submitted to the District of Saanich for approval. A copy of the engagement summary can be found here. 

In June 2018, the community was engaged on early design concepts for each of the buildings. The community was also engaged on sustainable design principles. A copy of the engagement summary can be found here.

The broader community was engaged in March of 2018 to provide feedback on the planning principles for each of the sites including; building massing and height, pedestrian promenades, vehicle/delivery access and transportation and parking. A copy of the engagement summary can be found here.

UVic Students were engaged in the fall of 2017 and provided early feedback on room furnishings, interior common rooms, outdoor landscape design and meal plan options. A copy of the engagement summary can be found here. 

Given the high demand for housing on campus, the project team explored options to expedite the project schedule. Moving from a two-phase to a one-phase construction approach will allow for the construction of both new buildings to be completed in early 2023, 16 months earlier than projected in the original four-year schedule. With a one-phase approach, all new housing, dining, meeting spaces and classrooms will be available by early 2023.

The one-phase approach will result in the deconstruction of Margaret Newton Hall, Emily Carr Residence and Cadboro Commons occurring at once. This approach also requires the installation of a modular food services facility until the permanent new dining facility is operational.

The modular dining facility will be located in Parking Lot B, adjacent to the Bob Wright Centre and McPherson Library/Mearns Centre. To minimize disruption to the campus community, the installation of the facility will begin in January 2020 and will be operational by September 2020. The facility will remain in place until July 2022, when the permanent dining facility in building one opens. The 500-seat modular facility will provide students with the same or higher quality food services as currently available in the Cadboro Commons cafeteria.

The project team will continue to keep the campus and neighbouring communities informed of project updates. 

Although construction for the university’s student housing and dining project won’t begin until 2020, early preparation work at the site will begin in spring 2019. Selective deconstruction, road and utility work around the Cadboro Commons and SUB buildings will begin in May. Exterior concrete pedestrian walkways, stairs and walls at Cadboro Commons will be deconstructed, and the access lane from Sinclair Road to the rear of the Student Union Building will be widened to accommodate truck traffic—with the addition of an improved, marked crossing for the Alumni Chip Trail.

Upgrades to street lighting and other utilities will also take place, as well as landscaping changes to the SUB waste area and Joseph Cunliffe Hall Building. Any trees removed will be replaced at a ratio of three to one, following UVic’s sustainability policy.

A Development Variance Permit Application was submitted to the District of Saanich on December 14, 2018.

The District of Saanich Zoning Bylaw requires that a Development Variance Permit be obtained for campus building projects that exceed 10 metres in height. The University has requested to vary the permitted height of buildings from 10m to 30m and 38m respectively. In designing each of the buildings, the University has consulted with the community on the development of site planning and design principles that would allow for the development of taller buildings successfully on campus.

As the project proposes no new parking spaces, the University has also requested to vary the required number of vehicle parking spaces. The Project will provide 621 existing students who currently live in the community the opportunity to live on campus. This will result in 621 fewer daily trips to-and-from the campus. The Zoning Bylaw requirement for vehicle parking is 450 spaces. However, students living on campus generate very little parking demand (less than 1 parking stall per 10 housing beds) and it is anticipated that the Project will result in an overall net reduction in parking demand of 74 spaces.

The Development Variance Permit was resubmitted in May 2019. The modular food services facility will require a parking variance, as the facility would result in the displacement of 68 reserved and short-term parking spaces in Parking Lot B for a period of approximately 30 months. The university’s 2018 parking occupancy survey showed that the university maintains excess capacity of reserved spaces and displaced parking can be accommodated elsewhere on campus.

Community Engagement is an essential component of planning for new student housing. We want to hear from students, staff, community members and other stakeholders to help shape plans for the project. Open Houses and community meetings took place in November 2018 to share proposed building and landscape designs. A summary of the input from the community can be found here.

In November 2018, the proposed building designs were presented to neighbouring community associations in Saanich. The presentation can be found here.

In June 2018, an overview of the preliminary schematic design was presented to neighbouring community associations in Saanich. The presentation can be found here.

In February 2018, a brief overview of the project was presented to each of the neighbouring community associations in Saanich. The presentation can be found here.