UVic is hoping to follow in the steps of other universities in BC as it proposes to replace the Ian Stewart complex on Gordon Head Road with a mixed-use university district.

The plan is UVic’s first big step towards providing a UBC-like model of housing solutions, said UVic land planner and director of campus planning and sustainability Mike Wilson. The proposal is in extremely early stages, but the focus will be on providing housing and commercial opportunities.

The past three years have seen low rental availability and a significant increase in housing costs. This is posing a big risk to the university community, he added.

“We want to be able to use these lands that we own to provide some solutions,” Wilson said. The university is looking at developing a governance structure for the proposed project that will allow them to leverage the land’s value to help the building get started.

There are precedents: UBC has built up an urban community of nearly 15,000 people on its vast endowment lands by selling 99-year leases for market-value apartments over the past thirty years, creating Canada’s largest community without municipal representation. Simon Fraser university has similar policies in place for its external properties.

Many of UVic’s external holdings are currently managed by UVic Properties, a subsidiary of the university. They include a number of downtown properties such as the Duck’s Building that’s now being redeveloped into a hotel after previous plans to build graduate student housing on the site fell through, according to the Martlet. 

The move to reorganise the Ian Stewart complex lands under a different governance structure will likely sidestep one of the key hurdles that UVic faces in developing more housing on university-owned lands. The provincial restriction on the debt capacity of post-secondary institutions limits how much UViccan borrow to finance capital projects. UVic’s student union has argued that this restriction is contributing to the student housing crisis in Victoria.

The lands that have been identified for the mixed-use university district come up to just under nine acres, which include the largely decommissioned sports complex and a former rugby clubhouse across the street currently used only for storage.

Wilson says that any housing units on the site will likely be aimed more for the broader community instead of students, but that the university is not ruling out dedicated housing opportunities for faculty and staff. Last year, UVic put out a request for consultants to prepare a report studying the possibility of university-provided employee housing. 

The commercial aspect of the plan would also be an opportunity to add amenities to the area that are currently lacking.

“Currently, if you’re leaving the library and you want to go to the grocery store, you’re walking over a kilometre, if not two,” Wilson said. “Could there be coffee shops, or other commercial uses that could really enhance a community?”

The university is hoping to get feedback about what the others would like to see in the project. They’re particularly hoping to hear from Gordon Head residents as well as campus community members, said Wilson, who declined to provide more specifics about the development.

“We’re not quite there yet,” said Wilson. The property will have to go through UVic’s community engagement plans and be rezoned at Saanich council, both of which will require many opportunities for public engagement. 

Any planned community built by the university will have to be financially sustainable, profitable, and provide opportunities to support diverse forms of housing, complementary commercial uses, and explore the development of space to support Indigenous communities, according to UVic’s latest five-year capital plan.

The mixed-use university district is just one of five proposed housing projects in the area, most of them clustered around the northerly part of the Shelbourne Valley centre. A six-storey rental apartment project at the intersection of Mckenzie Avenue and Shelbourne Street is closest to completion. Its website is now advertising lease dates for as early as this March.

In the meantime, the Ian Stewart complex will continue to hum along.

Starting next week, UVic will be putting in $144,000 worth of upgrades for a civil engineering lab inside the complex. Student workers in an open-area office on the ground floor will still make their donation calls to alumni, steps away from disused weight rooms and squash courts that may one day give way towards a new development.

UVic acquired the property from St. Michaels University School in 1991. It previously served as the university’s primary recreational facility until the opening of the $77-million dollar sports complex CARSA in 2015.

The ice arena inside the Ian Stewart complex is one of the few facilities still in regular use. It's home to the university ice hockey team as well as a figure skating club and a minor hockey team who were the original owners of the facility from 1964 to 1987. 

UVic has committed to operating the rink until 2026. There’s no plans for a new one, so current users will have to relocate. 

UVic men’s hockey general manager Harry Schamhart said the news of the proposed development is obviously disappointing, but the team will be putting its best foot forward and look for a new rink.

“In three years, we will all need to find a place to play, so we're all going to have to work together to make that happen,” he added.