Pemberton Park 10 Nov 2025
Gonzales Neighbourhood Association
Annual General Meeting
Wednesday, November 19 at 7 pm
at Glenlyon Norfolk House School cafeteria
Residents and business owners in the Gonzales Neighbourhood are cordially invited to attend the Annual General Meeting on Novemberber 19th at 7 pm. The meeting will be held in the Norfolk House school cafeteria on the campus of Glenlyon Norfolk School. Access to this event is easiest through the Maddison Street parking lot in the 800 block of Maddison Street.
Special Guest: Councillor Stephen Hammond to speak on: How Renters may be negatively impacted by the recently approved
Official Community Plan (OCP)
The population of Victoria is composed of 60% renters and in Gonzales many houses have secondary suites. The OCP provides nominal protection for renters should their building be slated for development; which council admitted during the public hearing. But how bad is it for renters? Councillor Hammond will uncover the numbers. Annual General Meeting to follow.
**The GNA board welcomes new board members. If you are interested in becoming a board member please send an e-mail to: gonzalesneighbours@gmail.com.
***We are also looking for a volunteer to prepare newsletters, keep our membership up to date and/or send out e-mails. If you are willing to help out please send us an e-mail.
Victoria's Proposed Official Community Plan
The City's proposed amendments to the Official Community Plan could have major implications for Heritage Conservation, Affordable and Inclusive Housing opportunities, Densification, Infrastructure, and the Urban Forest/Green Space. Please click here to see the GNA's submission to the City regarding these issues.
You can view the City's information about the process and its timeline by clicking here.
September 30th Update: Council will be discussing and potentially approving the Official Community Plan at the council meeting on Thursday evening October 2nd at 6:30 pm. We encourage interested community members to observe this meeting by attending in person at City Hall or by viewing a live stream of the council meeting from the City's website. More information is available here.
For more information about how OCPs can address concerns about climate and environmental resilience within urban areas, click here to visit the West Coast Climate Action Network's website.
Neighbourhood Green Maps Now Available
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Bike Lanes on Dallas Road and
New All-Way Stop at Dallas/Hollywood & St. Charles
The City of Victoria has added a two-way bike lane to Dallas Road between the St. Charles intersection and Memorial Crescent. The project is intended to: reduce use of the Dallas Road sidewalk by bikes, e-bikes, and other wheeled devices; narrow the road to slow vehicle traffic; remove unnecessary parking; and, presumably, improve cyclist safety. Motor vehicles have a single wide lane for both directions of travel, currently without painted centre lines. There is now an all-way stop at the corner of Dallas/Hollywood and St. Charles, presumably necessary so that westbound cyclists can cross to the new bike lane.
GNA X Feed (Twitter)
Neighbourhood Links
* Mayor Marianne Alto mayor@Victoria.ca
250.361.0200
* Councillor Jeremy Caradonna
(Gonzales liaison)
jcaradonna@victoria.ca 250-686-2739
* List of all City Councillors (email, phone)
* City of Victoria Development Tracker
City of Victoria Bylaw Enforcement
City of Victoria Garbage Collection
VicPD emergency 911
VicPD non-emergency 250-995-7654
Contact Member of BC Legislature:
Oak Bay - Gordon Head (Diana Gibson)
Victoria Beacon Hill (Grace Lore)
250 952-4211
(Neighbourhood includes portions of two ridings; see map here)
Contact Member of Parliament:
Riding of Victoria
250-434-0355
Sheltering in Parks:
November 2025 Update
This fall there have typically been 2-3 tents most nights at each of Gonzales Beach and Pemberton Parks. In addition there are typically 1-3 people sleeping in vehicles at Gonzales Beach Park.
There are now 34 City of Victoria parks at which overnight sheltering is allowed, as indicated on the city's map below, and available on the City's website. Gonzales Beach, Pemberton, and Oaklands parks are the only three parks on the list that have been identified by the city for sheltering since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
Some tent users have been partially compliant with the sheltering bylaw's requirement to pack up between 7 am and 7 pm, while other tents have been left up during all or much of the day, and prevent access to picnic tables and park benches. The restriction against daytime camping was intended by BC courts to be a reasonable compromise between emergency overnight sheltering of unhoused people and recreational use of the park during the day. One or two tents continue to be placed right against private property adjoining the park, also contrary to the sheltering bylaw. Bylaw Services staff do not seem to be attending the park with sufficient regularity to maintain compliance.
Click here for more information about the city's plan and how it may affect Gonzales.
Click on this map to open a zoomed-in view. Note that Gonzales Park is incorrectly shown as including the entire beach, which is in fact the federally controlled intertidal zone and is not part of the city park. Allowing sheltering on the beach would put people at risk because the entire beach is inundated during some high tides.
See our Gonzales Business Directory by clicking here! Updated to the end of February, 2025.
Shop Locally!
Neighbourhood Boundary
Next Board Meeting
The Board of Directors hold monthly meetings on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. For information about participating please contact us at: gonzalesneighbours@gmail.com
