Greater Victoria Studio Zone
Victoria is defined by naming communities rather than by describing a line, which makes it the more tractable of the two zones.
12 of 14 components sourced. All 12 named municipalities have been retrieved from the province's published boundary data. The 2 remaining components are road-bounded extensions that have to be built and checked by a person. No address checker is switched on until they are.
The definition
The Studio Zone for Greater Victoria is the area of land inside the boundaries of the following communities: North Saanich; Sidney; Central Saanich; Saanich; Victoria; Oak Bay; Highlands; View Royal; Esquimalt; Langford; Colwood; and Metchosin.
The twelve communities
Each is matched to its exact legal name in the provincial dataset. Note that North Saanich, Central Saanich and Saanich are three separate municipalities — the agreement names all three, and they are not interchangeable.
- North SaanichDistrict of North Saanich
- SidneyTown of Sidney
- Central SaanichThe Corporation of the District of Central Saanich
- SaanichThe Corporation of the District of Saanich
- VictoriaThe Corporation of the City of Victoria
- Oak BayThe Corporation of the District of Oak Bay
- HighlandsDistrict of Highlands
- View RoyalTown of View Royal
- EsquimaltCorporation of the Township of Esquimalt
- LangfordCity of Langford
- ColwoodCity of Colwood
- MetchosinDistrict of Metchosin
Two extensions
Added on top of the twelve. Both are bounded by named roads rather than by municipal lines, so neither can be assembled from boundary data.
Extension west of Metchosin
Bounding roads sourcedArea not builtan extension west of Metchosin which will include the area of land inside the boundaries of Highway 14 (Sooke Road), Gillespie Road, and East Sooke Road
- Highway 14 (Sooke Road)
- Gillespie Road
- East Sooke Road
All three bounding roads retrieved from the BC Digital Road Atlas and committed. What remains is judgement, not transcription: deciding which segments bound the area and where it closes.
Extension north of Langford along Highway One
Bounding roads sourcedArea not builtan extension north of Langford along Highway One which will include the area inside the boundaries of: the shoreline on the East; Shawnigan Mill Bay Road/Renfrew Road on the North; and West Shawnigan Lake Road/Shawnigan Lake Road on the West
- the shoreline on the East
- Shawnigan Mill Bay Road / Renfrew Road on the North
- West Shawnigan Lake Road / Shawnigan Lake Road on the West
All four bounding roads retrieved from the BC Digital Road Atlas and committed. Still needs the shoreline for the eastern edge, then the same judgement call about which segments bound the area.
Where the agreement and the road atlas disagree
Each of these returns nothing if the agreement’s wording is matched literally against the provincial dataset. Recorded so the wrong conclusion — that the road is missing — does not get drawn.
- Shawnigan Mill Bay Road → Shawnigan-Mill Bay RdHyphenated in the dataset, unhyphenated in the agreement.
- Highway 14 (Sooke Road) → Sooke RdTwo different roads share the name. 130 segments are tagged Highway 14; another 34 are not. The agreement means Highway 14.
- Renfrew Road → Renfrew RdRoads of the same name exist elsewhere in BC, including in the City of Vancouver. A geographic filter is required.
The ferry rule
The parties hereby confirm that the foregoing paragraph establishing the Studio Zone for Greater Victoria will include only land area as described above that is part of the mainland of Vancouver Island and is accessible by a regular motor passenger vehicle without the assistance of a ferry or other water transportation vehicle or device.
Islands and any land needing a ferry are excluded, even where they fall inside one of the twelve municipalities. North Saanich and Sidney both include islands, so this rule does real work rather than being a formality.
How this page is built
Everything above is transcribed from agreements we hold copies of. The municipal boundaries come from the province’s published dataset, matched on exact legal names. Where a map and the agreement differ, the agreement governs.
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - British Columbia.