Many of the participants in Monday's City Council Public Hearing on the Official Community Plan were rather familiar faces from Council themes of the past.
A number of them having been part of the city council cultivation of like minded community partners along the way; that as the Mayor and Council put the overhaul of the OCP together over the seven year journey.
One that has now delivered a new blue print to plan for the future of the city.
Mayor Lee Brain opened the Public Hearing with an explanation of the process for the night, as well as to explain why Council had decided to move forward with the virtual version of the public hearing, as opposed to awaiting an opportunity for the more traditional public gathering.
The Mayor highlighting what he called the vigorous consultation that the city had engaged in as part of their process, while he also noted that owing to COVID, it may not be until 2022 that the municipal government and its public will be allowed to gather again.
The hearing began with Rob and Chris Buchan the contract planners from Iplan providing another review of the document and any changes that have come up in the last few weeks of overview. The ten minute presentation charted much of the work that iPlan and Council took on to craft the final product.
Following their review, the remainder of the one hour hearing was turned over to the public
The Mayor in his opening made note of the many familiar faces in attendance by Zoom, and indeed for the most part it was those who have travelled along the planning path for the Official Community Plan who were the active participants on the night.
Ken Shaw a professor at Coast Community College was offered the opening spot, providing a presentation that tied in the original themes of Hays 2.0 while hailing the leadership of the City Council and noting how in his opinion the current OCP work was a project that was far superior to the one of ten years ago.
Much of his commentary focused on food security aspects and how they could become elements of the Community Plan, all in aid towards community sustainability. Mr. Shaw, observing how close he believes we came to dodging a bullet and how we recently avoided a crisis when it comes to food resources in the community owing to the pandemic.
The remainder of his presentation touched on such themes as urban agriculture, home business opportunities and other elements of developing a food strategy into the future.
Most of those were themes that would no doubt be familiar for the Mayor and a few others around the Council Zoom Screen, or watching at home. Coming as they do from the formative days of Transition Prince Rupert which Mr. Shaw and Mr. Brain formed prior to the Mayor's entry into municipal politics.
The second delegation of presenters were focused on a current land use question and one that has been somewhat of a controversy at recent council sessions, that of the zoning for Park Avenue and plans for a micro hotel, that group was led by Daniel Macgregor who provided the prospectus for the proposed development for council to look over.
Also speaking to the development was Parm Sandhu one of the investors in the proposed hotel complex, along with Andrea Pollock and Brian Hanna who would be involved in the construction of the modular units of the hotel .
They too spoke in favour of the proposed hotel and what it would add to the community.
The prospect of backyard chickens also invaded the OCP process, with a number of residents both from Prince Rupert and from out of town participating in that aspect of the dialogue; among those sharing their thoughts on the issue of Food Systems and urban agriculture were Christiane Chouinard and John Stevenson.
Among the others to participate and share some thoughts on the Official Community Plan on the night were, Scott Farwell, Brian Musgrave, John Farell and Michelle Bommars-MacNeil all of whom have been part of the council consultation group and partnership of the vision over the last few years or so.
They all offered up their praise for the work that took place and expressed their enthusiastic support for the plan.
As for any thoughts from the general population of the community, much as it was at election time in November 2018 ( and the 30 percent participation rate of that vote). Few of those in the community whether on the voter's list or not, participated in this public engagement event.
As a result, the bulk of the night's contributions to the review of the document was that of a flowing current of praise for the final draft, the work of Mayor and Council and their plans to move forward with the approval required for adoption.
To Bring the hearing to a close, Mr Brain then asked for any further comments, whether from those on the speakers list, or from any "anonymous online commenters who would like to say a few words"
With a pause seemingly for dramatic effect, he then expressed his disappointment that none were online to share any thoughts towards the nights production.
You can review the full course of the Public Hearing from the Video Below:
Later in the evening, Council would revisit many of the themes from the Public Hearing as part of the Regular Council session which started at 7PM.
With the Council members picking up the conversation on topics such as the urban agriculture themes and Food Security, as well as those of secondary suites and parking in the community.
The topic of medicinal or personal grow cannabis grow ops that have popped up around town also gained some attention as part of the OCP review, with the City's contract planners and the Mayor noting that federal regulations at the moment currently have a loophole that ties the city's hands when it comes to any kind of enforcement of local desires to remove the operations in the community.
The Mayor did express the council frustration with the situation, noting that it was a nationwide concern and suggested residents contact the MP for the region Taylor Bachrach to relay any concerns to the federal government for them.
In addition to those notes, Council spent a bit of their time speaking to the issue of the current Zoning for Park Avenue and how a change may impact on the proposed development of the hotel for that location.
As for any prospect of further delay to implementing the Official Community Plan, Councillor Mirau spoke the loudest against any further consultation when it comes to the OCP work, recounting the effort taken on and the range of groups that Council has met towards their process.
"The amount of work that has gone into this, it is not something that we've somehow just scraped together over the last couple of months. It has been an incredible amount of work and so to that criticism I would actually say; since I was a teenager on the whole the main complaint and concern that I have heard from the community is that they are tired of filling out surveys and they want to see action.
They do not want to constantly be asked what they want, to just constantly have to watch people bicker, debate and grandstand and complain. We know what people want because we're living today with the same exact issues that were being talked about twenty years ago. ...
So to me, tabling this, to do additional engagement when we've already seen a massive groundswell of consensus far beyond my expectations at the outset. I mean, just don't think it's reasonable.
So I don't want us to change our Course of action because of a few pessimistic hold outs, that small minority of people who think it's easier to complain on line than it is to actually participate in the democratic process. The people that just refuse to acknowledge the progress that the city has been making over the last few years because of a negative attitude and that doubt "
Mr. Mirau's valedictorian address of their achievement, was one that was well received by his council peers, variations of his themes echoed by some of the others later on, keeping most of the Council membership in lock step to the project, much as they have been from the start of the exercise.
Even if they have one more vote to go on the twin projects of the OCP and the Bylaws to go with it, when they return for final adoption at a future council session. For the most part, the focus for the Council conversation on Monday was very much that of a victory lap for the night and a time to hail the conclusion to their odyssey.
On that theme, it was the Mayor and Councillor Blair Mirau who took the lead when it came to making sure that the public was aware of their work over the last few years and how they view that the finished product should be embraced as a significant achievement for the public to take note of.
"We're setting a foundation, we're setting a framework. A framework were going to build on, a framework we're going continue on. But we've received you know, thousands of engagements since 2015, when we first started reDesign.
I mean the first phase of reDesign Rupert had 2,000 engagements, we even went to all the middle schools and the elementary schools and even got them involved with the things that they wanted to see in the town and this whole thing has built up now to this moment of the OCP.
So I feel very comfortable with where we've come and how far we've come and you know as Councillor Mirau was saying there's so many people, they may make comments on the internet, but at the end of the day, the reality of what we've been doing is that we have been engaging and we've been open and transparent with this process and I'm more than comfortable with how we've conducted ourselves and I think everybody should be proud ... Prince Rupert is moving forward." --- Mayor Lee Brain
"In my opinion, this is the biggest, boldest rethink of the city's official community plan or community wide plan since the original 1908 Breton Hall plan ... I think this is a huge step in the right direction .. I think we've reached a broad based community consensus that has not existed in the past ... for me I'm incredibly proud" --- Councillor Blair Mirau
Councillor Nick Adey however chose a different approach towards a dialogue with the public that may have been viewing on the night, one a little less strident or bombastic than the other contributions to the theme.
Offering up somewhat of an olive branch for those in the community that may still have some doubts as to how the process from Council evolved and where the OCP direction may lead in the future.
"It is a big deal, it's a forward thinking, very comprehensive document. But it also represents a kind of a watershed turning point in terms of kinds of issues that I think that our council and then moving forward future councils are going to face now.
And that has to do with the fact that if it works, in the way that we envision it working, it's going to produce growth and what that means is that it's going to produce change.
And when you introduce changes I think that we're already beginning to see evidence that change can be exciting and it can be an opportunity but it can also be uncomfortable for other people.
So I think that the dynamic that we're now going to deal with a lot I think over the next few years is that tension between the need to change, the need to grow and the reluctance that some will feel around what that means in their neighbourhoods and in their lives.
So I think managing that tension is really what were going to find ourselves doing over the next couple of years " -- Councillor Nick Adey
Now all of those who spoke on the OCP on the night are right on a few elements of Council's work of the last few years, it is an accomplishment to bring together such an overhaul of municipal legislation, particularly in a year that offered some significant challenges.
They should be congratulated on that effort, but since they've already done more than enough on that theme all by themselves; all that is really left for the public to do now is to wait, watch and see if the grand vision plan for the future comes to pass.
The test will be if there is as Councillor Adey noted, a significant change to the look of the city in the next five to ten years and if the program delivers what Council members seem to believe the community has been calling out for.
As well as if the many, many changes put in place prove to be workable solutions to the problems identified and if Council's work will address the list of concerns that the community has expressed in the past.
Key to that success will be whether the goals of this OCP include the wishes of the entire community and not in the end the path ahead mainly becomes the reflection of a number of special interest advocates.
If after the work of the last seven years and after much money and time invested in the vision making (some of it used up at the expense of what some might even say were more concerning issues in the community) the results don't meet the community expectations.
Then the process may actually spur on a boost in the voter participation for the 2022 election and bring out an increase in the number of those casting a vote.
That exercise in democracy could in the end be a referendum of sorts for community residents, with a chance to cast the final verdict and the only one that really counts when it comes to the vision this council has created for how it sees the way forward for Prince Rupert.
A review of the Council Discussion on the OCP and associated bylaws can be found from the City's Video Archive, starting at the 34 minute mark.
More notes on the Monday Council session can be explored from our Council Timeline feature.
A wider overview of Council's work on the OCP can be reviewed from our archive page.
"Key to that success will be whether the goals of this OCP include the wishes of the entire community and not in the end the path ahead mainly becomes the reflection of a number of special interest advocates."
ReplyDeleteThank you for including this in your article Captain Obvious.