City of Powell River staff have been directed to prepare a comprehensive update to the city’s sustainable official community plan.
At the October 3 committee of the whole meeting, director of planning services Jason Gow made a presentation to councillors, providing a brief outline of the work plan community engagement approach.
“I’m here to look for direction to launch the project,” said Gow. “We are looking for direction to begin engagement pursuant to section 475 of the Local Government Act, reaching out to our regional partners – Tla’amin Nation, School District 47, qathet Regional District and Powell River Regional Hospital Board.
“There is an engagement plan for your consideration. It is a high-level engagement plan.”
Gow recommended that council, having considered appropriate consultation opportunities with persons, organizations and authorities, directs staff to provide opportunities for consultation with persons, organizations or authorities who may be affected per the project’s engagement plan, and mail notifications to the regional partners.
City councillor Trina Isakson said she has noted that people are more likely to show up to participate when they have something to react to. She said talking hypothetically is hard, but when there is something more tangible, people then have opinions.
“If you could talk more about raising awareness and sharing the importance of early engagement, I’m wondering how we can encourage a higher level of engagement early on, rather than getting to the end, sharing something and having people react to it, then feeling like we need to backtrack,” added Isakson.
Gow said there have been a number of different ideas about how to get buy-in.
Councillor George Doubt suggested publishing the engagement plan that was part of the report to council. He said there is a lot of information in there about what is going to happen.
“The trick is to get people to be aware of what we are talking about,” said Doubt. “The official community plan is about determining where the development is going to be, what it is going to be like and how the community is going to be in the future when growth happens. As much as we’d like to, we can’t stop growth. People will keep coming. Hopefully, this is the way to plan it and make it a better place to be.”
Councillor and committee of the whole chair Rob Southcott said the last time an official community plan was written was 2014 and he remembers his frustration from a lack of community participation.
“I believe that over those years the community has become more involved in many issues that have come to our table,” said Southcott. “This is an unparalleled opportunity for anyone in our community to have their say when it comes to vision.”
The committee carried a motion to direct staff to prepare a comprehensive update to the city’s sustainable official community plan.
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