A review of the City of Powell River’s official community plan (OCP) advanced to two neighbourhood meetings last week. Participants worked in groups for a visioning activity and a SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis.
About 20 people attended the Townsite meeting on Tuesday, February 12 in Dwight Hall. The next night, February 13, about 35 people attended the Westview meeting, held at Powell River Recreation Complex.
Councillor Russell Brewer attended both meetings, as well as the January 31 open house that kicked off the OCP review process. “I was very encouraged by how respectful, genuine and positive the discussions were,” he said. “Everyone was enthusiastic to share their visions and listen to others.”
From his perspective, the themes of the visions for both neighbourhood forums were similar to the vision ideas from the open house on January 31, as they related to sustainability, culture and economic diversification.
Encouraging light industrial developments was an emphasis for economic diversification, Brewer said. “Both forums identified the lack of a serviced industrial park as a barrier to encouraging light industry.”
Although the general visions were similar for both forums, Townsite participants emphasized the development of the arts, culture and heritage sectors, whereas Westview participants tended to emphasize the development, beautification and revitalization of the waterfront and the Marine Avenue corridor, Brewer added. “Some of the ideas put forward at the Townsite forum included a learning centre for the arts and music, a trades training centre linked to wood and heritage and light industrial on the waterfront related to new energy and aquaculture,” he said.
Ideas from Westview included developing the former barge facility as a public market with boutique shops, expanding the seawalk and improving alternative transportation along Marine.
Graham Farstad, of The Arlington Group, was hired by the city to work on the OCP review. He said a dominant theme that emerged during the Townsite meeting was the positive response to new businesses in the area. “There is a lot of energy regarding the revitalization of the commercial core,” he said. “People are really very optimistic about what they see as the potential of that area, given new investment and people adapting old buildings to new uses.”
In Westview, participants had a shopping list of issues, said Farstad, but job creation/economic development was the dominant theme.
Farstad said the number of people who attended the meetings was about what he would expect. “It’s unfortunate, but true, that more people are likely to show up if they feel threatened by something,” he said. “A community plan is more a vision of where you want the city to go and to some people it’s seen as academic and not an immediate action item.”
While typically there aren’t huge turnouts, people who do attend are engaged, Farstad added. “I think we got a good cross section of people,” he said.
The neighbourhood meetings move to Wildwood, on Monday, February 25 at James Thomson Elementary School, and Cranberry, on Tuesday, February 26 at Club Bon Accueil. Both meetings take place from 6 to 8:30 pm.
