City of Powell River mayor Ron Woznow is advocating for a plan to attract and inform potential development partners for city-owned properties.
At the December 21 city council meeting, Woznow brought forward a motion that staff return to council with a report recommending a plan to attract and inform potential development partners for properties to be recommended by the city’s select committee for city-owned properties.
Woznow said he brought the matter to council as a result of seeing an article about a 43-acre Port Alberni waterfront property development. He said he had spoken to council a number of times about the success Port Alberni council has had in identifying opportunities to utilize land to develop partnerships with their First Nations neighbours, to provide various housing options, to provide industrial land, et cetera.
“The last time we discussed this, council voted in favour of asking our committee to recommend which properties could be used,” said Woznow.
He then read his motion to council.
“The reason for recommending this is because we’ve had offers of assistance from the Surrey director of economic development and from the chief administrative officer (CAO) at Port Alberni, to help us fast-track a process, which they found to be successful in getting potential partners to provide detailed proposals to the city,” added Woznow. “Hopefully, by the end of our term, we will have seen one or two different properties providing opportunities for affordable housing and industrial parks, et cetera.”
Councillor George Doubt said he did not have a problem with the concept as long as it is open enough and casts a big enough net. He said he read recently about Tla’amin Nation building new housing in a subdivision in the village. He added that it’s a great model.
“Our land could very well be used to find a partner to build homes that the city would continue to own as part of a housing authority,” said Doubt. “Rather than just saying here’s a bunch of land and that we want anyone who wants to be a developer to come and make some money on the land, we need to look at all possible options. Using the city’s lands for a housing authority is one of those options. I’d like to see this get to the committee so they can get busy and start thinking about it.”
Woznow said a motion he had previously made to council had two parts. One was to ask staff to develop a plan specifically looking at a number of properties. He said council decided it would be more appropriate to have the select committee go back and look a report that had been completed, which was the original reason for putting the select committee in place.
“Hopefully, the select committee is going to meet some time in the new year and start this process,” said Woznow.
Keen councillor
Councillor Trina Isakson said she is keen on how the city can move forward in alignment with community will and the downtown plan currently under development. She said she would also be interested in learning from Surrey or Port Alberni contacts so that when Powell River is moving forward it is not muddling as much.
Woznow said the Port Alberni CAO has stated that its success involved partnership with First Nations and others to create opportunities in their community, which was a result of council making timely decisions and staff running to keep up with them. He said his motion before council was to simply to ensure that council won’t be sitting in chambers a year from now without anything having been done.
Isakson said the motion would be well-timed once council receives recommendations from the select committee.
“I don’t know what their recommendations will be,” said Isakson. “Therefore, I have nothing to direct staff in advance of us receiving anything. This motion might be excellent in a month or two when we are discussing what the committee has come back with.”
Councillor Jim Palm said the motion was asking staff to provide guidance that will go on to the select committee. He said that is an important step because the reason the committee has not met was that its members were asking staff for clarification on their role and what they were to be doing.
“This is just a simple ask and being proactive to get staff to work on what the mayor is asking for so that the select committee has the necessary guidance to get down to work,” said Palm.
Woznow said the reason he put the motion forward was based on advice from Port Alberni that council is the controlling factor, and it could pass this onto the select committee.
“My motion is to have staff prepare a report and present it to council, and if council approves, it can be forwarded to the select committee,” added Woznow.
The mayor’s motion carried.
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