City of Powell River will be undergoing an exercise pertaining to land-use designations and policies relevant to the Townsite neighbourhood, with specific focus on city-owned lands.
At the May 4 city council meeting, councillors considered a staff report on a Townsite neighbourhood review, with early and ongoing public, stakeholder and intergovernmental consultation to update the sustainable official community plan objectives, policies and land-use designations, in response to the city’s acquisition of significant land holdings in Townsite.
Councillor Rob Southcott said this work by the city’s planning department follows a sequence of developmental work planners have carried out.
He said the plan is to start with future uses brainstorming from May until June this year, then options and directions will be considered between September and October. The sustainable official community plan amendment bylaw preparation and adoption is proposed for November to December, he added.
“This is a work that I know many people in the Townsite have been aiming at and hoping for,” said Southcott. “It is certainly, in my view, a priority for our official community plan in our entire community. I’m glad to see this come forward.”
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she would like to echo Southcott’s comments and encouraged people to participate.
“It’s really exciting that we are going to be moving forward with creating a plan for the city-owned waterfront lands in that area,” said Elliott. “I’m looking forward to hearing what people’s ideas are. I want to participate myself and I look forward to seeing everyone online or wherever it is we are going to be doing our communicating.”
According to the staff report, to launch the process, online and small group workshops in line with public health orders for COVID-19 will allow staff to share information about the current sustainable official community plan within Townsite areas. Staff will seek feedback on what is working well, what needs to change and what future land uses on city-owned lands would best serve Townsite and Powell River as a whole, the report stated.
The second phase, according to the report, is to make land-use designation changes with supporting objective and policy revisions. In this step, staff will communicate the proposed directions back to participants, gather input on those directions and seek specific feedback where there are options or alternatives. Feedback will be used to refine the proposed direction.
The staff report indicates that during the sustainable official community plan bylaw preparation and adoption, staff will draft an amendment bylaw for council’s consideration.
