Plan review gives residents a chance to shape citys future

An upcoming review of the City of Powell River’s official community plan (OCP) will give residents an opportunity to imagine future land-use patterns and how the town could develop in the next three decades.

The city’s current OCP was completed in 2006 and was due for a review in 2011. City officials have been preparing for a major review of the OCP for a number of months.

Council has already approved a total budget of $164,300 for the development of the plan and $37,500 for clerical administration, to be funded from the community works funds reserve.

Councillors are expected to consider a request for proposals for consultants at the September 6 council meeting.

Extensive public consultation will take place as part of the development of the OCP, which is a high-level, visionary document.

Carlos Felip, manager of development services, said the OCP will be developed with the assistance of a consulting team. The process will include a broad, open consultation process where the initial ideas for the vision of the city comes from the residents. “We will consult the people to generate the preliminary vision,” he said. “The initial ideas must come from the residents.”

After the first round of consultation, those ideas will go to council, then back to the public. “People will have an opportunity for additional input,” he said. “At the same time, the consultants will be gathering ideas from organizations and groups.”

Eventually, a draft OCP is developed, Felip said. “In the initial draft, most residents will see many of their ideas represented in the plan,” he said. “But not everyone will see all of their ideas in that plan.”

Inevitably, residents don’t have the same vision for the town or agree on every aspect of the document, he explained. “At some point, elected officials are required to make decisions on some of the controversial issues that may arise,” he said. “Plans require compromise and working together. At the end, we need to reach a clear vision of what we want to see in the town within 10 years and have a sense of direction for 20 and 30 years down the road.”

The new OCP will have a strong emphasis on sustainability, Felip wrote in his report to council, and will provide better guidance for future development and re-development of the city. The new approach should, as an example, increase the encouragement for a more compact approach to development, a more efficient approach to people’s movements and a better use of inner city lands.

Some expected components of the plan are: economic viability, including a long-term economic diversification strategy; smart growth principles; greenhouse carbon reduction policies; an overview or assessment of the community and social services situation; an affordable housing strategy; a transportation plan, including bicycle routes; and community partnerships, especially with first nations.

Linked to the OCP is a proposal to develop a local action plan for greenhouse gas reduction (GHGR). Council will also be considering a recommendation to approve using $25,000 from the community works funds reserve to develop the GHGR plan and authorize staff to apply for a $25,000 grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ green municipal fund.

The GHGR plan will include the creation of an inventory and forecast of emissions, setting emission reduction targets and outlining how the city will achieve the greenhouse gas emissions reduction target.

The city joined Partners for Climate Protection in 2012. Development of the GHGR plan would allow it to achieve milestone three of a five-milestone framework used to guide municipalities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The plan will contain policies and procedural guidelines on air quality, greenhouse gas reduction, energy conservation and carbon reduction.

It will cover municipal operations and the community. “A community-wide LAP [local action plan] is complex to develop and implement as it requires input and co-ordination from many stakeholders, such as citizens’ groups, non-governmental organizations and the private sector,” Felip wrote in his report about the GHGR plan. “Completion of the GHGR [plan] therefore must be seen as the beginning of a process rather than an end [in] itself.”