While work proceeds on rewriting the City of Powell River’s official community plan (OCP), most residents appear to have little interest in the process.
Consultants contracted by the city to engage the community in the review reported last week that about 200 people have participated in public meetings. However, that is a generous number, given that some residents attended more than one meeting or all eight.
The consultants won the contract for the OCP review because of their plan of engaging the community through neighbourhood meetings. City staff preferred this method to striking a steering committee and an advisory committee to guide the development of the OCP.
However, the lack of public participation is alarming.
An OCP is a blueprint that defines the vision for how a community will grow over the long term, ensuring that future development takes place according to a community’s wishes. It is a reflection of residents’ vision for their community, how it should be sustained and how it should grow. It reflects people’s ideas and values and their definitions of their neighbourhoods.
An OCP serves as the foundation for all policies, regulations and decisions pertaining to land use and development in a municipality. Each property is assigned an OCP designation that defines the approximate or desired location of land uses such as residential, commercial, industrial, parks and open space.
A municipality’s zoning bylaw is used to regulate the use of land and to implement the policies in the OCP. It states what land uses are permitted in the community and provides information such as where buildings may be located, density requirements and standards for lot size, parking requirements and building height. All new zoning bylaws or development permits must be consistent with the OCP. That makes it a strategic tool that is shaping the kind of community Powell River residents want.
The public now has until May 31 to provide input into the draft vision statement, policies and objectives as well as a draft land-use map. Based on the input, the consultants will compile a draft OCP, which will be taken to an open house in the fall, followed by a public hearing before it is adopted.
Providing input into the process now before the draft is prepared is the best way to influence the process. Places belong to those who live, work and play there. Engaged residents participate in community life and decision-making.
What the community looks like, how it grows, what values will be retained, can all be defined during the OCP review. In the end, the vision belongs to those who become involved.
