An attempt to improve the city’s planning processes ran aground Monday night as city councillors couldn’t agree whether such a move was necessary.
Couns. Cam MacKay and Roger Lemieux spoke in favour of creating a planning advisory committee, a body of citizens and experts that would provide advice to council on planning issues.
The basic idea was to assemble a group of residents with a cross-section of expertise to provide an outside perspective on planning issues, said Coun. Cam MacKay.
Such a need has been evident in a number of developments — 70 Arlington Dr., for example — and has been highlighted by the absence of the municipal planning commission (MPC) that was dissolved several years ago, he said.
“This isn’t to reinstate the previous MPC. It’s to look and to see what kind of planning structure we can have to assist council,” MacKay told council.
His vision is a committee that advises council rather than having decision-making authority.
“The community wants to have more involvement in land use planning and they’d like to see better land use decisions,” MacKay said. “And who knows, you might learn something by listening to the community.”
Other councillors didn’t see the need for a change.
“Nothing is broken so why introduce more steps in the process? It’s already perceived as being slow,” said Coun. Cathy Heron.
The city has advisory committees for environment and economic development. These work well but planning is too complex an area to address this way, said Mayor Nolan Crouse, who voted against the motion.
“I don’t have a good vision for what it should be but it sure isn’t an advisory committee. I was voting no all along,” he said.
Council’s priorities, released in February, include a desire to consider changes to the city’s public communication and consultation processes.
During last fall’s election campaign, Crouse said the city needed “a new way of community engagement.” He promised a public consultation process that seeks citizen input first when new developments are being proposed.
Crouse said the city still has to do something differently but he’s been working on other things.
“I don’t have enough hours in the days to get to everything on my radar screen,” he said. “I’ve been working on many other things and, this one hasn’t fallen off, it just hasn’t risen to the top in six months.”
A planning advisory committee would increase processing times and impose more onerous requirements on development applicants, says a report by the city’s administration.
The report suggested that, if council thinks the city’s public consultation process is flawed, it could revise the existing policy rather than form a committee that could be a “lightning rod for controversial applications.”
MacKay and Lemieux wanted council to direct the city manager to create a terms of reference for such a committee by Sept. 26. That motion failed but MacKay said he intends to put together terms of reference himself for a council decision.
“This is something that won’t go away,” he said.
