146 replies to this topic

[Bernard]

I have read all the input and documents available online, the way they have formatted it is not conducive to it being useful to a planning process for the purpose of public input.

The City should be holding more workshops and open houses on the OCP than what they have done. They need to move away from the generalities and talk about specifics and the implications of specifics. Given the timeline they are on, the four scenarios is something should have been talking about a year ago and not now.

Also, on the City OCP website, nowhere do they have anything to indicate they are interested in any sort of detailed responses to the OCP. The survey does not allow for any meaningful input.

As to camping, I am a Scout leader, if I did not go, 9 youth would have been able to go camping that weekend. Not enough adults are willing to volunteer their time in their community for youth so it sucks up a lot of time from those of us that do. This is a not unsubtle hint that there is a need for many more people to step and help with Scouting.

I am not the only person that was busy that weekend, the fact the City only had one weekend for this clearly flawed in my mind. There needs to be several weekends offering the same things so you can get more people involved.

I have seen much better public engagement over the years with respect to planning, this is just an indication that the City is clearly lacking in their engagement strategy.

[Dennis Carlsen]

The process the City has gone through for public input and engagement goes way beyond anything I have seen done in other communities that are going through an update of their OCP. What has not been stressed through this whole process is that the legislation is very narrow regarding what can be included in an OCP and it is even narrower in terms of the authority to implement. My concern that more open houses and workshops will only lead to an OCP that at best will have references to initiatives that will be "nice to do- sometime".

[Bernard]

The process so far has been driven by the ideas and concepts coming from the City and not from the public.

A good OCP process engages the public first and uses that information in a way that reflects back to the public the input and the implications of the input. The public and staff can then develop models or scenarios at that point which drive the OCP.

It is not an excuse for the City of Victoria to engage in a weak public consultation process because other local governments have done worse. The expectation in 2010 should be of the highest and best public engagement

[Dennis Carlsen]

I'm perplexed about the comment that the ideas were driven by the City. My impression in the open houses, community circles, surveys and everything else they have done that the City provided a context but they bent over backwards not to inject their own ideas.

I agree that public input at the front end is key but as I tried to illustrate there is a need to manage expectations or else the public is just being set up for disappointment.

What I also find interesting is what people mean by public engagement. I think it is unfortunate that there is rarely a reality check on public input.

[LJ]

Most people couldn't articulate what they want at the outset. Better to have professionals give some varying models and then have people pick and choose from that.

Then they can say they want more of that and less of this etc.

[Jared]

I am not the only person that was busy that weekend, the fact the City only had one weekend for this clearly flawed in my mind. There needs to be several weekends offering the same things so you can get more people involved.

These weekend forums only engage the non-apathetic. I think they should be offering other ways of providing input that might appeal more to the less privileged members of the community.

It's clear to me that the point of all these engagements is to generate ideas for the planning department to use. There's no intent to give power to the people. If you don't like it, overthrow the government.

[VicHockeyFan]

These weekend forums only engage the non-apathetic. .

That sounds OK to me.

[Rob Randall]

Remember that a lot of the background for the current consultation process was done three or four years ago with workshops and open houses. For example, one of the new things that came out of that was an expanded idea of what feels like Downtown. The borders haven't changed but the Downtown Draft Plan incorporates areas on the fringe of Downtown. Another example was the recreation infrastructure workshops held a couple of years ago.

[Jared]

That sounds OK to me.

The apathetic of today might not be the apathetic of tomorrow, particularly if the OCP ends up containing something that irks the masses. They'll end up revolting at the polls or doing civil disobedience like tent cities.

And by not engaging the full community you miss out on some of the best ideas, which I think was the point of this engagement in the first place?

[Bernard]

There are things the City could be doing to increase participation.

1) Offer some manner of forum online at their website to discuss the OCP
2) Hold a few more "thinking outside of the box" public workshops
3) Create an event that is more than just planning stuff, have other interesting things on hand like stories about the City in the past, children's entertainment, and more
4) Would it have been that hard to work with the three main High Schools where Victoria kids go to get them to offer input into the OCP process?

There many things that could be done other than the sort of bland traditional meetings the City has held.

If there is not a wide public participation in the OCP process, then this reflects a lack of imagination and commitment to public engagement by the City.

[Bernard]

The City of Victoria draft OCP is out and available for comment till June 10th.

Anyone interested in getting together and going through this thing?

[Lorne Carnes]

Victoria Council will be holding a Special meeting at 7:30 Wednesday evening to conduct a Public Hearing on the proposed Official Community Plan Bylaw 2012-No 12-013.

Judging by the amount of angst displayed on this forum I'm assuming the place will be packed with VVr's.

[UrbanRail]

The City of Victoria draft OCP is out and available for comment till June 10th.

Anyone interested in getting together and going through this thing?

I would.

[Rob Randall]

I will try to attend.

[aastra]

Can we please just drop this whole thing about putting new parks at Government Street and Herald and along Cook Street between Yates and View?

[Baro]

Haven't you played simcity? Every park you put down increases local land value and development quality. With enough parks any social or economic problem can be solved.

[phx]

I like the part in the OCP about keeping property taxes from escalating out of control.

Oh, wait....

[Rob Randall]

They closed the public hearing around 10 pm but Council wanted to postpone third reading until they had time to digest the comments made that evening by people. That set in motion an odd series of events. Staff will supply Council with the minutes of tonight's meeting so that they have the opportunity to include any public comments as amendments to the Community Plan. The problem is, because the hearing has legally concluded, there can be no further public input until third reading.

What this means is if you see the Mayor or a Councillor around town, you must not say anything about the Official Community Plan. You can't mention building heights, village centres or even the Harbour, until the next Council meeting.

I'm really sorry I missed Ken Johnson's speech. I'm sure it was interesting.

[VicHockeyFan]

Can we please just drop this whole thing about putting new parks at Government Street and Herald and along Cook Street between Yates and View?

Ya, I don't hear anyone complaining about lack of parks.

[Lorne Carnes]

Discussion of the issues raised at the June 27 public hearing regarding the Official Community Plan will take place at a special Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, July 17, 2012 in the Council Chambers at City Hall, starting at 7:30 p.m.