Municipal decisions regarding planning and land use often generate the most controversy, but Colwood council is hoping a structural change to its related advisory committee will give the public a stronger voice in those decisions.
In the coming months the City’s planning and land use committee, currently made up of three councillors and two community members, will be replaced by an advisory planning commission of nine community members.
The commission will review a variety of redevelopment and rezoning applications and forward their recommendations to council.
“We’ve got some fairly big and significant projects that are before the community … it’s another way to get public input and skilled public input,” said Mayor Carol Hamilton.
Colwood has put out a request for interested members of the public to step forward. The hope is to recruit representatives from a wide cross-section of the public, including individuals from the education sector, the land development industry, the local business community and perhaps even someone with an architectural background.
Both a senior and a youth member will be sought as well.
No members of council will sit as voting members on the commission.
Hamilton hopes that keeping councillors at arms length will lead to more fruitful discussions on planning topics at council. “It puts us in a better position as council to collect information and make decisions,” she said.
Coun. Gordie Logan, current chair of the planning and land use committee, says having no sitting councillors on the commission “keeps the politics out of it.”
“It allows broader community input into the decision-making, and what it also does is allows various experts to come to the table and be part of the decision-making,” he said.
“They bring a specific focus to an application.”
Colwood has had an advisory planning commission in the past, and Hamilton says that the City is currently reviewing the structure of all of its committees.
“One of the purposes there is to better align them … this (commission) brings engineering and planning together, because those are your two key departments when you’re looking at development. We’ll be looking to do those kinds of things with other committees we have,” she said, noting that this can make better use of both staff and council time.
Members of the public who are interested in sitting on the commission for a two-year term are encouraged to e-mail Pat VanBuskirk at the City at pvanbuskirk@colwood.ca to learn more.
joel.tansey@goldstreamgazette.com