Bowen Road Low Barrier Housing Round 4

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 Did City Staff and Council Read This Plan?

The way this public hearing for the rezoning of the property on Bowen Road for the wet housing project has developed, you'd be forgiven if you thought that city staff and council just threw this Action Plan out the window and decided to just 'wing it'.

The last four nights of public hearings on this rezoning would obviously have been avoided, as the process would never have gotten this far if the fancy plan we paid for had actually been followed.

Referring to ACTION 6 of the Action Plan which is headed "FACILITATE COMMUNITY ACCEPTANCE"

Facilitating community acceptance will be key to the effective implementation of the
Action Plan. Examples of proposed steps include:

• Early engagement, in advance of any announcements of sites or funding; 
• Developing a locational plan that disperses housing and services; 
• Communication with the public, neighbours, businesses, agencies and service
  providers on aspects of plan implementation on an ongoing basis; and 
• Establishing good neighbour agreements.

If you wish to read this entire document prepared in July 2008 visit the city website by clicking HERE.  Scroll down the page to the link  Nanaimo's Response to Homelessness Action Plan .

Had this plan been followed the opposition the neighbourhood has expressed throughout the Public Hearing process would have been voiced much earlier. The accusation from the residents opposed, is the fact they were deliberately misled by city planner Mr. John Horn in the early stages of the projects development. This is not inconsistent with some of the practices we have become to expect from city hall in recent years.

This was the last opportunity for members of the public to voice their concerns about the rezoning application for the subject property on Bowen Road. It will now be up to city council to ruminate on what they have heard and then render their decision. If I heard correctly that decision will be rendered on May 30. Which according to the current calendar is listed as a Finance Policy Committee meeting of the Whole, which if held at the usual time would be 4:30 in the afternoon. It would be wise to double check that date with city hall to confirm.

Meetings Were Unique

It is seldom that any issue city council has to deal with generates this kind of public input. As a matter of fact, council is usually able to just continue on with minimal input from the public on most issues, even including financial planning and the setting of taxes. For the most part, the general public is content to continue to slumber, lost in their own little worlds, willing to let council and city staff just pretty much do as they please. As witnessed by the recent $15million approval to build office space for city staff.

You have to respect Mayor and Council for the considerable patience they demonstrated dealing with an emotion driven crowd who weren't all that familiar with the process. To their credit they let all who wished to express themselves, the opportunity to do so even though the same points were made over and over and over again. That fact was fueled in part I think from inexperienced members of the public who thought perhaps they could engage council and get some answers or satisfaction, which clearly is not council's place at the public hearing. They were there to 'listen' to the concerns and then make their decisions after receiving input from all stakeholders.

The public could also be forgiven for getting the impression that some of council had their minds already made up, and were simply going through the motions of pretending to listen. Quotes in the press from the Mayor and some council members could certainly have been taken to suggest this was a 'done deal' from which there was no turning back, adding to the frustration and anger level of some delegates.

It will be interesting to see how council handles this one, they have already demonstrated the patience of Job, but will now need the wisdom of Solomon to divine a solution that treats all stakeholders fairly. Clearly putting the interests of 80, ahead of the concerns of several thousand would seem like a difficult decision to make. Ignoring the needs of the homeless, is not an option either, but clearly this Action Plan has been poorly implemented and one wonders, if it were ever followed from the beginning.