Spectrum of acceptance broadened on city’s advisory planning commission

Circle widens on APC

Photo: Contributed

The broader composition of humanity will now be included in the city’s advisory planning commission after council passed a new bylaw amendment on Tuesday night.

Prior to this, the Advisory Planning Commission Bylaw had not been amended since 2012, with the APC previously composed of a “prescriptive membership” requiring each member to be selected from a specific sector of the community — such as economic, social, cultural and environmental.

Instead, the amendment — which passed without discussion at the council level — will now include any community member, not just those associated with a specific sector.

“That being said, the bylaw does provide general direction to council to appoint a wide cross-section of individuals to ensure balanced points of view,” read a staff report from Development Services’ senior planner Ken Bourdeau.

In addition, the amendment provided some clarification on APC meeting procedures, as well as

clarification on the type of development applications that would be presented to the APC for a recommendation, prior to going to council for a decision.

This includes:

• amendments to the Official Community Plan (OPC);
• amendments to the Zoning Bylaw (city initiated and rezoning); and
• any other request that may be referred to by council or the director of Development Services and Climate Leadership and permitted by the Local Government Act.

The Board of Variance Bylaw dates from 2012 and was also due for a review, with a new bylaw passing that included:

• updated references to the enabling legislation, the Local Government Act; and
• clarification on board of variance meeting procedures.

5. Member of the commission

a) The commission shall consist of nine (9) members appointed by council. When making appointments to the commission, council may consider appointing people who have a diversity of viewpoints, including those who come from the following backgrounds and sectors: economic, social, cultural, heritage, environmental and others.

b) At least two thirds of the membership of the commission shall be residents of the city of Nelson. If an insufficient number of qualified applicants is not available from the pool of city of Nelson residents, a resident of the Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) electoral area “E” or “F,” may be appointed by council, provided the appointment does not result in RDCK residents holding more than one third of the positions on the commission.

c) A person appointed to the commission shall serve for a period of three (3) years and shall serve a maximum of two (2) consecutive terms.

— Source: Advisory Planning Commission Bylaw