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City council has concerns about the impact the Official Community Plan update for environmental mapping and natural asset inventory will have on city staff.

Vernon city council has concerns about the impact the Official Community Plan update for environmental mapping and natural asset inventory will have on city staff.

But a staff report to be presented to council at their regular meeting Monday says the process will actually reduce the workload for staff.

“The OCP is a long-range plan that sets out policies for how a community will accommodate population growth. By 2045, an additional 20,000 people are expected to move to our community. Our new OCP will reflect our community vision for how neighbourhoods and transportation networks can be enriched and improved to best support our growing population,” said a post on the city website.

At the Committee of the Whole meeting on Jan. 27, 2025, council expressed concerns related to how administration would manage possible increased work load due to the additional information provided with the update to the environmental mapping.

“To clarify, the update is not intended to increase work load, but rather aide in streamlining and increasing clarity for applicants and developers in their review of applications,” the staff report says. “This is achieved through the availability of more current and accurate environmental information for property owners, their consultants and administration to utilize.”

The report goes on to say “this will modernize the environmental policies for City of Vernon to be at the same level as other municipalities throughout the Okanagan,” so developers and consultants can expect the same process by providing consistency across jurisdictions.