Council's Role in Controlling Growth
From the most recent minutes of the OCP Stakeholder's group, comes this revealing opinion from one of our councillors:
I can't agree with this, particularly the crystal-ball scare tactics about the town dying if it doesn't grow fast enough. If our council does indeed feel powerless to control the types and amount of growth in our district, then we've either got a serious problem in council itself or the structure of municipal government. Aren't town councils elected to carry out the wishes of its citizens?
Update: Douglas Williams didn't think this was fair at all to Councillor Cogbill. I should point out that his words were paraphrased in the minutes. If you see him at the open house, it wouldn't hurt to ask him about what he thinks Council's role is in guiding development to hear it from the source.
"Rick Cogbill commented that Council really shouldn’t limit population growth, as growth will happen regardless of what anybody does. The only thing that the OCP can and should do is to tell the developers where they can build, rather than telling them they can’t build. We can’t limit growth, we can only direct it. If we limit the growth, the town will die, therefore we must create a plan which will use the inevitable growth to our benefit."
I can't agree with this, particularly the crystal-ball scare tactics about the town dying if it doesn't grow fast enough. If our council does indeed feel powerless to control the types and amount of growth in our district, then we've either got a serious problem in council itself or the structure of municipal government. Aren't town councils elected to carry out the wishes of its citizens?
Update: Douglas Williams didn't think this was fair at all to Councillor Cogbill. I should point out that his words were paraphrased in the minutes. If you see him at the open house, it wouldn't hurt to ask him about what he thinks Council's role is in guiding development to hear it from the source.
posted by Jeremy |
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6 Comments:
This comment is just reality.The current OCP states "Council does not have the mandate or the tools to stop growth but they can manage it. The OCP outlines the District's overall strategy for managing growth and development. Primarily based on economic and financial modelling, the process does take into consideration other issues such as:
- Physical and regulatory constraints;
- Environmental concerns;
- Land use and servicing issues.
I guess the only time development will stop is when there is no more land left. But, I seem to remember that was said about West Vancouver 30 years ago but that has not stopped development.
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Anonymous, at 8:19 p.m.
Jeremy - I find your question- Aren't town councils elected to carry out the wishes of its citizens- interesting. How will council know what the wishes of the citizens are? Is it reasonable to expect them to poll all citizens before decisions are made. The truth is most people don't care or are apathetic unless it directly affect them. It has been my experience that this council is open to the pubic but, the public has to make an effort to find out and get involved. Attend the open meetings at the municipal hall and make a point of talking to the councillors and staff. I have found them very helpful and willing to answer my questions and address my concerns. But, the citizens have to get involved so that council know what their concerns are. All councillors have a lot on their plate and have major decisions to make. Many of these decisions have some short timelines. I found that when I made an effort to talk to them they where
very obliging.
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Anonymous, at 9:48 p.m.
The words we're using here are important, and I recognize that the quote is actually a paraphrasing of Mr. Cogbill's original words, so he may have been initially misinterpreted.
UMA's interpretation of the power of municipal government (that you quoted from the OCP) can be read to say that council has the mandate and tools to manage growth. That seems like stating the obvious, considering that it is one of the main functions of a municipal council. Although some may want to put the brakes on aggressive development, I don't think anyone is advocating that council make any attempt to stop all growth.
Perhaps you should re-read the section I quoted from the minutes. First of all, I stand by my objection to this melodramatic theory that any limits to growth will kill the town. Secondly, he's quoted as saying that the role of Council shouldn't be to limit population growth -- although this may be his personal philosophical view, I don't think it's an accurate reflection of what type of governence most citizens expect from their council. Council limits and directs growth every time they approve or decline a development proposal.
Finally, this idea that the OCP can't tell developers where they can or can't build. I suppose it's true that an inanimate document can't really "tell" anyone to do anything, but the primary function of an OCP is to determine where it may be appropriate to build. Ideally it also provides a guideline for when that building might occur and what types of building should be appropriate. I prefer this vision of an active council with an important role to play, rather than making it sound like growth is ruled exclusively by outside powers we can't influence or manage.
Also, a note about comments -- please put your name at the bottom of your writing. It's too easy to hide behind anonymity. Those of us who have our names on here have to stand by our words in public, and I'd encourage everyone else to do the same.
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Jeremy, at 10:17 p.m.
To the second anonymous commenter -- these are excellent points. I'm as guilty as any. Although I'm not apathetic, lobbing posts out onto the web is not really participating. Truth be told, I wanted to be involved in this project not to get "the word out", but to figure out what's going on.
How do councillors know what the citizens want? Your advice is spot-on. There are other ways that have been pursued as well -- stakeholder groups, public committees, town meetings, open houses, web site updates, etc. -- and they still all depend on people caring and being willing to get involved. Letters to the editor are a sort of participation, but I think we've seen the dark side of that...they don't necessarily reflect the views of the majority.
I sent a letter to the council members a couple of weeks ago and got two responses -- an engaging and thoughtful one from Carla Wright, and a more dismissive but well-crafted letter from Rick Cogbill, both of whom wouldn't have had to spend their valuable time responding to my blather. So maybe the system does work if we're willing to try.
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Jeremy, at 10:28 p.m.
Re: Douglas William's statement that your quotation from the stakeholders minutes were not fair to Councillor Cogbill.
The minutes were written as accurately as possible and then the draft of the minutes was circulated to all who attended the meeting. All requested corrections were made. Then the final minutes were posted on the Municipal website by council staff.
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tony cooke, at 11:56 a.m.
Hi Tony. I think Douglas was objecting to my use of the phrase "crystal-ball scare tactics" to describe that part of Mr. Cogbill's comment. Now when I read it, I see that it was a bit inflammatory, but I totally stand by my analysis -- it looks like a scare tactic to me. The town has been growing relatively slowly for the past decade or two, and doesn't seem to be dying.
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Jeremy, at 9:47 p.m.
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