Council votes to discuss a Referendum
Your Association of Citizens for Summerland formally presented the signed Petition to Council at the September 25th meeting. Speakers at the meeting were Amie Harbor, Michael Cooke and Gordon Boothe. Here is the verbatem presentation by Amie Harbor, Association Director:
Thank-you for the opportunity to address Council on this important issue. The Association of Citizens’ Petition as circulated, read as follows: The District of Summerland owns approximately 300 acres of land which has been identified for use by the Summerland Hills Resort and Housing Development. I, the undersigned, request that Summerland Municipal Council present to the voters of Summerland, through full referendum, the opportunity to support or reject the sale of our publicly owned land for this development. A referendum to ascertain the wishes of the majority of residents should end the division within our community regarding this project.
We are here tonight to present to you 1386 petition signatures. These are your friends and neighbours. These are the people who elected you. This number represents 33% of active voters and more than double the number of signatures required to bring an Alternative Approval Process to a full Referendum. We have accomplished this in a short time, with little publicity, and using only volunteer commitments. Whereas little interest was shown in the dated 1996 OCP document, there is unprecedented public interest now. Nearly 1400 residents are asking you for the opportunity to vote on the sale of their land for this project.
Information, discussion and debate surrounding this Municipal land sale has been scarce. We found many residents to be unaware that the development involves so much public land. The developers have done a good job publicizing and promoting their project, so good in fact, that much of the community believes it to be a done deal already. Why do we need to depend on paid advertising or Letters to the Editor for information about this mega project? Our community deserves a balanced and factual account of the issues, including true costs and realistic projections of what it might take to see this proposal become a reality publicized by Municipal Hall itself. With this information in hand, residents could decide whether or not to be supportive.
A referendum or plebiscite will encourage discussion of the facts. What is the true value of this land? Why is this the best choice for our public land? Fourteen hundred residents are asking you for this information and the opportunity to vote.Our Association is asking you to value citizen involvement in your decision making process. This 300 acre parcel of land is owned by the taxpayers of Summerland and the monumental decision now faced by six Council members and Mayor will affect every single resident of our community, today and into the future. We are requesting that a Notice of Motion be tabled tonight, asking that “a referendum question on the Municipal land sale for resort and housing purposes be posed to the community.” The best decision you could make tonight is to give the residents of Summerland a voice on this issue.
Council voted to discuss the option of posing a referendum question on the Municipal land sale at the November 14th meeting.
Thank-you for the opportunity to address Council on this important issue. The Association of Citizens’ Petition as circulated, read as follows: The District of Summerland owns approximately 300 acres of land which has been identified for use by the Summerland Hills Resort and Housing Development. I, the undersigned, request that Summerland Municipal Council present to the voters of Summerland, through full referendum, the opportunity to support or reject the sale of our publicly owned land for this development. A referendum to ascertain the wishes of the majority of residents should end the division within our community regarding this project.
We are here tonight to present to you 1386 petition signatures. These are your friends and neighbours. These are the people who elected you. This number represents 33% of active voters and more than double the number of signatures required to bring an Alternative Approval Process to a full Referendum. We have accomplished this in a short time, with little publicity, and using only volunteer commitments. Whereas little interest was shown in the dated 1996 OCP document, there is unprecedented public interest now. Nearly 1400 residents are asking you for the opportunity to vote on the sale of their land for this project.
Information, discussion and debate surrounding this Municipal land sale has been scarce. We found many residents to be unaware that the development involves so much public land. The developers have done a good job publicizing and promoting their project, so good in fact, that much of the community believes it to be a done deal already. Why do we need to depend on paid advertising or Letters to the Editor for information about this mega project? Our community deserves a balanced and factual account of the issues, including true costs and realistic projections of what it might take to see this proposal become a reality publicized by Municipal Hall itself. With this information in hand, residents could decide whether or not to be supportive.
A referendum or plebiscite will encourage discussion of the facts. What is the true value of this land? Why is this the best choice for our public land? Fourteen hundred residents are asking you for this information and the opportunity to vote.Our Association is asking you to value citizen involvement in your decision making process. This 300 acre parcel of land is owned by the taxpayers of Summerland and the monumental decision now faced by six Council members and Mayor will affect every single resident of our community, today and into the future. We are requesting that a Notice of Motion be tabled tonight, asking that “a referendum question on the Municipal land sale for resort and housing purposes be posed to the community.” The best decision you could make tonight is to give the residents of Summerland a voice on this issue.
Council voted to discuss the option of posing a referendum question on the Municipal land sale at the November 14th meeting.
posted by Amie |
Permanent Link
3 Comments:
How can any Councillor vote against allowing everyone else to have a vote?
Someone quoted the cost of a referendum. Give me a break, don't treat us like idiots! Our 300 acres of land is probably worth around 100 million dollars, and we can't spend a few thousand to find out if the we owners want to sell?
By
tony cooke, at 9:04 a.m.
I have a question; a point you could clarify. The last two lines of Amies submission seem to ask that council not just officially accept the petition and consider the request for a referendum but that council, on that very evening, chose the wording for a referendum question, adopt the motion, give it first, second and third reading, take a vote and thereby make the final decision on having or not having a referendum. Is that correct?
Buzz Smith
By
Buzz Smith, at 1:44 p.m.
Hi Buzz,
Actually, the way I understand it, a "Notice of Motion" is when a Councillor gives notice that he or she would like to, or will be, making a Motion at a later date, where that Motion will then be discussed by the Council as a whole. "Notice of Motion" is letting your fellow Councillors know ahead of time about a Motion you plan to move. As I understand it, Motions do not require first, second, and third reading as Bylaws do, and can be moved and adopted the same night.
The Motion to pose a Referendum question on the Munson Mountain properties in Penticton was dealt with in this way. A Councillor gave Notice of Motion at one meeting, then at the next meeting, Moved that Council pose a Referendum question on said properties . During the interm two week period, I am assuming, that the exact wording was discussed. The Motion was adopted during the same meeting that the actual Motion was moved.
On Monday night during my presentation, I asked that a Councillor begin the process by giving "Notice of Motion" to proceed to Referendum. I actually can't remember the exact wording of the Motion that was passed, but their intention is to discuss the issue of a Referendum in a serious way at a later date. This is in addition to the Motion to simply "receive" the petition and "file it", so to speak. I am pleased with this, and hope it proceeds further at a future meeting. Thanks for the question.
By
Amie, at 11:59 p.m.
Post a Comment
<< Home