Agenda Index City of Vancouver

REPORT TO COUNCIL

COMMUNITY/INDUSTRY ADVISORY COMMITTEE
FOR THE REZONING, PERMITTING AND INSPECTION PROCESS

April 25, 2001

INFORMATION

· Sixth Report to Council

BACKGROUND

Together with our last Report to Council (the fifth), CIAC representatives appeared before Council's Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets on July 27, 2000 to voice our strong support for additional staff resources for the new process.

The two months prior to this fifth report to Council and our Council appearance in July had been a period of intense activity and involvement as members attended extra meetings to discuss and debate the points our advisory committee should be sending to Council. The result was a unanimous statement of strong support of the requested staff positions.

Three CIAC members from industry had attended a meeting of senior City Staff with their respective industry representatives - the Presidents or Chairs of the Urban Development Institute of BC (UDI), the Architectural Institute of BC and the BC Homebuilders Association. At this meeting, our CIAC industry members vigorously upheld the position that the new process merited their support. CIAC was subsequently gratified to see each of these industry representatives stand up before Council and express their support for DBR and for the staff positions being requested.

Mr. Brian Palmquist, representing UDI, tendered his resignation from CIAC to the Institute in August. We encourage Council to select his replacement from a list of nominees to be forwarded shortly to Council by staff.

In view of the intensity and frequency of our deliberations in June and July, CIAC did not meet in August but reconvened in September. Throughout this month we were updated on matters flowing from decisions taken in July - namely, staffing issues, hiring progress and GVRD job classification.

The strike at City Hall meant that no CIAC meetings were held during October and November, but once in December.

In the new year, CIAC members turned their main attention away from development approval processing at City Hall in order to focus on issues of community involvement and direct public input on site-specific projects and rezonings.

Staff briefed CIAC on the current status of Community Visioning and development application notification/renotification of interested parties within the subject area.

Members were briefed by City Plans Division on current demands throughout the City for policy development and priority setting. This presentation was invaluable in providing CIAC with insight into the demands being made on the Planning Department and the context within which resources might be allocated to services such as the Area Generalists desired to assist in informing processing staff of local policies and issues.

IMPLEMENTATION MANUAL

Development Services staff have been diligent in routinely informing CIAC of current initiatives in the work program of the Department. A project which caught our attention as a particularly worthy adjunct to the New Process, was the current compiling of an Implementation Manual for staff. It will describe how to proceed in the New Process and where to get required information.

What was of particular interest to the industry members of CIAC was the aim to integrate all the terms, uses and definitions in the Zoning and Development By-law and the Development By-law Policies and Guidelines with the corresponding terms in the Building By-law.

CIAC believes that this implementation manual will make an important contribution to the smooth operation of the New Process and suggests that not only should there be integration between the use terms in Zoning and Development By-law and the Building By-law, but also the various regulations. For example, the Building By-law calculates floor space differently because it has a different purpose - it is concerned with fire and safety, not development potential.

A primary goal of DBR was to avoid approvals by one City department that would not be allowed by another. This means that Processing Centre - Building will have to be involvedwhen required at the front end of development applications. This is beginning to happen, we are told, and is intended to expand to encompass all development applications. Now, Processing Centre - Development staff are also beginning to review building permit applications to ensure consistency with approved development permit applications.

An Implementation Manual that integrates and coordinates uses, terms and definitions between departments and by-laws is critical. CIAC believes further staff resources should be applied to create it.

CIAC WORK PLANS

In January 1999, nine work plans were identified as a framework for assignment of tasks to members. In January of this year, CIAC revisited the work plans and found that of the nine previously outlined in a Council Report, five can be considered completed (e.g., Space and Sites); or can be folded together under one heading; or are not under consideration for implementation at this time (e.g., Information Technology and CIAC website).

Given Council's commitment to further CityPlan Visions and Visioning implementation, we agree that the installation of Area Policy Advisors drawn from City Plans and Current Planning constitutes a good interim approach to Area Generalists and Sectoring. We believe that in the context of existing and future policy, the Area Policy Advisors, already listed, will provide a good geographic coverage of the City. This Work Plan will be set aside.

In summary CIAC concluded that its work plans would be reduced to three requiring further and on-going attention:

(a) Community Involvement/Area Policy;
(b) Measuring New Process Performance; and
(c) Regulatory and Policy Administration.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Over the next several months we will be addressing the elements of community involvement/public input which arose from a CIAC members' brainstorming session. Over 80 issues or points of discontent were raised and these have been folded into six general headings:

1. Lack of trust;
2. Lack of understanding of the Zoning and Development By-law and Land Use Policies and Guidelines;
3. Management of Change/Scale of Change;
4. Framework of Process;
5. Notification/Communication/Information; and
6. Stakeholders in the Community: how representative?

This first step into community involvement we call Defining the Problem. We anticipate that it will take several months and be concluded with specific recommendations for improving the process. In studying community involvement as one aspect of the development and building permit application review process, CIAC will identify regulations that it believes are out-moded, unpopular or controversial and describe the effects of these on communities and the development industry.

Respectfully submitted,

"T. Staniszkis" "J. Catliff"
Tom Staniszkis, Chair Joyce Catliff, Community Representative
Community/Industry Advisory Committee Community/Industry Advisory Committee

* * * * *

ag010515.htm

Comments or questions? You can send us email.
[City Homepage] [Get In Touch]

(c) 1998 City of Vancouver