REPORT TO COUNCIL

Date:

January 13, 2004

Author:

Reena Lazar, Chair

Phone No.:

604.873.7477

RTS No.:

3904

CC File No.:

3107-2

Meeting Date:

February 26, 2004

 

 

 

 

TO:

Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM:

Vancouver City Planning Commission

SUBJECT:

Vancouver City Planning Commission: Request for Operating Budget 2004 and 2005

RECOMMENDATION:

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The City Manager would revise the VCPC recommendation A as follows:

On recommendation B, the City Manager recommends consideration of 2005 budget requests within the 2005 budget process.

COUNCIL POLICY

Approval of grants requires eight affirmative votes of Council.

PURPOSE

This report requests annual operating funds for the Vancouver City Planning Commission to support its planned operations for 2004 and 2005.

BACKGROUND

The Planning Commission is Vancouver's prime citizen advisory panel that advises Council on broad-based, long-range planning issues affecting the City.

Vancouver City Council and the Point Grey Municipal Council established the Commission in 1926. It played the key role in planning the City of Vancouver by retaining the services of Harland Bartholomew and Associates to prepare the first ever plan for the City of Vancouver. This was completed in 1929 and it became the "blueprint" for the design of the contemporary city. It continued to develop the City's planning process during the 1940s and 1950s. After the creation of the City's Planning Department in 1951, the Commission worked with the civic administration to monitor Vancouver's development and reviewed rezoning applications.

In the 1970s, new and expanded staff departments and agencies took over several activities of the Planning Commission. The VCPC renewed its mandate to engage in long-range planning issues and to prepare a set of goals for the City. "Goals for Vancouver" was first published in 1980 and updated in 1987. An updated report, "Vancouver's Future: Toward the Next Million", was completed in 1989.

In 1993 and 1998 Council confirmed the duties of the Commission to:

· represent ideas and opinions about the future of the city, as citizens of the City of Vancouver; and
· consider and report to Council on any proposal likely to have a significant effect on the future of the City.

In 2003, City Council re-affirmed the Commission's role as its prime advisor on matters relating to the long-range future of Vancouver.

Each year, through its meetings and public events, the Commission explores a wide range of long-term issues facing the City. In recent years the Commission has also organized large public events that highlight an important planning issue. These have included:

· 1997 Sustainability and Development of South East False Creek
· 1998 Proposed Transit System for the Broadway Corridor (International Panel)
· 1999 The Role of Urban Design in City Planning with architect Robert Glover (Director of the City of Toronto's Urban Design Department)
· 2000 Regional Governance public debate with Prof A. Sancton (London)
· 2001 Public Realm Planning and Great Streets featuring guest speaker Elizabeth MacDonald of Jacobs and MacDonald (Berkeley)
· 2002 Public Celebrations and Festivals featuring a series of events with Michel Labreque (Montreal)
· 2003 Public Forum on the Future of Housing; Public Realm design workshops; and co-sponsoring of the public lecture by Landscape Architect Herbert Dreiseitl (Germany)

The Planning Commission meets as a whole every second Wednesday at City Hall. These meetings are announced in CityWeek and are open to the public. City Staff from various departments often attend when the topics are of interest. VCPC Committees meet separately, at various times throughout the year, most frequently during evening hours.

The Commission has 16 members; 12 volunteer citizens, 1 representative each from the Vancouver School Board and the Park Board, and 2 City Councillors. The volunteers are appointed for two-year terms.

CURRENT FUNDING:

The Commission obtains its operating funds from the City as an "Other Grant" given annually. It is presented to Council in December of each year as an estimate and is finalized later in the following year with the submission of an annual report and a budget.

Since the early 1980s the budget amount for the Commission has been slightly less than $50,000 with occasional increases for inflation. This amount allows the Commission to hire a half-time support person and pay the direct operating costs of meetings held twice monthly. While the Commission also receives support from the Planning Department in the way of office space and routine office services, all other operating costs such as printing, field trips, research, seminars, conferences, publicity and communication must be paid from its grant. Likewise computer equipment, office furniture and other capital needs must be borne out of the Commission's operating grant.

With these operating costs, there is little available budget to undertake projects, sponsor public events or forums, or initiate significant public engagement beyond regular meetings and the occasional guest. Over the past few years Commission events have been funded by the use of special grants, sponsorships, and modest surpluses from past budgets. Past Councils advised the Commission to spend all surplus money in its account before asking for more. These funds are now all expended. The Commission plans to continue to seek grants from other funding sources, where appropriate, but these requests will be necessarily tied to specific projects and the success of project-specific fundraising is not always guaranteed.

DISCUSSION

The VCPC has spent the last 3 years reinventing itself to be more effective and proactive in advising Council. As a result of many hours of strategic planning processes and committee work, in addition to a workshop with Council, Commission members created a plan to make the VCPC a more effective body for generating discourse and innovation in Vancouver. The plan includes a number of steps to make the VCPC a more productive, citizen-to-citizen body for public engagement and a point of focus of innovation for long-range, "big-picture" planning issues.

The Planning Commission plans to continue to report to Council on any proposals likely to have a significant effect on the future of the City, and further, to make Council aware of planning issues that are not receiving sufficient attention.

The Commission is also committed to:

· Producing a minimum of two large public events bringing the interesting people to Vancouver to challenge and motivate the work of City staff, elected officials, and the general public;
· Carrying out smaller events and gatherings to engage the public on future and important planning issues;
· Encouraging innovation by being a focal point for citizen-led creativity (eventually the VCPC plans to create an award for urban creativity); and
· Creating a state-of-the-art website called "Alternative Futures", where good ideas, both new and current can be showcased, and the general public invited to interact with each other on topics affecting the future of their city.

Because of this Council's enthusiastic support and the hard work of current and past Commission members, there has been increased momentum and readiness for action on the part of the Commission. As part of the VCPC Committee action plans, there are several initiatives underway and planned to continue in 2004 that will need resources above and beyond the Commission's current budget in order to be successful. These include:

Guest Speaker Series: This initiative brings provocative thinkers to Vancouver to challenge and motivate us. Priorities for 2004 include:

· Architect Robert Quigley from San Diego, who has won design awards for his work on SRO's, a form of housing which is critically important to the revitalization of the Downtown Eastside. This speaker would compliment the work on the DTES now underway by Current Planning.

· Professor Brigitte Shim from the University of Toronto, who conducted an award-winning design project on infill housing, and alleyways in Toronto. Her work is complimentary and supportive of the green alleys work, and the housing design alternatives being considered in the City Plans Department, as well as the "thin streets" ideas under consideration by staff.

Neighbourhood Engagement: The Commission is looking for ways to improve the City's engagement with neighbourhoods, communities and citizens, paying particular attention to changing needs should the City amend its electoral system. In 2003 the Commission engaged two graduate student researchers to prepare a set of reports on citizen engagement that will help guide this work. Significant public involvement is planned for early 2004, including a series of "kitchen table" discussions with community groups across the City. It is intended that the findings from these discussions will inform one or more larger public events. After meeting with Commissioner Berger in December, 2003, the Planning Commission confirmed that work in this area will compliment and support the work being done by the Berger Commission on Electoral Reform.

Encouraging Innovation. The VCPC will continue to provide individuals and groups an opportunity to discuss their ideas in the civic arena. In 2004 the Commission is developing a website that will focus on housing alternatives in Vancouver. The Alternative Futures website will be a showcase of examples and opinions on current and new housing typologies both from here and elsewhere as a means for promoting choice and affordability of housing for Vancouver. The direct costs (rentals, web design, editing, photography etc.) have been funded separately with the City's contribution of $10,000 supplemented by funding from partner agencies for a further $17,000.

False Creek Flats: This Committee was a catalyst in moving forward the planning process for the largest, underdeveloped area of the City. In 2004 the Commission will work with staff on setting the direction for a review of current plans and designing the public consultation process, particularly with the surrounding neighbourhoods. The Commission also hopes to work with German Landscape Architect Herbert Dreiseitl if he is engaged to conduct a design workshop to explore creative ideas for reestablishing water as a feature in the Flats.

Public Realm Planning. The Commission intends to continue working with Central Area Planning on developing a public realm plan for the City of Vancouver. In 2003, a series of "round table" discussions with professionals in the design community generated ideas for the anticipated review of public realm planning study that is expected to begin in 2004.

To achieve the above plans the Commission needs direct expenses for each project area and more importantly, increased staff support. This amounts to an increase of the Commission's base budget by $60,000 to $110,000. The attached summary chart shows the financial history of the Commission and outlines the future project amounts that correspond to the work plan outlined above.

The Commission's overall budget has not changed significantly in 20 years. During the same time, the overall budget of the City has approximately tripled. The increase reflects both a growing population in Vancouver and an increased sophistication of the way the City engages with the public and addresses planning issues. These changes also need to be reflected in Vancouver's oldest and prime civic advisory body.

The Commission receives its budget as a grant, in a manner similar to cultural entities such as The Museum and Art Gallery, although the organizations are not analogous. The grant category was used to protect the Commission's independence from City staff. However, the Commission would prefer to be funded as a contract in a similar way to the Economic Development Commission. This approach would only be possible if the Commission were to establish itself as an independent society. This may or may not have advantages, and it will be considered in the future. With a contract, the Commission would also be better positioned to pursue fundraising from other sources that require matching funds.

Furthermore, the Commission's expanded activities over the last year and a half have only been feasible because the one part-time staff, the Commission Manager, has been willing to work about 50% more than he has been paid for. To achieve the above plans and sustain the level of activity of the last few years the Commission requests a budget to hire additional part-time staff as well as to cover the direct expenses for each project.

The attached summary chart shows the financial history of the Commission and outlines the future project amounts that correspond to the work plan outlined above.

What does this funding buy?

1) Base Case: $50,796

The Commission's base budget for 2004 of $50,796 (last year's budget plus 2% inflation) would allow:

· The VCPC to continue to meet twice monthly and pay for normal meeting expenses, lunches, printing, photocopying, publications, one conference, etc.
· Sufficient staff support to maintain a "normal" agenda, and one local field trip during the year
· Sufficient staff support to complete the Alternative Futures website as set out in the Commission's earlier funding request to Council.

There would be little or no support staff time available for any other committee work. This would result in a loss of momentum at a critically important time for the Commission. Likewise there would be no major public lectures or forums, nor any significant public consultation or engagement.

2) Base Case plus two public lectures/events at $21,300

A total funding level of approximately $72,000 allows "normal" Commission operations for the year plus two major public events. This includes the direct costs of hosting the events including speakers' fees, travel, hall rental, printing, publicity etc, and also extra staff support time to organize the events.

3) Neighbourhood Engagement Expenses; $19,800

This includes increased staff support time and direct expenses for this special committee that is considering ways to better engage the citizens of Vancouver's neighbourhoods. This work is particularly timed to integrate with the Civic Electoral Reform Commission.

4) False Creek Flats $18,100

With this additional budget, the Planning Commission would take an expanded role in the community consultation process to support the redevelopment planning for the False Creek Flats. The budget would include increased staff support time and direct expenses for engaging the impacted communities.

Total of all budget requests is $110,000

CONCLUSION

The Vancouver City Planning Commission provides a unique role in engaging the City and its citizens about long-range planning issues affecting Vancouver. Furthermore, the volunteer Commission members' work aides and compliments work of many departments at City Hall.

Because of the Commission's increased capacity, enthusiasm, and commitment, it is at a critical time in its history. Approving the recommendations in this report will enable the Commission to capitalize on its work over the last three years reinventing itself to become an innovative, proactive, and very effective citizens' advisory board to Council.

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