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ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: October 28, 1996
TO: Vancouver City Council
FROM: City Manager
SUBJECT: Status of Proposed Charter Amendments
RECOMMENDATION
A. THAT the City Manager and the Director of Legal Services be
instructed to request and pursue passage of the Charter
amendments attached hereto as Appendices "A" and "B".
B. THAT the Mayor be requested to continue communication with
the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, stressing the
importance of the Charter amendments requested and outstanding
at this time, and asking that the Minister support the
advancement of these critical amendments to the Provincial
Legislature for enactment during the Spring 1997 legislative
session.
COUNCIL POLICY
There is no specific policy relating to the foregoing recommendations,
although Council has considered the subject matter of many of the
suggested amendments.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to advise Council of the status of the
City's outstanding requests for amendments to the Charter, and to
recommend that such amendments be pursued at the staff level, and
through continued communication between the Mayor and the Minister of
Municipal Affairs and Housing.
BACKGROUND
On September 12, 1995, Council approved the submission to the Ministry
of Municipal Affairs, for advancement to the 1996 legislative session,
of a number of amendments to the Vancouver Charter (see Appendix "A",
attached).
With the exception of the amendment to the Development Cost Levy
sections of the Charter (referred to in paragraph 2 of Appendix "A"),
the amendments sought by the City were all deferred by Ministry staff
for further review. The City was advised that the opportunities for the
Ministry of Municipal Affairs and other ministries to pursue any
legislative amendments for 1996 would be very limited, as legislative
priorities had already been set.
DISCUSSION
In early August 1996, the Mayor wrote on behalf of Council to the
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, expressing concern at the
delays in putting forward Charter amendments, particularly those needed
to establish the Sewer and Solid Waste Utilities.
Toward the end of August 1996, Ministry staff contacted the City to
advise that there would be no formal call for proposed amendments this
year, because the legislative agenda was expected to be kept very short.
It was not anticipated that many outstanding or newly requested
amendments would be put forward.
The Ministry, nonetheless, confirmed with City staff that the previously
requested amendments were still wanted. As far as we have been able to
determine, priority will continue to be given to the provisions relating
to the sewer and scavenging utilities, and to amendments to Section
310(e) of the Charter, to facilitate the City entering into emergency
dispatch agreements with Regional Districts. City staff has also
requested priority for the provisions needed to allow police or other
designated persons to enter buildings where fire or safety hazards
exist, or where alarms are causing public disturbance.
The most recent communication from the Ministry staff indicates that the
Ministry has included in its legislative proposals for 1997 the sewer
and scavenging provisions and the amendments to Section 310(e).
Nonetheless, it has been emphasized that the Spring 1997 legislative
session will have a "minimal and focused" legislative agenda, and that
there are no guarantees that the requested amendments will be included
on it. However, the Province s legislative agenda is not yet set, and
it is not clear at this time when decisions as to the scope of the
legislative agenda will be determined. We are advised that no final
decision has as yet been made.
The Minister's October 2, 1996 letter to the Mayor and Council confirmed
that Ministry staff will continue to work with the City to further
review and develop a rationale for needed amendments, and that our
concerns with delays in putting forward amendments have been noted.
CONCLUSIONS
The recommendations enable the City Manager to expedite the obtaining of
important Charter amendments, to the extent possible and emphasize that
it is critical that these amendments be brought forward for passage in a
timely manner.
* * *
APPENDIX "A"
Amendments sought by the City in 1995, in order of its corporate
priorities
1. Amendments to the Sewers and Scavenging provisions of the Charter
which would enable these services to be charged out as a utility
based on use. It is proposed that the Capital Cost of the
utilities be included in the fee for service, and this will require
a minor amendment to the borrowing and debenture sections of the
Charter, providing that the cost of borrowing for these utilities
would be paid for out of the fee for service, rather than out of
the general levy. What is contemplated is that we would provide
these services on a basis similar to the basis on which water is
presently provided. A related amendment would be made to the water
utilities section to make all utility powers consistent.
2. An amendment to the Development Cost Levy sections of the Vancouver
Charter to provide that the City may include, within the cost of a
capital Project, the value of any land the City contributes to the
project. This amendment was requested in 1995. The request
arises out of our proposal to implement the "Arbutus Neighbourhood
Plan". The plan contemplates a park. The preferred location for
the park is a City owned piece of land presently used as a works
yard. What would be desired would be to devote the land to the
project, recover its value through DCL's, and use it to purchase
other land. We anticipate there will, in the future, be other
capital projects which could be maximized by a contribution of City
land. (As noted, this amendment was obtained in 1995.)
3. An amendment to the Planning and Zoning provisions in the Charter
(566(5)) which would permit Council, after a public hearing, to
enact a Zoning By-law which would not come into force or take
effect until a date upon which the City Clerk filed with Council a
certificate, certifying that the conditions Council imposed, to be
fulfilled prior to the creation of the development rights, had been
fulfilled. The basis of the request is the length of time and the
costs incurred by a developer of a "mega project", between the date
of the public hearing and the date of enactment. A developer is
subject to potentially heavy losses should an election intervene
and the by-law not be enacted on the conditions approved at the
public hearing. On the other side of the coin, the drain on City
manpower attempting to complete negotiations and documentation
necessitated by the conditions is such that there comes a point at
which a moratorium has to be put on applications for major
rezonings. Perhaps an existing example will illustrate the
problem. Prior to the 1996 election an attempt will be made to
enact five major rezonings as part of the "Coal Harbour" and
"Concord" mega projects. In order to do this, hundreds of
agreements will
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have to be negotiated and drafted and the developers will have to
expend large sums of money. The resulting workload exhausts the
capacity of the City to deal with these types of rezonings until
November 1996. Should there be a significant change on Council
there is the potential for work having been done for nothing and
expenses incurred lost. (This is a new proposal, to improve
processing major rezoning applications.)
4. An amendment to section 206C to make the qualifying period of
service for a pension by members of Council compatible with the
vesting period prescribed in the Pensions (Municipal) Act. (This
is to implement Compensation Task Force recommendation.)
5. An amendment to provide that Council may by by-law designate an
employee or employees or police officers and bestow upon them the
power to order premises immediately vacated where there is a danger
to the life or safety of any persons. (To enable effective action
against illegal and unsafe gatherings i.e., rave parties.)
6. An amendment to consolidate the several powers contained in the
Vancouver Charter giving various City officials a power to enter
premises, and to extend this power to clarify that it applies to
entry to provide emergency services and to turn off security or
other alarms that have sounded to the disturbance of a
neighbourhood for more than a designated time. (This will permit a
more effective response to safety and quality of neighbourhood
issues.)
7. An amendment to provide that Council may by by-law designate an
employee or employees and bestow upon them the power to board up
premises where entry was obtained by forced entry in an emergency;
or where the premises have been left vacant and are being occupied
or are easily capable of being occupied without permission of the
owner. The amendments to provide that the City can recover the
costs of boarding up from the occupant. (This will permit an
immediate response to premises left vulnerable by fire, break-in
and secure unacceptable vacant/abandoned buildings.)
8. Amendments to section 401 and 401A and possibly 373 to provide that
the rating by-law can be applied to authenticated roll as altered
by supplementary rolls received prior to a designated date
(probably May 1). This would eliminate the need to prepare
separate notices for those properties included within the
supplementary rolls.
(To provide administrative efficiencies.)
APPENDIX "B"
Amendments sought by the City in late 1995 and in 1996
1. Amendments to Section 310(e) of the Charter, permitting the City to
enter into Emergency Dispatch agreements with Regional Districts.
2. An amendment to Section 273 of the Charter, to provide that
licenses terminate on the anniversary date of their issuance
(rather than December 31).
This amendment would smooth out the workload in the Permits and
Licenses Department, reduce the time required to issue licenses and
facilitate the monitoring of licenses in use.
3. An amendment to Section 324 of the Charter to permit City pound
staff to seize, impound and detain unlicensed dogs on private
property.
This amendment is required because a number of persons deliberately
ignore the by-law, knowing that the inability of City staff to
enter on property and determine ownership makes enforcement
difficult.