Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Vancouver City Council

FROM:

Director of Legal Services

SUBJECT:

Proposed Amendments to Vancouver Charter

 

RECOMMENDATION

CITY MANAGER’S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

There is no specific policy relating to the recommendation.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this Report is to secure Council's endorsement of various requests for amendments to the Vancouver Charter so that the City Manager and the Director of Legal Services can pursue the matter further with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

BACKGROUND

Each year the Province invites the City, through its Director of Legal Services, to propose amendments to the Vancouver Charter. Although the invitation was received very late this year (September 9, 1999) and a reply was required the same day, the Director of Legal Services had fortunately already canvassed the departments of the City for proposals for amendments this year. Because the reply to the Ministry had to be forwarded before Council met this fall, Council approval is now required for these proposals so that they can be officially considered by the Province.

DISCUSSION

Staff at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs received the preliminary list from the Director of Legal Services on September 9, 1999 and presumably Provincial staff are conducting their first-step analysis.

As Council is aware, none of the 1998 "new requests" and only two of the 1997 requests (business license terminations and regulation of hours of operation of business premises), in addition to the new provisions for Show-Cause Hearings, have been implemented by the Province. However it is presumed that Council wishes to continue its pursuit of these requests for the next legislative session.

Appendix A contains two new requests as proposed by the General Manager of Community Services and the City Engineer. An additional request was also received from the General Manager of Community Services to amend the Charter to allow the creation of new district schedules under the zoning powers without actually zoning any land into the category. The Director of Legal Services has fundamental concerns about this item and recommends that Council not proceed with this request until there has been further discussion concerning our ability to achieve this amendment. Accordingly, this item is not included in Appendix A. The Province has been advised that this issue has been advanced as a desire by the City but that as we have not had the opportunity for legal review and discussion it may not be confirmed.

Appendix B contains the three of the four 1998 requests and 16 of the 18 proposals of 1997. The deleted requests concern the proposal to change the reference to specific officer positions in the Charter to more generic descriptions (deleted at the request of the General Manager of Community Services) and the 1997 proposals which have now been implemented. Otherwise, all of the proposals have been readvanced.

CONCLUSION

The requests set out in Appendix A to this Report have been received since the last request for amendments to the Vancouver Charter. Should Council agree with the nature of the requests, they should now be approved to form a part of the City’s official request to the Province.

The proposals set out in Appendix B to this Report, which formed a part of previous requests to the Province, can now be reconfirmed by Council.

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APPENDIX A

New Amendment Requests

1. The General Manager of Community Services has requested a Charter amendment to provide for discretion in the approval of signs (S. 571A) so that officials could refuse a request for a sign "for reasons of sign quality and design". Approvals of signs would be on a similar basis as the discretionary powers relating to developments in the Charter and would include the power to impose conditions.

2. The City Engineer has requested a Charter amendment to the Development Cost Levy provisions (S. 523D et seq.) so that the "capital project" definition which currently refers to "constructing, altering, expanding or replacing ... highway facilities" would be broadened to include items like transit facilities, greenways and bikeways .

APPENDIX B

Amendment requests previously considered by Council

1. An amendment to eliminate the limitation in section 338(b) of the Charter that fees paid to the Vancouver Athletic Commission by persons conducting specified exhibitions not exceed $.05 per seat, to bring the authority into line with S. 617 of the Municipal Act.

2. An amendment to authorize the confiscation of instruments, props or other busking paraphernalia from persons who contravene the by-law. Note: The Province has previously expressed serious concern about this proposal and has requested a much more thorough analysis.

3. An amendment to provide a provision similar to section 262(2) of the Municipal Act to protect Vancouver's borrowing by-law and its debentures from legal action to quash or set aside the by-law.

4. An amendment to consolidate the several powers contained in the 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.

5. An amendment to the Charter 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 amendment should also provide that the City can recover the costs of boarding up from the occupant.

6. 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.

7. Amendments to Sections 401 and 401A and possibly 373 to provide that the Rating By-law can be applied to the authenticated roll as altered by supplementary rolls received prior to a designated date (probably May 1).

8. An amendment to Section 324 to permit City pound staff to seize, impound and detain unlicensed dogs on private property.

9. An amendment to the Zoning provisions of the Charter to 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.

10. An amendment to the Charter to authorize the recovery (via insertion in the tax roll) from property owners of the costs resulting from a hazardous materials incident.

11. An amendment to permit the City to designate persons other than police officers to direct traffic at the site of emergencies.

12. An amendment to authorize the City to regulate the burning of any materials.

13. Amendment to clarify and better define the responsibilities of the Fire Department.

14. An amendment to Part XXIV-A to allow Council to exempt from the requirement of a Development Cost Levy a permit for the construction of a building used to promote the marketing of a development, provided that it is situated on a site for no more than 2 years.

15. An amendment to enable the City to charge abutting property owners for the costs of cleaning up a lane.

16. An amendment to enable the City to impose fees for an amendment to a Zoning By-law which vary depending on the cost of processing the application and other bases.

17. An amendment to enable the City to apply standards of maintenance to an owner-occupied suite.

18. An amendment to expand the scope of possible investments to mirror those contained in the Financial Administration Act.

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