BY LORNE ECKERSLEY
Advance staff
An unexpected delay nearly three years ago led to unforeseen benefits in the creation of a new Official Community Plan, according to many participants.
With the new OCP being adopted at a Special Town Council meeting held in the Community Complex on May 30, members of Council and others were unanimous in expressing their pleasure at the level of public engagement, and in the final product.
When the process began a dozen years after the last OCP was created, a contract planner was hired to facilitate what was anticipated to be a year-long OCP process. A public advisory committee was appointed and meetings were held. Then, unexpectedly, the contract planner resigned.
“We had a setback, no doubt about it,” Mayor Ron Toyota said last week. “But the end result is something none of us envisioned at the start. It has worked out for the better.”
It took nearly a year to restart but in addition to an experienced team of professional advisors, Kootenay Employment Services was contracted to create and lead a public engagement process.
The Advance invited some of the key participants to comment.
Mayor Ron Toyota
The process was lengthy, almost 2 years during my watch and almost $200,000 from our “Gas Tax fund” allocation, which is not taxation dollars from property owners.
Our previous OCP review was 15 years ago, so the implementation was also lengthy and our Town Manager with her Development and Planning background was instrumental in moving this forward in a timely fashion. Our town staff provided major support directly and indirectly for many months. The indirect is for all staff taking on extra duties and tasks when the key members took on extra hours to elevate this process and get significant public input. Over 8,400 tickets were in the final draw and each ticket represented an individual’s input. Now that we have adopted this on May 30, we will get back to our regular tasks and special projects as some have had to be slightly delayed.
As I have mentioned several times, my style is to resolve a situation with action BUT this review meant involving the public in a very meaningful way and our local KES staff did just that. They created a genuine desire by local citizens to get involved and this was a much appreciated and great success.
The 145 page document is a most interesting read and every community citizen will relate to many of the Land Use Policies.
The title page – “Freshly Picked Future” says it all. On page 3 – the Acknowledgements are right on. On page 7 — “Creston has a vision….” Sums it all and makes a very powerful statement.
Couns. Jim Elford
It was an honour to be able to contribute in a small way to Creston’s new Official Community Plan. A complete list of the people responsible for the plan is listed in the front of the document but I would like to salute some of the responsible parties.
The staff at Kootenay Employment Society, mainly Laura Francis and Marsha Neufeld set a new standard in public engagement. Over 8,400 people had an opportunity to provide input into the plan. Never before has the public had such an opportunity to fashion a policy document. I feel confident that the plan speaks to the wishes of our community.
The twelve members of the Official Community Plan Advisory Committee added insight to the information provided by the public engagement.
Allison Mewett and Will Marsh offered sage advice based on their experience in urban planning.
Lastly, a thank you to our Town staff, headed by Lou Varella, Ross Beddoes and Helene Miles who along with KES moulded the public comments into a readable, workable document.
The public clearly stated that Creston should be an inclusive community of walkable, connected neighbourhoods with a Pedestrian Friendly Downtown. Trails were listed as a priority.
Although, primarily a land use document, the Official Community Plan provides insight into how we see our Town and our Valley.
There is still some work to be done to align bylaws with the Official Plan but Council has been at work for some time in making downtown more pedestrian friendly. There have been over 50 meetings with Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and the plan for Market Park is in place.
Creston should be proud of our Plan, the public engagement and input and we look forward to working with that vision for some years to come.
Rita Scott, OCP Advisory Committee
I saw the notice in the Advance that the Town Council wanted an advisory committee to work on the Official Community Plan. Being a nosy sort and not wanting to be left out of such an important process I sent in my application. Don’t know if there was a huge turnout and I should be so lucky to be chosen or there were the bare minimum and I slid in without too much to worry about. Nevertheless the process began.
At first we were in the hands of a Vancouver consulting firm and it was obvious from the sotto voce comments amongst folks that it seemed a bit out of whack that we were being led by outsiders. Then everything changed and a long slow delay happened. When action began again, KES and in particular, Laura Hannant (as she then was) took us in hand and the whole process came to life. We had a theme, a slogan, a button, a colour scheme, and most of all a real plan to move from thinking to doing.
Laura and her colleague Marsha, got working on a scheme to not only bring this OCP to the attention of the members of the community of Creston and environs but also to actually find a way to hear people’s voices and make sure that they were listened to and recorded. Then acted upon. And the advisory committee had real work to do. We relished it and threw ourselves into the process willingly. We attended the kitchen table talks, group meetings, the public events. We wore our buttons and we talked it up with our neighbours and friends. The responses came in and were collated and inventoried so that the significant questions that had been designed by Laura and her team were being answered. The committee vetted the work and offered the unique perspectives that locals really wanted to bring to the Town for consideration.
The real work, the design and planning, the engagement process, the collating, the writing and wordsmithing and the final reporting was the work of KES and particularly Laura (now Francis) and Marsha who was her most able assistant. It was communicated to the public on panel boards around the rooms we met in, in joyful colour and with great graphics. Really professional and very eye catching. The essence of the work was easy to follow on those boards around the room as people came into the public sessions to see what was going on. A lot was going on. What the community has wanted has been recorded and acted on. People were able to provide their input on survey forms at public events or in group meetings or kitchen table talks but also online. The response and the input was truly massive.
And now it is done and Town Council has passed it. It is happening and we should all be proud of what Creston has done. Other communities are wanting to use this model not only for an OCP but for anything that requires really thorough public engagment.
Well done, us!
To be continued next week.