Councillor Questions Who Is In Charge Of Consultation Process
If you thought that the public consultations, scheduled for October 19th, for the proposed River Pointe Park development are going ahead well think again.
During their regular Monday evening meeting Council learnt the planned and advertised public consultation for the proposed changes to the Official Community Plan (OCP) will not be taking place on October 19th.
Council also learnt the required consultation will not be happening at that time at the request of the developer.
The news came much to the chagrin of Councillor Brian Swanson.
“We are still working on a number of the reports and so we believe that it should be postponed until we get all of the information in. It is a very sensitive issue we want to insure that there is ample opportunity for everybody (to contribute),” city manager Jim Puffalt said.
Questioned further by Councillor Swanson if the developer - Charles Vanden Broek - had requested the postponement Councillor Swanson asked who was calling the shots about the public consultations.
“I will make this a question, given the proponent worked with City Administration for 18 months without the knowledge of Council, the request was made six months ago, it came to the last Council meeting and there was a motion passed to take that to the community consultation process for October 19th why would we not keep to that schedule?” Councillor Swanson asked after finding out the developer had asked for the date change.
“It just makes me wonder and this is a question, who calls the shots?” Councillor Swanson asked. “The public has been engaged with this issue. There are efforts being made by Wakamow to make presentations that was the date agreed to and I don’t understand why can’t we adhere to that date?”
He felt the issue would not require reports to be presented by the developer because it was a question of changing the Official Community Plan to allow development in the Moose Jaw River valley and not the actual approval of the development itself.
“I don’t see what reports would be required to address that basic issue,” Councillor Swanson said.
City Clerk/Solicitor Myron Gulka-Teichko then asked to clarify the timing of the consultation and to state that no clear date had been agreed to for the public consultations to take place.
“Council did pass the motion to initiate the consultation,” Gulka-Teichko said adding they had not agreed upon what date to hold the actual consultations.
It needs to be noted that the City Clerk’s office did publish a legal public notice requesting pubic submissions to amend the Official Community Plan in the September 30, 2020 edition of the Moose Jaw Express.
The legal notice stated the consultations by way of the submissions from the public were to be considered at the October 19th regular meeting of Moose Jaw City Council. (See advertisement below.)
Legal public notice published in the September 30, 2020 Moose Jaw Express
Councillor Swanson replied he found it “extremely bothersome” the consultations did not go ahead on the date planned.
River Pointe Park is a proposed development to be located at 1155 7th Avenue SW and up until recently was the site of a former nursery.
In order for the proposed development to proceed Council must amend the Official Community Plan (OCP). At their September 21st meeting Council was asked by local developer Charles Vanden Broek to ammend the OCP to allow the development of 25.68 acres for upscale housing which proposes 29 single family units and 81 multi-family units in an area presently zoned as Long Term Community Service/Parks/River Valley Conservation.
The proposal has been controversial since it became public with the Wakamow Valley Authority coming out in opposition.
Additionally there is an on-line petition as well as a private Facebook group in opposition to the proposal.
It is now unknown when the consultations will take place but Council did not cancel the call for residents to submit their opinion - whether for or against the proposed changes to the OCP.