City's sustainable plan revealed
By Mona Mattei
The sustainable community plan for the City of Grand Forks was unveiled last week in an open house where the consultants asked residents for input. The plan, in the works since 2007, is now at the stage of final approval by council. Before their final readings of the report, expected in August, city council met with locals about the details of the plan.
“In many ways the guiding principles of this plan have been the guiding principles of this council,” said Councillor Chris Moslin. “We’re already putting it in play. But it’s never been officially adopted. There had been reluctance because they felt some of the wording wasn’t going to be workable in terms of bylaw. So it was sent back and put on hold.”
The sustainable community plan will essentially become the official community plan for the city and will guide future decisions for development, and priorities for the council of the day. Earlier on Tuesday the consultants were at the Farmer’s Market talking with residents about the plan, and the second open house was held at council chambers in the evening of Jun. 21.
In 2007 a steering committee involving a wide range of community interests was struck to oversee the process for developing the plan. There were focus groups, public meetings, and workshops hosted all as a part of the consultation process led by Dan Huang with Urban Systems. The plan was funded through a gas tax grant of $93,000 from the province.
“It’s a plan developed by the community,” explained Ben Wasenius, a consultant with Urban Systems. “It’s called a sustainable community plan, but part two of the plan is the official community plan that the province requires all communities to have. The OCP feeds into all the other city policy and plans – it’s the broad overarching document.”
There are eight key areas of goals for the city: strengthen arts and culture; fortify sustainable economic development; ensure a healthy natural environment; promote constructive government-community relations; advance the community’s capacity for self-sufficiency; develop a sustainable land use plan; improve the social fabric of the community; and integrate health principles into all decisions.
“Based on community feedback we grouped ideas into these eight broad categories. We had an analogy of a sustainability stool” added Wasenius. “It’s a three-legged stool with social, environmental, and economic as the legs and then cultural as the seat. If one of the legs fails, then the stool falls over. It’s a multi-angle approach – you have to focus on each of these. Sustainability isn’t just about the environment, it’s economic, social, cultural. There’s a lot of detail in the full report.”
The process has already spanned two different councils’ terms and the current councillors are anxious to ensure the plan is in place before the elections in November. Public input on the directions in the plan is being welcomed through comment sheets available at city hall. The plan will be posted on the city’s website for anyone interested in reading the entire document after first reading passes on Monday, Jun. 27 at council.
“We need to confirm the direction that this plan is going from the public, and to give some guidance to council,” explained Huang. “It has to go through a public hearing process and that is expected on the 15th of August. So we’re looking for feedback from the public between now and the end of July.”
Attached: Panels that were displayed at the open house.
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| open_house_panels_8x11.pdf | 358.25 KB |