HIGHLIGHTS: The wildlife attractants bylaw passes. This means you can’t leave garbage outside. The city can clean it up and charge you for it if you put the garbage out at the wrong time. Also if you don’t collect fallen fruit in your yard.

This post is a live blog for the Monday, June 13 council meeting. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

For background to the meeting, see this post.

A live blog is a post that is updated as the meeting happens, giving people the latest decisions by council as they happen. Reload this page throughout the night to see what’s new.

6:55 p.m.

The public hearing for the proposed subdivision for 410 Anderson St. is still underway. The owner would like to divide the property in two.

7:14 p.m.

Council finished discussing some matters in camera and now they’ve opened up chambers for the regular meeting.

They’ve got the Canucks game up on one of the computers and just before we left, got an update. Grim. Very grim.

From council we have councillors Bob Adams, Donna Macdonald, Kim Charlesworth, Robin Cherbo, Marg Stacey, Deb Kozak and Mayor John Dooley.

The mayor calls the meeting to order. He says it’s July 13 and then corrects himself. If only, he says, noting it’s still raining.

6a) Support local hiring for Anderson Street Project?

Dooley asks if the city sent a copy of their own purchasing policy (which favours locals).

No, staff say.

Dooley suggests they should send a letter based on the city’s policy.

Cherbo says the intent is hire local.

Stacey says given the province and country has signed trade agreements like TILMA and NAFTA, she wonders if that opens them up to any kind of liability.

We’re not ordering them, we’re encouraging them, says Cherbo.

Kevin Cormack, city manager, says Culos is acting as the contract manager and some of the sub-contracts will fall under TILMA, which is an agreement between B.C. and Alberta.

Council approves the suggestion that the city encourage the Anderson Street Project builder hire locally when possible.

6b) Police budget process

They refer it back to staff with no discussion on why they would do that. Curious.

6c) Municipal partnership with Kaoma, Zambia

Council is encouraging about this process.

Coun. Donna Macdonald notes it will be a several-year process to form this partnership as Kaoma is a rural region and things are done person to person.

Certainly it won’t be an onerous workload, says Macdonald.

The process to start a partnership with Kaoma is approved.

6d) Beer garden at Lakeside Rotary Park for B.C. Seniors Games

The organizers for the B.C. Seniors Games want to hold a beer garden at Lakeside Rotary Park during their dragon boat race in August.

The beer garden would go from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dooley mischievously asks if that’s 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., which would be a whole other kettle of fish.

Coun. Cherbo says he’s opposed to this. He says it invites people to drink and drive.

Without them providing any kind of shuttle service to town, they’re encouraging drinking and driving, says Cherbo.

7:27 p.m.

Dooley says it would be prudent to get a letter from the B.C. Seniors Games protecting the organizers and the City of Nelson from any liability.

Cormack says they’re treating this as a special event which includes the city getting legal assurances. They’ll also have conservations around the possible need for extra policing or shuttling to get people to and from the beer garden.

Coun. Kim Charlesworth asks about clean up costs. Who picks that up? Cormack says it’s a conservation they’ll have.

Coun. Donna Macdonald says she was surprised the city doesn’t have a policy around beer gardens in the park. She thought they didn’t have them because past beer gardens had got out of hand.

“That’s right,” says Cherbo.

Macdonald says they’re setting a precedent by approving this and the city should have a policy around beer gardens if they’re going to approve them.

I agree with the camaraderie and fellowship, says Macdonald, “I just don’t think you need to do that over beer. Ice tea would be fine.”

Coun. Bob Adams says it appears to him this would be only open to participants, not the general public.

A representative from the organizers says the dragon boat racing is the biggest in the games. She also says dragon boat racers are not “rowdies.”

Coun. Deb Kozak says it’s worth noting this is the B.C. Seniors Games but she agrees there is a need for a policy.

Cherbo says he seems to recall there was a policy or a bylaw around alcohol in parks. Frances Long, manager of administrative and legislative services, says she couldn’t find one.

Council approves the beer garden with Cherbo opposed.

Macdonald then moves staff prepare a policy on alcohol consumption for special events in parks.

In the meantime, staff will bring any requests for beer gardens to council, says Cormack.

Council agrees this beer garden will be a pilot.

(I don’t know that having an event attended by seniors will be a good pilot for events attended by typical beer garden enthusiasts.)

8a) Rezoning 410 Anderson St.

7:38 p.m.

Staff recommend council approve the subdivision of the property at 410 Anderson St. from “Single and Two Family Residential” to “Low Density Residential.”

Macdonald says the neighbours concerned about traffic and parking in the area had legitimate concerns but she doesn’t think the rezone will affect those problems.

There will be some offstreet parking in the area soon, she says.

Macdonald also says it would nice if people walked to school instead of driving. I don’t think it’s fair to hold this project up on those accounts, says Macdonald.

Coun. Charlesworth agrees. She suggests working with the school board to address traffic issues.

She says people were also concerned with densification but she says we don’t have a choice if they’re going to keep people out of Nelson or not.

The best way for us to tackle how we want our city to grow is to hold processes like the Downtown/Waterfront Master Plan.

Cherbo is opposed for the increased traffic on the road. The lot provides some green space to the city. The lot is narrow and he doesn’t feel it will accomodate green space.

Kozak notes the property has some covenants to deal with trees and green space. Wahn says the green space will be maintained between the property at 410 Anderson and the property at the rear but not between the school.

Adams notes the owner could have built a two-family unit on the property without coming to council and the plans for the property isn’t going to change anything in that regards.

The rezoning is approved.

8b) Nelson Cemetery land use amendment

The Nelson Disc Golf Society would like to put a disc golf course on some lands part of the Nelson Cemetery. The course would be in a heavily wooded area, not within the cemetery.

Cormack notes they’re cleaning up the bylaw and leaving things open to approve the disc golf use if they want to.

Stacey wants to know if they’re breaking up Nelson Cemetery lands into useable and unusable. That’s not the case, says Cormack.

There’s some confusion about just what the bylaw before them deals with. Some of the descriptions of property land outside city limits.

They’re tabling this item while Wahn goes to get a map to help explain matters.

They move on to . . .

8c) Wildlife attractant bylaw

This bylaw is meant to reduce the amount of waste that could be available to wildlife by including times garbage can be put out, among other things. This story for the details.

Cherbo says he’s sure everyone is aware we have problems with bears this spring. Obviously we need to discourage them as much as possible.

Kozak agrees with Cherbo and says this bylaw amendment is about more than bears, but includes attracting deer, skunks and racoons.

She’d like future amendments around things like compost and pet food.

Macdonald has questions. Does every homeowner need a wildlife resistant container? Yes, if you want to store your garbage outside, says Cormack.

“There’s no such thing [as wildlife resistant,” says Macdonald. Several council members and staff disagree.

Macdonald asks if enforcement of this would fall under adjudication. It can be, says Long.

Adams says if they pass this bylaw, does everyone in Fairview have to keep their garbage inside? People in Fairview aren’t going to understand that, says Adams.

We should be telling people that’s the way it’s going to be. Anyone with a back alley won’t think this applies to them, says Adams.

“That’s why we have bears in the community,” says Charlesworth.

“I think it’s going to be almost impossible to enforce,” says Adams. “It’s a process,” says Cormack.

Stacey says bears are attracted to compost and the recycling containers (like for juice). She’d like to find a partner in composting to find bins cheap to encourage composting.

Joanne Siderius, from Bear Aware, says compost can be done properly to not attract bears.

Dooley says this bylaw is pretty broad in scope and he says the enforcement is going to be challenging. He asks Siderius what the impact of these bylaws has been.

Siderius says a similar bylaw in Kaslo seems to have made a difference. Nobody is saying there won’t be bears again. We live in bear country, she says.

Dooley says he keeps coming back to the enforcement issue. Look at the pesticide bylaw, we did that four years ago but we haven’t been enforcing it, he says.

Charlesworth says this bylaw is a positive move in the right direction. “Change is hard for all of us,” she says. “We had problems with bears in town and these are measures that have been shown to have an impact.”

She anticipates this will be an education year and they can consider enforcement next year.

Charlesworth says, in response to Kozak’s earlier comment, that pet food is considered a wildlife attractant and is therefore included in this bylaw.

The bylaw gets its first three readings.

8b) Nelson cemetery and disc golf

Wahn is back with maps to talk about the lands in question.

The reason this is tricky is the City of Nelson owns some land that was meant for the cemetery, but that land is outside the city limits, so they don’t really get to pass bylaws governing that land.

There’s tremendous confusion about just what piece of land is what. Stacey is worried at one point they’ve been burying people in the wrong piece of land for years.

That’s not the case.

Cherbo asks why they couldn’t do a legal description to remove the land the disc golf society wants to use to include sports.

Wahn says they could add a “meets and bounds” clause in there to prohibit use of lands within 30 metres of the cemetery.

Cherbo says he’s worried they’re opening up the door for a future council to allow a game or a sport in the cemetery.

(What kind of councils does he expect to be elected in the future?)

I worry this is going to open up a Pandora’s Box if we pass this, says Cherbo.

Cherbo moves they refer this back to staff to look into the “meets and bounds.”

Dooley says this is clouding the whole issue and lumping things together. He would prefer to clean up their own house in terms of the bylaws around the cemetery and then they’ll address the question of disc golf.

If this goes back to staff, chances are it won’t get worked on for a while as staff have other priorities, set by council.

First, they defeat Cherbo’s referral motion.

Now they give a first and second reading to the bylaw and the remove any reference to the sports in the third reading.

That passes.

So, this issue will come before council once again with the bylaw adjusted to remove any reference to sports and they’ll clean up the land-use issues then.

Just what that means for the future of disc golf is entirely unclear. The representative from the society leaves, looking a little disappointed.

8:28 p.m.

8d) Bylaw adjudication

The bylaw is approved.

9a) Idle Free Vehicle Policy

8:30 p.m.

Adams asks for clarification that this is meant for city-owned vehicles right now. That’s right, says Cormack.

Cherbo says his pet peeve is delivery vehicles that sit on the street and idle. He’d like a letter sent out to those businesses.

Dooley says this policy is about the city getting their own house in order. A community policy could come in the future.

9b) 2011 Council Priorities

8:32 p.m.

Much discussion about the priorities and just who is tracking all this. They add public transit to the priorities.

Whoa. I just realized there’s somebody sitting in the chief financial officer’s chair, a chair and a position that’s been empty for months. His name is Colin, I think. Coun. Charlesworth referred to him as their new chief financial officer, but there was no announcement or anything from the city about them hiring someone to replace the former financial officer who left over the winter.

The other media person at the table hadn’t noticed him either and hadn’t heard about any new hire.

Where did he come from?

10a) Info: correspondence and 10b) Info: commission reports

Both received.

10c) Works in progress

9 p.m.

Councillors are now asking for clarification on various projects staff are working on.

11a) Disaster aid policy

9:03 p.m.

Coun. Marg Stacey wants to see formal policy around how the City of Nelson gives aid like the $10,000 given to Japan. However, this policy could quickly spiral beyond just money. Stacey notes the police gives aid to police services that need help elsewhere and city staff have gone to help in other countries.

Dooley notes the key piece is where does this fit in council’s priorities as discussed earlier.

Cormack says it can be added to the line for later discussion in the fall when they revisit the priorities.

Council votes to add it to the list of priorities to be considered in the fall.

11b) Forest tenure review

9:07 p.m.

Cherbo brought this forward and notes this has to be passed before June 30 to get it included at the UBCM.

Cormack says it’s difficult for staff to make a decision on this as they’ve received information from one party, the B.C. Government Employees Union, which wants the motion to go to the Union of B.C. Municipalities.

The motion deals with long-term sustainability with forests, local control for forest management and ensuring forest resources stay in local communities.

Councillors agree the motion is fairly generic and harmless. The UBCM will do the study work on this, says Dooley.

The motion passes.

The meeting is adjourned.

9:15 p.m.