This post is background to the City of Nelson committee of the whole meeting, scheduled for 1 p.m. today (Monday, Dec. 12) at city hall. The meeting is starting this afternoon because there is an event tonight, the CP Holiday Train, that starts at 6:30 p.m.
The live blog of this meeting starts at 1 p.m.
12:57 p.m.
At council chambers now. This is the first meeting in council chambers with the new council. There’s some shifting of seats. Couns. Robin Cherbo and Bob Adams have traded sides.
There’s a large audience. I see several people who have come to speak to council about transit in the past. They were upset with council’s decision to cut Nelson Transit service.
From council we have councillors Deb Kozak, Robin Cherbo, Bob Adams, Donna Macdonald, Candace Batycki and Mayor John Dooley. Coun. Paula Kiss is not here this afternoon.
Today’s meeting is a committee of the whole meeting, which means there’s time made for presentations from the public.
1:03 p.m.
There are several late items: mayor’s list, councillor’s list and one other item. They’ve also removed the presentation from Nelson Hydro (which means this meeting should be shorter).
Coun. Kiss just arrived.
Claos Schunke asks to speak about the proposed locations for the Heron’s Landing sculpture. He’s unhappy with the locations selected by the Cultural Development Commission. He’s also unhappy with the images supplied by the commission that show what the sculpture could look like.
The sculpture would not be appropriate for the three locations, says Schunke. He’s concerned about slope stability, erosion and wind effects on the sculpture. He asks for some scientific assessments of the locations and the impacts of the environment.
Schunke is also worried about the costs to build the base, which is not included in the donation.
He asks council to do a better job of identifying the locations and the costs of labour and material to put the sculpture there. More of his concerns can be read as his blog, Nudging the Predictable.
With his presentation wrapped up, Kozak asks Macdonald for some clarification. Macdonald, who sits on the Cultural Development Commission, says there’s no agreement with the artist to provide a base at a cost of $6,000. Also, public works has been consulted on the three locations and they had no concerns.
1:16 p.m.
A new speaker approaches the podium. He is Barry Nelson, a Rosemont resident. He’s here on behalf of the Nelson Transit community group (some applause from the audience).
He has a proposal for a process of input on changes to Nelson Transit service.
The community group is suggesting two round table discussions on transit. Nelson is worried the timing of the budget and the consultation will leave Nelson Transit with continued poor service.
The city has done a good job on long-term planning on sustainability issues but not transit, says Nelson. There needs to be public input before budget decisions in the coming months.
Adams says there’s lots of time for discussion about this.
Nelson says if there’s going to be public consultation on backyard chickens, why not on public transit, which would affect far more people.
Adams says the timelines may be short, but budget discussions start in January. Kevin Cormack, city manager, says council should adopt the budget in March.
Nelson asks for clarification on whether there will be public meetings about transit before the budget is complete. He asks Cormack to promise that, but Cormack says that’s something council would have to promise.
Coun. Macdonald says she’s committed to finding ways to engage Nelson and the rest of the community meaningfully. This is council’s first meeting and they haven’t been able to discuss the proposal from Nelson and the transit community group.
Macdonald says there’s a BC Transit review of bus service for the whole region and she doesn’t know the timeline on that. It’s going to be very thorough, she says. Until they get that information, they can’t map out how to incorporate comment from the community.
BC Transit did a review of service just in Nelson (this was released in June) and Nelson asks for clarification on that. Wasn’t that the review the city was waiting on? he asks.
Macdonald says that review was just on service in Nelson and the larger, regional review will show how connections with transit from Castlegar, the Slocan Valley and the North Shore can combine to add better service to whole region.
Dooley says there could be some short-term pain in aligning to a better, regional service. There’s a lack of cohesion that’s affecting transit for everyone.
1:29 p.m.
Macdonald asks for an update from Cormack about meetings around service on Sunday. Cormack says there are no “silver bullets” for a solution. There are some ideas that are workable, but getting the various community groups together is taking time.
Kozak says she can assure Nelson this issue won’t fall off the table during the budget discussions.
There won’t be a simple fix, Kozak adds, but they (council) will be working on this.
Dooley says he takes full responsibility for where they’re at. He should have known a year earlier how much transit was costing the City of Nelson. This circumstance is an opportunity, Dooley says, for the community to decide what is an appropriate service for Nelson.
1:39 p.m.
Mona Southron now approaches the podium and asks to add to what Nelson said. She wants to speak about more sustainable transportation in Nelson. Transit, rideshare, carshare are all good options, she says.
Dooley says there’s plenty of room for efficiencies. He cites an example of a bus route that goes around the three sides of Rosemont school. That bus doesn’t have to do that.
A man in the audience takes exemption to Dooley’s suggestion. He says the city has to take into consideration the fact there are seniors and people with disabilities, like himself, that need buses. Any cuts need to be discussed with the community, the man says, and he hopes the changes will be presented to the public before they’re decided.
1:46 p.m.
Simon Grypma, chief of the Nelson Fire and Rescue Services, introduces Capt. Rick Maida (not sure of the spelling), Capt. Rae to talk about some efforts the fire department has taken part in to educate the public about the work fire departments do around the province. This education moment was at a UBCM conference in the Lower Mainland this September.
Capt. Rae presents Cherbo with an actual fire fighter helmet. This isn’t a mockup, says Rae, so when things get heated in council chambers, you’ll be prepared.
“Don’t give him a truck, for God’s sake,” chimes in Dooley.
5b) Sustainability services and the RDCK
Sangita Sudan, the manager of the Regional District of Central Kootenay’s Sustainability Services, will talk to council about just what Sustainability Services entails at the RDCK.
There’s no other information in the agenda, so we’ll just have to wait and see what will come up.
LIVE BLOG BEGINS BELOW
1:53 p.m.
Sudan is here to talk about a new service at the RDCK. The Community Sustainability Services was started in 2009-2010.
“Sustainability” is the new popular word out there, says Sudan. The service at the RDCK is meant to get the regional district ready to take advantage of opportunities to create services that will be useful to the rural areas in the RDCK.
It can be used to leverage grant funding, do research into feasibility on whether a service is actually needed.
To date this service has taken on several projects including: acquiring small water systems; taking part in a transportation plan; resource recover plan; agriculture area plan; water conservation initiatives; and the Kootenay Lake Partnership.
That partnership looks at water and lake stewardship and how to mitigate impact from development in the future.
Macdonald asks/suggests that Sudan is here to ask the City of Nelson to participate in the service. Sudan says yes. The City of Nelson is currently not participating (and therefore not paying) for this service from the RDCK.
Sudan says some projects, like the Kootenay Lake Partnership, is one service that Nelson benefits from.
Macdonald asks for the cost of the service but Sudan doesn’t have an estimate for what it would cost Nelson. The RDCK board has input on what projects the service works on.
Macdonald wants to know whether affordable housing would fall under this project. Not at the moment, says Sudan. The RDCK’s GIS department is looking at this, but it’s not her department.
The RDCK is looking into how they handle things like mobile homes. RV parks are popping up around the RDCK because people are choosing to live in them because they’re affordable.
Dooley says the City of Nelson isn’t participating on a financial basis but they are participating on the RDCK board.
Macdonald says Sudan’s department is an invaluable service for the region and there isn’t many opportunities to work on a region-wide basis and “act like a region for once.” She’s interested in looking at how the City of Nelson can get involved.
Kozak says regional planning is important. Over the last few years there has been a focus with the city’s planning department on some major projects and she wants to know what the cost would be to the City of Nelson. Sudan repeats she’ll have to look at the numbers.
Dooley says it’s approximately $40,000, about a one per cent tax increase for Nelson taxpayers.
Macdonald moves that the question of participating in this regional sustainability service be referred to staff for a report. Her motion is approved.
5c) City of Nelson vacant land inventory
Dave Wahn, the city’s senior planner, and Tom Dool, a geographic information system (GIS) technician from the RDCK, will talk to council about the city’s vacant land.
They’ve been creating an inventory of what land the city owns and is currently vacant. This project was discussed way back in January 2011 during the year’s budget process. In the context the inventory was mentioned then, it was suggested some of this land could be used to create new housing in the city.
LIVE BLOG BEGINS BELOW
2:14 p.m.
Wahn and Dool now start. This project has been ongoing for several years, says Wahn. They’re starting to make good progress on this project.
Dool first describes his job, which he describes as a cross between a map maker and a database manager. He takes maps, the associated information and finds useful tidbits from that.
“What I do is find things,” he says.
This land inventory is an ideal project for GIS, says Dool.
Dool gives a pretty dynamic presentation on what could be dry material. One item that jumps out is there are 600 feet of elevation in the City of Nelson. “We’re built on the side of a mountain. We’re hanging on the edge and that edge is actually moving toward the lake, but that’s another problem.”
Apparently the geography here is moving to the lake. Unlikely to be a major problem in our lifetimes. Also interesting is the fact they have highly detailed topographic information about the area here in Nelson.
Mayor Dooley says there’s a good chance Dool’s last name was once “Dooley.”
“So my question to you is was your family horse thieves or rum runners?” asks Dooley.
Dool laughs and says he often gets asked if there’s any relation. Then he turns it over to Wahn.
Wahn starts talking through the numbers. There are 78 right-of-ways that are vacant lands. Some have utilities running under them, some are used to dump snow on. The RDCK couldn’t know the uses the city has for all the land.
There are 43 pieces of land that could be available for use. This list includes the total cost to get each piece of land to market. This total cost includes city staff time, processing cost, appraising cost, survey cost and construction costs to supply services to a parcel of land so they could sell it.
There’s also a list of city-owned land, which is different from a right-of-way piece of land. This list of city-owned land includes parkland, vacant lots or lots used by city departments. This list has 61 pieces of property.
Dooley asks about the value of these properties. What about taxation? he asks.
Wahn says at the moment the city isn’t gathering any taxes from this property.
Part of this project was to find ways to help the affordable housing situation in Nelson. Do they sell the land and use the resulting funds for a future project?
Macdonald asks what the next steps are.
Wahn says this map (here he gestures to one on the wall showing the vacant land) is a draft. There’s still work to be done.
Cormack says the next steps is this is information council will have for their future projects whether it’s walking corridors, housing or other ideas.
Cormack says the city knew they had these pieces of land scattered over the city. Now they have all the information collected into one place.
Wahn asks council to look at the data and give him feedback. We may have missed something and we want to know what.
3:08 p.m.
Council now adjourns the committee of the whole meeting. They’re taking a five-minute break and then going into the special meeting.
Editor’s note: Item 5d) was struck from this meeting.
5d) Nelson Hydro update
This item is on the agenda but the package sent to the media has a duplicate of item 5c), so we’ll have to wait to learn more.
There is a special council meeting also schedule for today, likely for after this committee of the whole, that includes an item for Nelson Hydro to borrow $5 million for “downtown conversion project, the building of the Rosemont substation, pole replacement, G4 rewind and transmission line rebuilds.”
According to the staff report from that special meeting:
The loan authorization bylaw process is lengthy requiring readings by Council, approval by the Inspector of Municipalities, an alternative approval process, a 30-day quashing period and further application and consent to borrow by the RDCK board. Therefore, it is critical that the process is started in a timely fashion in order not to hold up tight construction schedules due to lack of funding.
