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Pemberton Briefs

Council reacts to Ravens Crest debate

Public meetings scheduled as soon as March 17

Two weeks after Pemberton council were told "not good enough" by a motivated young crowd, the council has implemented some aggressive plans to get the public’s opinion on a variety of issues.

The first public meeting will be on Thursday, March 17 at 7 p.m. in the Pemberton Recreation Centre and will be "to hear comments, opinion and receive submissions from the public, both inside and outside the current Village boundaries, on the matter of a possible boundary expansion of the Village."

With regards to recreation, which is a huge issue for many of the young families in Pemberton, the council’s interim administrator, Bob Wilson, said he would have a plan ready regarding an update of Pemberton’s Recreation Master Plan "for the week of Feb. 14."

Wilson and the council also spoke of plans to review Pemberton’s Official Community Plan, or OCP.

The OCP is vital because it is supposed to reflect the "community’s vision" and the council is obliged to refer to it when making big decisions.

Wilson said in his report to council that he had consulted with the village planner, Michael Rosen, and decided that the OCP "just needed minor tweaking and not a major rewrite."

"Secondly," Wilson wrote, "the OCP review is not holding up any development and the current OCP is adequate for any development currently contemplated.

"Having said that… a draft of the OCP review will be prepared by May 15 th .

"Council will receive the report, refer it to the Agricultural Land Use Committee for comment and hold a public information meeting (which will be separate to the statutory Public Hearing) by the end of June 2005.

"The referral process to other agencies, including the SLRD, will take place during the summer.

"The adoption process, including the required (statutory) public hearing, will take place in the early fall and hopefully be completed by October."

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Note: 1207 - There is a picture of Rosen making the presentation in News, Scans.

Planners show Benchlands to community

Pemberton asked to write about what they want Benchlands to look like

Directed by Pemberton council’s planner Michael Rosen the development proposals for the Pemberton Benchlands project were shown to the public last week. The reaction is likely to be something that takes several weeks to determine.

Rosen and Paul Fenske from Ekistics Town Planning spent an hour and a half explaining to approximately 60 people all the aspects of the Benchlands project and asked the community for their input.

"The big advantage the Benchlands has is that it’s not in the ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve) or the flood plain," said Rosen.

"The property owners are financing the planning and that exercise is being co-ordinated by the Village (of Pemberton).

"And this planning exercise is due to be finished around June, July this year."

Fenske went on to explain that the priority now was the Neighbourhood Concept Plan, or NCP.

In a leaflet, which contained four questions the planners wanted the community to answer, the introduction said that the NCP "process involves translating broad community plan policies, as detailed in the Village’s Official Community Plan, into a detailed neighbourhood specific plan for the Benchlands area."

Fenske added during the meeting that, "the NCP will talk about land use issues… such as roads, parks and what priorities should guide the planning."

When the planners receive the public’s feedback they’re supposed to share this information with the Benchlands Steering Committee, the Benchlands Neighbourhood Advisory Committee, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and Land and Water B.C., which is acting on behalf of the province.

In the meantime everything will be re-packaged for a second public forum on the Benchlands project on March 3. The third meeting in this stage of the planning process is scheduled for March 31.

 

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Note: suggested pull quote -- "I think the feeling is that we’re not telling people what we’re doing." Mayor Elinor Warner.

How much for recreational amenities?

Pemberton families will be surveyed

A week after several residents confronted councillors with a barrage of concerns Pemberton council held a special meeting to discuss the need for action with regards to recreation facilities.

Pemberton Mayor Elinor Warner said it was clear that the council needed to take "immediate" action with the town’s recreational plan.

She also indicated the council was going to launch a small public relations campaign in a bid to spread some understanding about council’s actions and to highlight what is already available for residents.

"I think the feeling is that we’re not telling people what we’re doing," said Warner.

"Back around last October we talked about this and doing some advertisements in the paper to explain what’s been happening. But with Bryan (Kirk, Pemberton’s administrator) getting ill and all that’s been going on it hasn’t happened, but we’ve put that back on the table to be done immediately."

A vital part of this entire process will be assessing how much Pemberton residents are willing pay for any new recreational amenities. This will help the council better understand what they must ask for when they’re bargaining with developers for amenities.

Affordability is also going to become an important catch phrase.

"We talk about affordability and affordable housing but if you raise taxes to a level where people can’t afford to live here then that’s got to be a concern," said Warner.

"What we’ve found in the past is that we also have people who come here and retire on fixed incomes, and that’s a priority."

Pemberton’s recreational plan was due to be reviewed later this year but that has also been brought forward.

"The last time we did it was in 1999. There were public meetings and there was also a survey and in that five year recreational plan it shows the priorities of the community and it shows what people are willing to pay," said Warner.

"But the survey was a huge part of it and we want to start on this right away."

No time for a welcome mat

Pemberton’s interim administrator walks in on a lot of action

Pemberton’s interim administrator Bob Wilson has seen more action in the last three months than many administrators see in several years but as it turns out, he has the experience to know how to deal with it.

Wilson was assigned to the Pemberton council when regular administrator Bryan Kirk went on sick leave late last year.

Kirk is expected back soon but in the meantime Wilson will be directing the council from behind the scenes, and if the recent council meetings are anything to judge by it could be an exciting time for Wilson.

From airports, to new water wells and day-care centres there is a myriad of issues facing the Pemberton council but the most pressing one is what to do with the planned development around the valley.

One option for the council would be a moratorium on development proposals, which would give the council time to work on "big picture" items such as the Official Community Plan.

"Yes, certainly that (a moratorium) is a possibility – a council can put a moratorium on development and say for development applications ‘we’re not even going to look at it for four months’," said Wilson.

"Council can say that, but that’s not the best public relations move. It may be necessary, but at this point we’re not quite at that stage, but there are a number of things on the books with the Benchlands and so on."

Wilson’s experience with municipal governments dates back to 1961.

"I started with the Village of Princeton in 1961 where I grew up," said Wilson. "I moved to the City of Kelowna and was in administration for nine years there and then moved to Langley City for 25 years and was the City Manager for the last 12 years.

"When I retired four years ago I thought I wouldn’t mind doing it on a part-time basis," he said. "I’ve been to Lillooet for three months and was in Harrison Hot Springs for five months and Mission for five months and Vernon for three months; just helping out and filling in when there is a vacancy.

"Now I’m here helping out Bryan who I worked with when he in was in Kelowna."

Wilson said he had seen situations similar to those in Pemberton develop before and the problem is that too many things start to happen at once.

"Certainly I’m familiar with that type of thing (recent rowdy council meetings), but certainly a segment of the public gave us a message and the council, which includes the staff, needs to pay attention to that.

"So we’re looking at that message and trying to figure out how we can easily solve it. The problem is that it’s a high growth area, there’s so much going on and there’s been a change over in staff and we just haven’t been able to keep pace with what’s going on, so that’s a major challenge that we have."

Another problem Wilson identified is that the public often does not know about the priorities a council must have before they can proceed with major proposals.

"We’ve been putting a lot of energies into water and sewer and probably not as much as what the public want to see into recreation," he said. "These things are not sexy but they have to be done and they’re very, very expensive – this sewerage treatment plant is costing us $6 million – but it’s going to last us for a long time and it’s going to be relatively maintenance free and it’s going to serve us well.

"But we’ve grown 600 people in the last year or so, so we need to start addressing some of these recreation needs."

The next Pemberton council meeting is scheduled for March 1 at 7pm.

Pemberton council’s dues go up

Rate increase indicates how involved the SLRD is

The Pemberton council will soon be paying 27 per cent more in fees to the SLRD because the area is, essentially, growing so rapidly and is therefore getting harder to manage.

If the changes go ahead then the council will be amending "the Pemberton/Area C Community Recreation Local Service Establishment" bylaw and the "maximum annual requisition limitation".

These changes should make it easier for the SLRD to fund recreational facilities, which has become a major issue for several residents who live in and around Pemberton.

SLRD Chief Administrator Paul Edgington said he was still in the process of analyzing the figures, but it was something that the SLRD suggested because of "changing values" and increases in "construction".

"Twenty per cent of these increases are due to increases in construction and the seven per cent is from the changing values," said Edgington.

These changes would result in the Pemberton council paying the SLRD "the greater of $410,000 or $0.64/$1000 of the net taxable value of land and improvements", which is up from "$75,000 or $0.30/$1000".

Mayor Warner highlighted the bylaw at the last council meeting as another example of the kinds of wider financial concerns the Pemberton council is dealing with.

She also explained that these kinds of "assessment fees" are an example of how the SLRD and the council work together, which is why the SLRD also needed to be approached by the public about the big issues such as boundary expansions.