Lantzville OCP Amendment Bylaw 50.1, 2005 Public Hearing (Oct. 24/05) Written Submission

These are my written comments, submitted to Lantzville Council at the Public Hearing last Monday night at Costin Hall. This was the third Public Hearing in 40 days on our OCP (like the second one, this one was only publicized in one newspaper and on the District's website (although you would have to search to find out what the Public Hearing was actually about). Since I chose not to read my submission at the Public Hearing, the following comments will likely not appear on the Lantzville.ca website.

Re: OCP Bylaw 50, 2005, Amendment Bylaw 50.1, 2005

Mayor and council,
The Regional District of Nanaimo's (RDN) 2003-2004 Sustainability Report, which "reports about progress towards regional growth strategy goals and objectives" has recently been released. Nanaimo councillor, Bill Holdom, chair of the Regional Growth Monitoring Advisory Committee, which oversaw the creation of the report, says, "this report... underlies the need to protect and enhance our environmental, social and economic capital for future generations." Joe Stanhope, RDN chairperson, acknowledges that long-term sustainability is a key concern for residents of the RDN and goes on to say that "the RDN Board has made a commitment to the residents of this region".
Having been forced to develop more than a passing interest in the machinations of the RDN over the past 10 years, let me tell you how it looks from where I sit. The vaunted objectives and goals of the Regional Growth Mangement Plan went on life support on Aug. 12, 2003 when the majority of the RDN board voted to accept, as justification for extending Nanaimo's Urban Containment Boundary to include a 2+ ha piece of property which had been taken from Lantzville by the provincial government (the Jeffs' property), a change in a key Urban Containment and Fringe Area Management Implementation Agreement (UCFAMIA) definition of meeting "community needs" to become all about the needs of this property for city services. Contrary to the usual practise of being asked to provide their decision early on in any transfer of jurisdication application, a decision was made by senior RDN and City of Nanaimo personnel to leave this key step until the end, by which time the land had already been stripped from Lantzville.
The final stake was driven into the heart of the RGMP's key goal of controlling urban sprawl when, on Sept. 20, 2005, the RDN Board of Directors (Stanhope, Korpan, McNabb, Holdom, Krall, Manhas, Sherry, Longmuir, Westbroek, C. Haime, Kreiberg, Lund, Hamilton, D. Haime, Holme, Biggeman, Bartram) accepted the District of Lantzville's request to have their Regional Context Statement (RCS) for our final draft Official Community Plan (OCP) approved by the Board. This was despite RDN planning staff's serious concerns about numerous elements (4 major definite plus one optional) of that important statement about how our OCP conforms to the Regional Growth Strategy and how any discrepancies are to be resolved over time and their recommendation that the Board refuse to accept the District of Lantzville's RCS.
It takes a certain amount of chutzpah for a small municipality like Lantzville to adopt the position that, if their RCS and the RGS (Regional Growth Strategy) are inconsistent, then it is the RGS which should be changed but that appears to be exactly what you are proposing! As someone who has devoted a considerable amount of my time for the betterment of my community, I am deeply saddened and disturbed that you would take such a cavalier attitude towards something as vital to everyone's ability to enjoy our semi-rural lifestyle. I oppose your inclusion of this RCS into the OCP, which was adopted in direct contravention of the clearly expressed wishes of the majority.

Sincerely,
Hans J. Larsen

Note: At the Council meeting immedately following the Public Hearing (Council did take about 10 minutes to read my submission), Councillor Scott, speaking in support of adopting the amendment said that he supported the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS) and felt that we met the RGS's goals but with a "made in Lantzville concept". "Lantzville controls Lantzville's vision as opposed to the Regional District controlling it" - a clearer contradiction between actions and words would be hard to find!