Kelowna dictates development, says Hanson

By Jason Luciw - Kelowna Capital News - April 02, 2008

“I was held over a barrel.” Central Okanagan East regional board director Patty Hanson said Kelowna has decided to keep calling the shots and she’s powerless to override the city’s wishes when it comes to development in her electoral area. Kelowna laid down the law in a private meeting held before last Friday’s related budget vote, according to Hanson. Regional board chairman and Kelowna Coun. Robert Hobson, Kelowna Mayor Sharon Shepherd and CORD administrator Wayne d’Easum said the city would stay in electoral area planning for at least another year, despite Hanson’s voiced opposition. “It was completely frustrating,” said Hanson. “I sometimes wonder why I even need to sit on the regional board when things like this happen.” Here’s how the system will continue to work.

Kelowna will pay $111,000 for electoral area planning and will get six votes on the regional board when it’s time to deal with development issues in Ellison, Joe Rich and Lakeshore Road South. Residents in the Central Okanagan East electoral area will pay $143,000 for planning in their areas outside Kelowna, but they will get only one vote at the board table, said Hanson. She had proposed a system that she felt would end the disparity. “I wanted…one Lake Country voter, one Kelowna voter, (director) Jim Edgson from (Central Okanagan West) and then myself to (give) a more democratic view.” But, Hobson and Shepherd would not agree to those terms, according to Hanson’s account of the meeting. “They said if I didn’t agree to it, they wouldn’t pay for anything in the way of regional planning or regional services…they were going to opt out and not let the budget go through.”

But Hobson had a different account of the meeting. He said it was held as a courtesy to Hanson, to inform the director that Kelowna council felt it had a right to remain in electoral area planning. “I certainly didn’t see any barrel,” said Hobson. Informal discussions were held and no decisions were made in the meeting prior to the budget vote, stated the board chairman.
The only decisions made were at the board table where directors agreed, unanimously Hobson noted, that electoral area planning should be unaltered until the province made a decision on a recently concluded valley-wide governance review. Hobson does understand the whole controversy behind regional planning, however. Why should the city have a say in an area that’s outside its boundaries he acknowledged is being asked. One perspective is that an electoral area director or two should not have “fiefdoms” where they control decision-making for large land bases, he suggested. Input from elected municipal councillors in nearby jurisdictions should be provided to ensure balance, commented Hobson. Municipalities also usually participate in electoral area planning to ensure that growth outside their cities’ boundaries is sustainable, he said. “(Electoral area planning) exists because of a (council’s) concern about the free rider issue where people live in suburban areas outside the city, enjoy the benefits offered by the municipality but do not pay for the full services.” Hobson expects the regional district will propose a bylaw later this year than keeps Kelowna in electoral area planning.The outcome of a vote on such a proposal would be anyone’s guess at this point, he concluded.