Vernon officials believe they are on track when it comes to creating a sustainable community. Mayor Wayne Lippert took part in a panel discussion on growth and sustainability in Kelowna late last week, while C
oun. Juliette Cunningham was at a Smart Growth B.C. conference in Vancouver. “We can
’t do development the same old way as it’s been done before,” said Cunningham. Lippert was among seven Okanagan mayors that participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Urban Development Initiative.The presenters were asked how they want to attract development while addressing the goals of sustainability. “I touched on things that we’ve done as part of the official community plan,” said Lippert. “We’re the only community that’s gone this deep in getting input from the public and businesses.”
Among the issues discussed w
ere downtown redevelopment and reviewing development cost charges to encourage a mix of housing types, including those that are affordable. “We are ahead of a lot of the other areas and we’ve taken the lead,” said Lippert. “Most of the other communities are looking to us.”Lippert is pleased that UDI provided an opportunity for its members to meet with politicians because it’s the construction sector that must adapt to new policies. “As developers, they need to know what the goalposts are,” he said.
Cunningham was at Smart Growth B.C.’s annual conference in Vancouver. Its theme was Making Smart Growth Happen: From Policy to Practice. Among the discussions were strategies for implementing smart growth policies, creating affordable housing and overcoming challenges in mid-sized communities. “The encouraging thing is we are going in the right direction if we approve option three of the official community plan review,” said Cunningham. Option three calls for neighbourhood centres providing amenities closer to where people live as a way of reducing reliance on vehicles.
2 comments:
Juliette Cunningham's idea of affordable smartgrowth housing is to put the poor and unfortunates on an old sewage dump!
Lippert's idea is cozy up to the developers every time he gets a chance
He uses our OCP when it suits his prepared comments written for him by staff and the fact is he has been interfering with Community's OCP all along to please his developer puppeteers!
Time for this inept car mechanic to return to his second hand car junkyard where his ideas fit best
He shall not be re-elected
GUARANTEED!
Taking the lead??? The only time that the City of Vernon ever took the lead on any initiative was with Spray Irrigation over 30 years ago. Then if successive Councils hadn't dropped the ball and curbed growth in direct correlation with capital spending on increasing the land base, (Hello, 1 added acre of SI land = 20 new homes, how many new acres have been put under SI in the last 20 years?)and basically ignored the system, it wouldn't have become the most expensive disposal system to run in the Province. So they did take the lead once and made a complete bollox of it. How bad is this lead-taking going to be for our future this time? Its laughable, and this mayor must be in dire straights indeed, or simply on very powerful medication to make these kind of statements.
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