Friday, February 10, 2012
City reviews contaminated site forms
The City of Vernon is experiencing more government downloading. Provincial forms on contaminated sites will now
be handed out by city staff and then they will review the documents and
forward them to Victoria. “It won’t be that bad,” said Rob Dickinson,
engineering manager, of the potential workload. “Our only job is to make
sure it’s filled out and signed.” The city decided it had no choice but to enter into the provincial process. “If you opt out, you have to create your own
system, which is more costly than if you access the provincial system,”
said Dickinson. Under B.C.’s Environmental Management Act, all
property owners must submit completed site profile forms when applying
for development permits, development variance permits, rezonings,
subdivisions, soil removal permits, site preparation permits and
demolition permits. The goal of the initiative is to identify potentially contaminated sites for property owners and purchasers. If a form is not completed properly, city staff will ask for corrections. When it has been filled out, the document will be reviewed by city hall and then sent to the Ministry of Environment. Questions regarding the form or use of the site will be referred to the government. The city will charge a $100 fee to cover its processing costs. “We looked at how much staff time that is,’ said Dickinson. The fee will not be applied to development applications until April.
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