Welcome to Your Kamloops!

Supporting the City Council Decision seeking an Independent Review of the Ajax Mine Proposal...

    
   Ajax Mine Website         Stop Ajax Mine Website

I support the city council’s decision this week to ask the Federal Government to complete a rigorous environmental review (the independent review panel) on the Ajax Mine project. However, I also feel some legitimate concerns have been raised around how this request may impact the current review, which is already underway. I think these concerns can be addressed. A rigorous review ensures that community interests are balanced with economic development to create a winning legacy for these types of projects. The critical aspect of this entire review process is to ensure that public trust is enhanced by the final decisions which are made.

At this time, I don't have a position for, or against, the proposed project. I’m seeking information which will help me to make an informed and intelligent decision about a project that could have far-reaching benefits and impacts on our community.  I welcome your thoughts, please feel free to share yours on the proposal.

Important Community Decisions Made Tonight in Kamloops...

In quite a short (maybe half hour) public hearing tonight, City Council made some decisions I feel could have quite an impact on Kamloops:

1. Preventing banks locating their main branch outside of downtown: A couple of years ago, the Bank of Montreal decided to move their main branch from downtown to the Summit shopping centre in Sahali. I am not sure the bank even has any presence downtown anymore. City Council has now restricted banks from opening locations above a certain square footage outside the downtown core. Council basically wants the main branch of all financial institutions to be downtown. This move was designed to protect the vibrancy and viabiliy of downtown Kamloops.
2. Restricting the ability of government agencies and public utilities to locate offices in industrial areas: City planners said tonight that they have noticed that more government and utility offices are trying to locate offices in the Southgate industrial park (also in the Sahali area). If these offices need a storage component for vehicle fleets, trucks, or equipment, this will be allowed. But otherwise it will be explicitly restricted. This preserves industrial parks for industrial uses and also encourages offices in downtown and north shore business areas.
3. Allowing the creation of residential suites below commercial spaces: In our main commercial areas, this allows commercial landowners to create residential below their street level commercial spaces. Residential is already allowed above commercial spaces. This could potentially create more private housing in Kamloops and allow for more housing choice in our community and more viability and vibrancy in our commercial areas.

All in all, it was an interesting meeting to watch.

Formation of Kamloops Housing Board Starting On Right Footing...

I am very thankful to have been invited to meetings talking about the formation of a housing board in Kamloops. Such a board would act as a place of coordination, of education, and of recommendation for local affordable housing issues. Participating in a meeting today, it seems the board formation is in a good place. Lots of discussion on being inclusive in the membership of the board and on working collaboratively with government. Blake Collins, as planner at city hall very well versed in affordable housing issues in municipalities (he wrote his graduate thesis on the topic), will facilitate the board and is very interested in using the knowledge of the board to help inform his work.

The board is slated to meet a minimum of 4 to 6 times a year.

Podcast: Why The BC Grasslands Conservation Council Is Important....

I've been impressed with the work of the BC Grasslands Conservation Council (GCC). The GCC is based in Kamloops and, over the past years, they have worked cooperatively with governments and citizens to preserve what I now know to be quite a valuable resource.

 

At the 2010 Kamloops Energy Fair, as part of my podcast booth, I had the great opportunity to speak with Tasha Sargent, stewardship planner with the GCC, to find out more about the work of the GCC and its value to the province. The audio runs about 11 minutes and, I think, provides a good primer on the importance of the GCC.

Audio Map

 00:08 - what is the Grasslands Conservation Council and why grasslands are important    

01:50 - working closely with ranching industry, created monitoring manual for ranchers
 02:10 - how the GCC is funded, offer opportunity for membership
 03:16 - working with different levels of government (eg. City of Kamloops)
 04:13 - why should we care if species ( eg.that depend on grasslands) die out?
 06:14 - current grasslands conservation philosophy
 07:30 - how can people help conserve grasslands when using them for recreational purposes
 10:14 - pocket book for motorized users
www.bcgrasslands.org

Interesting Reads to Start the Week?

Honestly, I am still getting back into community blogging after submitting a (successful!) MA thesis proposal and attending the Northern Voice conference this weekend. In the meantime, I've found these articles, posts, and conference sessions quite interesting:

 - Mel Rothenburger: Why Politicians and Journalists are the Same

 - Jeremy Deutsch: From Farms to 2000 Homes: Transforming Tranquille

 - Arjun Singh: My Attempt at Live Blogging: Northern Voice Gov 2.0 Session

Committed North Shore Volunteers Need Your Help...

I am a huge admirer of Tom Hammer, Shannon Hammer, and Betty Nelson. They have all played such significant roles in the health of North Kamloops. We shouldn't burn these people out. Kamloops This Week has the story here. I hope they will get some back up support.

BANANA to NIMBY to YIMBY...

Was just reminded of these wonderful acronyms while talking to a friend about community building and particularly the building of stuff people sometimes don't like:

BANANA = Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody

NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard

YIMBY = Yes In My Back Yard

These might be helpful next time you are conversing with a community planning expert - either to understand him/her or to impress him/her.

Short Recap of the City Sustainability Plan Public Forum on Saturday

Promises to be a very busy next couple of weeks. My father just had knee replacement surgery and I've got a MA thesis proposal to write (a couple of weeks earlier than I had thought due to my own error). Spent a lot of today by a hospital bed, studying.

So, short and snappy posts here will featured for the next while.

How was the City Sustainability Plan Public Forum?

In my view, not was as well attended as I had hoped. This, however, allowed people who did attend a real chance to give feedback. Meeting did allow a lot of time for discussion. I commented that I hope all the feedback will be made public and that some response will be made for the various ideas offered - we did this, we could'nt do this/ didn't do this because...

As is now often the case, my friends on Facebook had a great discussion - this time, about the attendance / lack of attendance at the forum. Hans Peter Meyer even wrote a blog post.

Full page of Sustainable Kamloops Information Packages...

It is becoming pretty clear to me (crystal clear, in fact) that I am not going to be able to summarize all the Sustainable Kamloops information packages before Saturday's forum. Lot's of stuff going on - if you know anybody who is looking for a good apartment, for example, my paying job might help.

I will keep beavering away on summarizing the info packages but, just to make the information as web accessible as possible, here are all the information packages grouped together and displayed in handy dandy viewers.

More Info on the Sustainable Kamloops Forum Agenda...

When I posted the draft agenda for the Sustainable Kamloops forum this weekend, I also wondered how much time there would be allotted for feedback and discussion. Over on facebook, Dylan Houlihan, who is one of the key consultants on the Sustainable Kamloops plan, responded:

Arjun, there's going to be tons of time for discussion and feedback. Each one hour block will be about 10 minutes of presentation and 30 - 40 minutes of discussion with time for some wiggle room logistics. Each person will have the opportunity to go to focus group tables and discuss the topic at hand in-depth - they'll get a chance for 5 topics areas given the format of the day ... if they can't make it to a focus group table then     they can provide comments in one of a bunch of other ways.