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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.

Three Things I Heard This Past Week from My Fellow Citizens...

 

My summer Kamloops Conversations campaign has started. Here are three things I heard this past week:

1) City hall should not be competing with private business

2) Seniors need affordable housing

3) Kamloops citizens needs to decide what kind of image we want for our community - mining town, tourism town, both, something else.

Don't hesitate to get in touch if you want to chat with me - 250 377 1797 or [email protected]

 

Information on Pedestrian Safety, Transit, Parks Planning, and the Ajax Mine coming up...

This coming city council meeting will cover a lot of pretty interesting stuff. The agenda provides some insight into city staff see pedestrian safety, transit promotion, parks planning, and the proposed Ajax mine's costs and benefits. Here is the complete agenda in a viewer:

 

Kamloops City Council Workshop Agenda - June 21st 2011

Not sure if you want to support me for City Council? Let's talk...

Been a gratifying week on the council campaign front. Really appreciate all the support from people who have reached out to me. A number of people have liked my campaign facebook page, for example, and the election is still months away.

At this early stage, I also want to reach out to people who are not sure if they support my candidacy, or are leaning towards not supporting my candidacy for whatever reason. I warmly invite you to contact me with your concerns. I hope you will give me a chance to see if I can address them.  I might not be able to. We may have views that are so widely divergent that it would make no sense for you to support me. But, lets talk.  You can email me at [email protected], call me at 250 377 1797, or leave a comment on this post. I will also be posting an web form in the next days where people can remain anonymous.

Announcing My Candidacy for Kamloops City Council in 2011...

After much thought and dicussion with family and friends, I am sending out this announcement today:

 

I’d like to announce today that I hope to once again earn the privilege of serving the citizens of Kamloops on our city council.  I am going to spend the summer implementing an initiative I am calling 100 Kamloops Conversations. I will be contacting Kamloops citizens from all walks of live and from all sectors of the community, and I will be asking them if they would share some of their stories, opinions, and experiences with me. I hope my campaign and my service on council, if elected, will reflect a comprehensive and holistic understanding of Kamloops and of Kamloopsians. I would like to play a part in bringing our community closer together. If anyone would like to contact me to have such a conversation, I would very much welcome that as well. My contact details are:

Arjun Singh
250 377 1797
[email protected]
www.yourkamloops.com

I am most appreciative of your time in reading this announcement.

 

I am very much looking forward to another civic election campaign. Lots more news obviously to come!