CVN letter to Council: OPPOSED – Procedure By-law Update to Remove Public Hearings – BC Bill 18 (July 10, 2024 meeting)

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July 9, 2024
City of Vancouver
Dear Mayor Ken Sim and Councillors,

Re: Procedure By-law Update to Remove Public Hearings – BC Bill 18
Agenda 2024-07-10 https://council.vancouver.ca/20240710/pspc20240710ag.htm
Report https://council.vancouver.ca/20240710/documents/pspc2.pdf

The Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods (CVN) strongly opposes the recommendations in this reports since it proposes implementing the BC bills, even beyond provincial requirements, without ANY advanced public consultation process and only within days of posting them online.

CVN has sent Council letters advising that we have many concerns regarding the new provincial legislation Bills 44, 46 and 47, including their extremely flawed, biased, undemocratic conception that was then pushed through the legislature in November 2023. We find the current schedule for local and city-wide policy changes to be completely unrealistic and unreasonable. This now also applies to Bill 18, when the Vancouver Charter was amended in April 2024, to further implement the BC bills in Vancouver – again with no public consultation process.

We oppose the proposed removal of public hearings for rezoning. A rezoning consistent with the Official Development Plan (ODP) does not imply the local community has been consulted. The Terms of Reference for the ODP does not include public consultation as part of the process. The Vancouver Plan is a vague policy document that was created without any meaningful public involvement in the creation of the land use development plan or forms of development. Only the development industry and related lobby have been included as stakeholders. The public has been shut out entirely.

We further oppose that rezonings considered at a Council meeting will not allow speakers. This is entirely anti-democratic and is no substitute for a public hearing that requires much more notice, legislative procedure and public process.

If Council is working for the public interest, these provincial dictates and staff further recommendations would not be passed. The City has a duty to question these provincial directions and act in the best interest of its citizens, not to implement and surpass the provincial directions that were established mainly to further the interests of the development industry and profits at the expense of due process.

Sincerely,
Co-Chairs Larry Benge & Dorothy Barkley
CVN Steering Committee,
Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods

Network Groups of the Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods

Arbutus Ridge Community Association
Cedar Cottage Area Neighbours
Dunbar Residents Association
Fairview/South Granville Action Committee
Grandview Woodland Area Council
Greater Yaletown Community Association
Kitsilano-Arbutus Residents Association
Kits Point Residents Association
NW Point Grey Home Owners Association
Oakridge Langara Area Residents
Residents Association Mount Pleasant
Riley Park/South Cambie Advisory Group
Shaughnessy Heights Property Owners Assoc.
Strathcona Residents Association
Upper Kitsilano Residents Association
West End Neighbours Society
West Kitsilano Residents Association
West Point Grey Residents Association
West Southland Residents Association