Parksville council has been using developer’s open houses as additional public consultation for proposed projects more often recently because there have been more of those open houses, said director of community planning Blane Russell.
Russell explained the process to The NEWS after John Mansell asked about it during question period at the May 6 regular council meeting.
“Every rezoning amendment or OCP (official community plan) amendment requires a formal public hearing, which is a fairly formal process,” he said, pointing out these are generally done at the start of regular council meetings.
He suggested there could be confusion about the developer’s open houses replacing those hearings but Russell said they do not and could not fulfil that roll.
On top of the public hearing, OCP amendments require “additional consultation,” Russell said, but it is not specified what that is and can include anything from sending letters to affected neighbours or groups, to public meetings.
The number and form of additional meetings depends on the scale of the proposal in question.
In response to Mansell’s question mayor Chris Burger said they had not consulted a lawyer as to whether the developer’s open houses fulfilled the legislated requirements but indicated they have their own expert and they are comfortable they are meeting the requirements.
