One member of the public told Richmond city council she felt it was “insulting” hearing the message that public hearings didn’t necessarily need to be held.
On Tuesday, city council was holding a public hearing on a Hamilton development as well as on one in the Spires Road area – members of the public spoke about increasing density and zoning more land for purpose-built rentals.
Coun. Alexa Loo pointed out some people who came to speak about the Hamilton project didn’t even live in the neighbourhood, rather, they lived in Steveston and City Centre.
She referenced the fact the province recently passed a law allowing the city to forgo public hearings when projects meet the Official Community Plan (OCP).
“This (Hamilton proposal) meets the OCP – we could have actually not had the public hearing,” Loo said.
The proposal was for 34 townhouses on Smith Crescent to replace three single-family homes, and Loo said the public hearing was to hear concerns from people in the neighbourhood.
“It seems to me nobody is here from that neighbourhood who’s asking for more or less density,” Loo said, adding the local residents seem happy with the community plan.
“We don’t need to suddenly flip-flop on the whole community that is trusting us to stick to our plan,” Loo said.
In fact, ironically, the bylaw to continue holding public hearings was on the same Tuesday agenda.
Later in the meeting, advocating for more rental and density on the Spires Road item, Laura Gillanders took exception with Loo’s comment that there wasn’t a need to hold a public hearing.
“Either have them or don’t have them, but I find it insulting to be told ‘we didn’t even need to hear from you, we could have just said don’t come,’” Gillanders said.
“Don’t have a public hearing if you’re going to say ‘you know, public, we didn’t really need to hear from you, we’re granting you this opportunity but it means nothing,’” Gillanders added. “It should mean something.”
The last item on the agenda was the bylaw on public hearings, which passed unanimously.
This will mean city council will continue public hearings as a default, but will keep the option to waive them if a proposed development is compliant with the OCP.
Evan Dunfee, who has stated he’s running for city council in October’s election, told council he would like to see non-profit, below-market housing projects have public hearings waived in order to fast-track them.
Mayor Malcolm Brodie said city staff is liaising with the City of Victoria that recently passed such a bylaw to see if it could be done in Richmond as well.
