The motion to delay Plan It was made public today by the four Aldermen who signed it: McIver, Chabot, Colley-Urquhart and Connelly. Alderman McIver is quoted in today’s Herald as saying “It’s just a matter of making sure we have enough time to look at it.“ Hmmm, the final draft is being released by the City tomorrow, May 6. Counting on my fingers, I see that means the document will be in the public domain for six weeks before the public hearing unfolds at Council June 16.
I have not seen the final draft yet myself but I am pretty confident I can get through it in six weeks and be ready to respond to Council mid-June. Isn’t it time we moved to an open public hearing on this? The public was consulted extensively on Plan It as was the development industry. The development industry successfully lobbied last fall for a six month delay for further stakeholder consultation, which has since wrapped up. The draft was circulated for public comment weeks ago and the final document has been completed. Next week it will go to Calgary Planning Commission for comments prior to moving to Council in June. Now these four Aldermen want to delay the public hearing until September. Why?
What is the benefit of delaying the public hearing? Sticking with the schedule already laid out does not preclude further tidying up of loose ends, should any be found in the final Plan It document. But delaying the public hearing does preclude the citizens of Calgary having their allotted 5 minutes at the podium in Council Chambers June 16. Other than writing emails, this is the only access we have to all members of Council. Many of our elected representatives have not, as yet, made time to meet face-to-face with representatives of CivicCamp. For the record, Aldermen Ceci, Farrell, Hawkesworth, Lowe, Mar and Pincott are the Aldermen who have met with or agreed to meet with CivicCampers thus far. We are still hopeful the remaining Aldermen will find some time to sit down with us in the coming weeks.
So, for the next couple of days, I’ll be writing another flurry of emails to members of Council and continuing to contact various Aldermanic offfices in hopes of setting up meetings with CivicCamp representatives to discuss Plan It. And you can bet I’ll be urging everyone I know to stand up for an open, transparent and democratic public hearing on Plan It in Council Chambers June 16 as scheduled. The citizens of Calgary deserve no less.
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I sent my initial email to encourage the aldermen who looked like they support PlanIt, but didn’t want to irritate aldermen who seem adamantly opposed. However, someone just noted that Dale Hodges might be the swing vote, so I’ve sent email to him. Should we be sending our emails to all the aldermen?