Before we get down to Plan It, a big “woot, woot!” for the CivicCampers who took time out of their busy Monday to troop on down to City Hall sporting CivicCamp Blue. Thanks to your efforts – and the wonders of online communication – CivicCamp was represented continuously throughout the day.
CivicCampers were particularly interested in two motions brought to Council on Monday - one to censure the closure of two lanes of Memorial Drive on a Sunday in August and one to rejig the timeline for Plan It Calgary. This update will focus on Plan It. Watch for another post later today about Memorial Drive.
The motion to delay Plan It stumbled right out of the gate when the Mayor pointed out that, procedurally, it was invalid because it attempted to amend the timeline for presenting Plan It to Calgary Planning Commission (CPC) for review. Simply put, Aldermen do not have the authority to direct CPC that way. And then, just for emphasis, Council was reminded that the timeline for sending Plan It to CPC was set months ago, and had already accomodated a six month delay requested by the Development and Building Industries last fall.
Those who brought the motion struggled for an amendment that would make it valid. Debate ensued. Eventually the motion was amended to read ”that Administration be directed to provide Council, Calgarians and other stakeholders at least six (6) weeks to review and comment on the MDP and CTP before they come to a public hearing of Calgary City Council”. It passed. Had the motion not been brought forward, that review and comment period would have been 5 weeks and 6 days long. It appears that the actual delay will now amount to a week or two at most, rather than the months.
If you’re not already acquainted with Plan It, it is based on 11 Sustainability Principles adopted by Council last year and builds on 8 Key Directions approved by Council in the fall of 2008. To learn more about the plan for yourself, you can access the City’s website here. CivicCamper Bob Morrison has also written an excellent article titled Building a Better City and you can read it online here.
All Calgarians have a voice in this very important conversation about the future of our City - let’s exercise that voice! Moving to public hearing in June means that Calgarians - whether they endorse Plan It wholeheartedly, have reservations about the details or oppose it outright - will finally have their alloted five minutes at the Council podium to share with the Mayor and 14 Aldermen what we want the future of Calgary to look like, for ourselves and for our children. If we wanna be heard, we gotta speak up.
