Good afternoon, everyone.
I would like to call this meeting of council for June 24th, 2025 to order.
Before we start the meeting, I just wanted to take a moment on behalf of the Abbotsford City Council and the entire city of Abbotsford
to congratulate the Abbotsford Conox on winning the 2025 Colder Cup Championship.
My heart rates actually come back down to normal finally, but they had an unforgettable and historic season and last night's victory was a moment that we will all remember and have the icing on the cake.
Since the first buck drop in 2021, the Abbotsford Conox had brought energy, excitement and first-class fan experience to our community and fans across BC.
Abbotsford Conox fans have been cheering them on all season long, and well, I would have loved to have seen them win the Cup on home ice on Saturday evening.
There's nothing, there's nothing better than the symbolism of bringing home the American hockey league, colder cup home to Canada where it belongs.
The team uses the tagline proudly Abbotsford, and I just wanted them to know that Abbotsford is also very proud of them.
We are looking forward to celebrating this momentous win with the community and with the Conox, but they return it, I believe they just have returned earlier this afternoon.
We are working with the Conox, it's their celebration, they're the lead, and we'll be supporting, so I know people want to know what's going on, we're going to let them, it's their party, it's their day, it's their time to shine.
So those announcements will be the fourth coming, but we just wanted to again congratulate the Abbotsford Conox to congratulate the community and really win for Canada.
So, thank you.
With that, I will have an adoption of the agenda, or I'll call for the motion for your adoption of the agenda with item 7.1 revision.
That's moved by Councillor Situ, seconded by Councillor Park, but did I see your hand?
I thought I saw something in the other corner of my eye.
All those in favor?
The motion carries, and we have adoption of one set of minutes from June 17, 2025.
Move by Councillor Ross, seconded by Councillor Drieson, and any errors or omissions?
All those in favor?
Motion carries.
And, oh, Councillor Shawal had another engagement that she had to be at three o'clock, but she will be here for the public hearing this evening.
We will go right down to minutes, of course, on us, and I'll turn that over to staff.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't 6.1 to 6.4, contain two sets of committee minutes.
Correspondence regarding the South Coast Highway Patrol Service Model and a clerks memorandum for council's information.
It's any items there that anybody would like to speak to or pull out for discussion?
Good to see the advocacy from the MLAs on the South Coast Highway Patrol, and much appreciated.
I will turn it back over to staff in the next item, please.
Good afternoon, Your Worship and Council.
The next item on the agenda is 7.1, a report regarding the 2024 annual report and audited financial statements.
It is being presented today by the General Manager of Finance and Procurement.
Mr. Besatia and myself.
I'm pleased to be here this afternoon to present the annual report.
In 2024, the city of Abbott's Ford continued to deliver to exceptional services to the community while also making significant progress on council's strategic plan.
I know that we could not have achieved all this that we had today, with the vision and leadership of council and our staff as they continue to work hard in serving our community.
The annual report in front of you today reflects on the full complement of services that we continue to provide to the community and includes a consolidated financial information for 2024 calendar year.
It also provides a snapshot of the progress we have made towards achieving council's strategic priorities.
Council has provided a clear direction on how these services are to be delivered to the community through their strategic plan and our vision to be the cultural and economic of the Fraser Valley.
The purpose of the annual report is to reflect on the previous year's accomplishments.
Progress and financial overview. This report also is legislated requirement under the community charter section 167 to present this information to the public.
The annual report also looks at an incorporates council strategic plan which identifies both the vision and mission for the city and the community and is built around four principles of inclusive and connected community.
Sustainable and safe city, vibrant and growing economy, organizational excellence and integrity.
There are also 41 actions identified in the plan and staff have well advanced and were completed and many of the actions.
I will now talk about some of the accomplishments under each of the four cornerstones.
There are so many items that I can speak to each of the on the each of the upcoming slides.
And and how we're achieving those goals but I'll pick one per slide to provide a little more details.
So regarding the goal of increasing access to transit in 2024 we completed the construction of the Montrose Avenue Transit Exchange with funding from senior levels of government.
This project is pivotal in helping us expand our transit service to our community along the main arterials and connecting our city center with neighborhoods.
And is in keeping with our growth patterns and land uses identified in the city's official community plan.
This project is the next step and should provide more affordable transportation options and getting around in the community.
Lessening our requirements on the single occupancy vehicle and also reducing our greenhouse gas emissions along with our environmentally transit fleet.
In addition, the city has launched the sports field and infrastructure strategy to engage the public to identify the needs and preferences of user groups for the sports fields and courts across the city.
As part of the city's commitment to this initiative we have initiated a conditional offer to purchase a strategic property on King Road to advance that opportunity.
Council has also completed the arena and infrastructure strategy and are now looking at opportunities to implement the plan and to bring more ice sheets to our community.
And we're also in the midst of developing the aquatic and infrastructure strategy.
And the Mill Lake Master Plan is also advancing through the engagement process and we're looking at early wins to start implementing the plan as soon as possible.
And now under the principle of sustainable and safe city it speaks to council wanting to keep our residents and businesses safe and addressing social issues that impact our community.
The initial speak to is the investment in community fire fighting and response council is invested in enhanced community safety through hiring additional career firefighters staffing medical squad units at Hall 1 and 6 and adding a heavy rescue unit, a wildland unit and a rehabilitation unit to the fire fighting repertoire of apparatus complement to better serve our community.
The fire rescue services had one of those busiest years and responding to more than 14,000 incidences and works closely with our habits for police department, bylaw teams and many many other service providers.
In addition the city has made significant progress in addressing homelessness and signed a memorandum of understanding with the province to advance both the heart and heart programs through the BC government to better serve those who are experiencing homelessness.
And collaborated with the provincial partners to secure over 150 additional shelter spaces in the community.
The heart program is about a new way to coordinate teams with service providers to support in camp and responses and the hearth program is also critical to ensure additional housing and shelter projects are opened and available as soon as possible.
Under the principle of vibrant and growing economies about the city being the regional hub of creativity and innovation were talent and investment business thrives.
This is demonstrated through the record-breaking construction values and approved building permit construction values of approximately $784 million which shows the growth of the city and the different construction projects by the private sector.
I believe it's the success of this achieving this goal is based on the foundation of having a great council strategic plan.
A progressive official community plan, clear zoning bylaws, master plans and neighborhood plans with servicing requirements would help the developer when reviewing building in our community with better understanding of their performance and predictabilities.
We're also continuing our efforts with business process interviews such as with our single family dwelling building permits and tenant improvements.
Now our damper program which is development approval process review which we're going to speak about later today through our planning department which is a process in order to get product in the ground sooner and faster.
In addition we have also been directed by council to develop a truck parking strategy to increase commercial truck parking spaces and options and habits forward.
The strategy started in 2024 and was completed in early 2025 and we are now working on its implementation.
This is being accomplished by updating the official community plan to add light industrial land use designations along Fraser Highway and Brad Narrowed updates to the zoning bylaw to be more permissive for truck parking opportunities and commencing a pilot project for select industrial streets.
Under the principle of organizational excellence and integrity the city's goal is that habits forward has a strong fiscal discipline, consistent governance and aligned operations.
Under that principle council has secured more than a hundred million in grants in 2024 and secured the largest single grant of 76.6 million dollars for the enhancements at Feral Town Pumstation by the PC government.
The enhancements are to help with flood proofing the pump station making it more resilient, visually, back of power source and all of that will also help protect highway one and the farms and the businesses and the prairies.
We've also started planning for the future by council launching the habits forward 2050 plan and update to the city's official community plan which will guide the growth of our city for the next 25 years.
This project is foundational to the city just as council strategic plan is to help achieve that vision for the city.
The city expects to complete this project by the end of 2025 and then we'll get started on the master planning for infrastructure and services for the community and also incorporate that information into a long term capital and operating plan and a long term financial plan including DCC updates as required.
So with that high level overview and comprehensive list of accomplishments, I'd now like to turn the presentation over to Mr. Besatia to speak to and about the 2024 financial report regarding the actual versus a noted expenditures and including the 2024 audited financial statements for your consideration.
Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Sparenese. Good afternoon, Mayor and council. I'm here to present a quick overview of the financial result for 2024 for city of Avisford.
Council may recall that detail report was presented to council already on May 6, 2025 when our auditor was present present and they presented the audited finding an report to start the overall financial result for 2024 were favorable results despite managed.
Countries such a high inflation, supply chain issue, and other external factors. The city ended the year with the operating surplus of $3.7 million in our main fund, which is mainly property taxation. Overall, accounting surplus, which is a piece of surplus for the year was $66.2 million, that is mainly made up of cash and non-cash.
But majority of this are related to cities investment in infrastructures, such as civic buildings, roads, sidewalks, water mines, sewer mines, parks, etc.
Cities net financial asset increased slightly compared to 2023. We are continue to invest our funds into capital reserves. Another $4.4 million reduction in our long term debt as well.
Overall, total revenue for the year was $419 million and property taxation is the main source of revenue for the city, which is $198 million for 2024.
All of our fees and charges that represent 25% which is approximately $100 million. In terms of expenditures, total for the year was $350 million, that's not including amortization or depreciation for the year.
Police is 23% per cent at $72 million in during and operations ended at $54 million, which is roughly about 17% of overall expenditures.
Net financial asset, they showcase the financial health of the city, mainly demonstrate how strong the city is in order to manage its short and long-term financial obligations.
For the city of Avisford, net financial assets are continued to grow since 2011 and ended the year at $382 million.
I would like to highlight for council that this curve will start to normalize or possibly decline, start to see a decrease in the coming year at the city start to invest in our long-term infrastructure.
Any more liquid cash or liquid asset will be translated or will be converted into tangible capital assets. This is a completely normal process and when it comes to net financial assets, that's expected in the long-term.
As we go through our overall capital reserve, overall the city has approximately $314 million in capital reserves as of December 31, 2024.
For the general capital reserve, all funds plus more are already committed. As you can see on this chart, we already committed $23 million access of what we already have in this, and that is for some of the council's strategic government, some of the major project that city will see in the coming years.
As for water waste water airport, they ended the year with the health years or balances, majority of these funds will be allocated as for long-term master plans in those areas.
As for long-term debt, for city of Avisford, we, the city ended the year at $33 million subject to other debt approval for the next few years, the city will pay off the remaining debt by 2032.
We pay approximately $4.4 million towards debt principle when it comes to this outstanding debt.
To summarize, the operating surplus in the main general fund was $3.7 million.
We continue to see strength in our net financial assets, and the developer cost charge is also known as DCC ended the year at $150 million.
With that, the recommendation is that council approved the 2024 and your report.
Myself and city manager were happy to answer any question the council may have.
Recommendation has been moved by Councillor Loan and seconded by Councillor Driesson and any comments or questions.
No, things look good.
Just on the, on the reserves, I think we're just maybe we could give the public just a little bit of an eclipse into, you know, we've got 300 and just shy of 400 million in reserves.
But that also we that identified how many moving forward we've got billions of dollars worth of assets that we want to build.
And so when you say it's going to dip slightly on our long term financial plan, we've got some projects that we want to move forward.
Maybe we could just do a little bit of a deeper dive, just we take it for granted that people know and I think maybe people are listening and they just I wouldn't mind you explaining that a little bit further.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. In terms of our caplers are when it comes to waters or and airport reserves, those are we are collecting funds based on their 20 years master plans and as you can see on this chart.
The uncommitted funds are relatively healthy when it comes to those, but given our infrastructure is relatively younger in those areas those will be completed in the next 20 plus years so eventually we will see a lot more investment when it comes to infrastructure for those.
Our main fund which is general capital reserve and that is related to taxation funds and that is directly related to over net financial asset the one you're referring to as well.
The city has a long term plan which will city will see 1.9 billions of dollars being invested that was based on 20 20 dollars so that number it could be upward towards billion dollars.
That's for the new infrastructure in terms of replacing over 5.7 million dollar infrastructure.
That funding we need we will be relying on general capital reserves so as you can see we already over committed, but that is a multi year plan that's one reason.
It does tie in with our long term financial plan and and our annual financial planning where we actually set aside or console approved 1% infrastructure level to manage our long term infrastructure hopefully that provides some information.
Great thank you I appreciate that because some people say well it's just a rainy day funded and it's just there for you to use at will and it's not it's legislated and but there is a plan and so I always tell people to take a look at what the commitment is take a look at our responsibilities and then if you want to relate that to your home.
We're taking the zeros off at principles are the same so we are in a healthy spot but that's.
That's come at a discipline and focus and it may cannot deviate from that and so we do have lots of options going forward.
But we have to always keep our our eye on the on the this on the fiscal discipline because we can get ourselves into some some hot water if we're not careful and we're going to see some tightening up.
Especially at the federal and provincial levels because that key night was not on the on the bottom line and and we're going to pay a price for that and unfortunately we don't want to go down that path and so I probably said more than I should.
Um, politically I could get into hot water here but so appreciate your your guidance and and your your work on this.
Councillor Gibson. Thank you, Mayor.
Could we get a bit of an elaboration on amenity cost charges.
Please.
Through the chair right just to clarify, Councillor Gibson, is that related to over upcoming new ACC by law, which will be effective as of every first twenty twenty six.
Yeah, that's my understanding, but the report doesn't speak to to them very well if at all and I just curious is to how the process of of initiation will come into effect for the benefit of our community.
Through the through the mayor. Yes, those as for the ACC of a manatee cost charge of those will come in play as of to purpose twenty twenty six.
And that would any charges collected under those will be used for amenities for parks recreation and for trails for those purpose.
I don't see any other questions so I'll call the question all those in favor.
The motion carries and I'll give you a few seconds to get back to your desk.
And I will turn it over to staff at the next item, please.
Thank you Mr. Mayor, next report your worship is 7.2 to present cities twenty twenty four statement of financial information also known as the soapy report.
A statement of financial information presentation to concern involves presenting the city's municipal municipalities financial information for the year, including audited financial statement and schedule of employee nominations and payment to suppliers for the year.
The financial information act requires every local government in BC to submit council approved statement of financial information to the Ministry of Housing and municipal affairs by June 30 of each year.
In twenty twenty four, the number of staff with the remunition greater than seventy five thousand increase to five hundred three compared to four hundred sixty and twenty twenty three.
That's a change of 43 employees.
It needs to be highlighted that threshold of seventy five thousand for soapy employee report has not changed since 2002.
If the threshold had increased by average annual consumer price index CPI over the last twenty year twenty two years.
The new threshold would have been approximately hundred twenty one thousand for twenty twenty four, not seventy five thousand.
Which will greatly reduce the number of employees in access of this threshold.
As for good services purchased by the city, the soapy reports includes the summary of payments made to our outside organizations.
Which total more than twenty five thousand for the reporting year and it is reported on cash basis, including taxes.
Total payment made to suppliers in twenty twenty four were two hundred sixty two million dollars and it includes payment made for some some of the major ongoing projects.
The statements of the financial information is consistent with city of avisports council strategic plan to achieve organizational organizational excellence and integrity.
The information including included in your package provide transparency and accountability to the public regarding municipalities financial activity for twenty twenty four.
But that recommendation is that council approved the twenty twenty four statement of financial information.
We'll be able to answer any question, consult me have on this report.
Recommendations been moved by.
Councilor D recent and seconded by councilor city and any comments or questions.
I'll call the question and all those in favor and the motion carries.
Before we get to the next item, I believe councilor work and as a statement.
Yes, thank you all have to declare a conflict of interest on this item for reasons previously stated on the record.
I'll have the staff introduce the next item please.
Next is item seven point three this is to tell a communication and tenest structure application for three three two zero highway 11 and the director of development planning provided a brief introduction.
Thank you very much. The subject lands are located on the Abbey Mission Highway near the intersection with Hazelwood Avenue.
This time the applicant has requested authorization to install a 35 year monopole telecommunication and tenest structure on the subject lands.
Subject lands are impacted by the stream sites protection by a lot however the sighting of this does comply with the setback requirements of that by a lot.
The proposed design is generally of a high quality and the monopole design is consistent with council's policy with respect to this topic.
City staff have no concerns and recommend the council proceed as highlighted in the recommendation.
Recommendations been moved by councilor city and seconded by councilor treason and any comments or questions.
All those in favor.
The motion carries and we can have council work it in propaganda.
I need some music.
Great I'll have staff proceed with the next item please.
Next item seven point four this is also a telecommunications and tenest structure application for three zero eight a zero down's road.
Subject lands are located in the western part of the city north of the urban development boundary.
Again this is a proposal for a 40 meter monopole telecommunication.
An antenna structure. The proposed location has been positioned in the southern part of the site next to a cluster of trees and the intent here is to service the urban development to the south.
The proposed monopole design is again consistent with council policy. Staff have no concerns with this proposal and recommend council proceed as highlight in the recommendation.
Recommendations by council law and second by council Gibson. Any comments or questions?
All those in favor? The motion carries.
Nobody can accuse us of not being connected. Next item, please.
Next, your workshop is item 7.5 regarding proposed by a lot of changes to the city's regulations for short-term rental accommodations.
And the director at Community Planning Miss Carol will provide an introduction.
I'm sorry to be able to clicker.
Thank you, good afternoon. I'm here seeking direction regarding short-term rental accommodations.
And I'll just start with some contacts, talk about by proposed by-law amendments, next steps and recommendation.
So in the fall of 2023, the province passed the short-term rental accommodations act.
And two of the provisions of that act that I'm highlighting here are one that short-term rentals can occur in the principal resident or an accessory dwelling unit.
And that short-term rentals need to have a provincial registration number.
And that's the subject to municipal business licenses where they're required.
In efforts for currently short-term rentals are regulated as a bed and breakfast.
And by definition, a bed and breakfast must be located in a principal dwelling unit.
And is not permitted on a lot that has a secondary suite garden suite or co-chow.
And there is a requirement to obtain a business license.
So the issue that we're facing is that short-term rental providers and outlets can't obtain a business license if they have a secondary suite.
And the result of that is that of approximately 70 business license applications that the city received prior to May 1st,
about 25 of them have asked to decommission their speeds, which of course is contrary to the city's housing target schools.
So staff are recommending some by-law amendments to remedy this situation.
One is to remove that, remove bed and breakfast and replace with short-term rental accommodation.
And add principal residents as a definition in that context.
We're also proposing to permit short-term rentals in a single detached dwelling or a duplex, plus one accessory unit.
And we're proposing that we require one additional onsite parking space for short-term rentals.
In addition to what's already required based on the building structure.
We're also proposing that the ad short-term rental accommodation as a permitted accessory used throughout single detached and duplex zones.
And for the business license by-law, we're recommending an amendment that would require a business license for short-term rentals,
and that that application include a proof of principal residents, a fire safety plan, and a parking plan.
So next steps if council is amenable would be to prepare communication materials for staff and for the public and bring back by-laws for consideration of adoption.
This slide is our recommendations and I'm glad to answer any questions.
Thank you. You made a complex issue a little easier to understand and I appreciate the work on this.
Move by councilors to do and seconded by council department and any comments or questions.
I appreciate the work and the creative way to try and address.
There's always unintended consequences to new legislation and so to be nimble to address those things when we see a problem.
I appreciate that very much.
I'll call the question.
All those in favor, your motion carries.
Thank you. Next item, please.
Next is item 7.6 regarding the development application process review.
In response to continued and sustained high levels of developing council-directed staff to undertake a development application process review,
similar to that undertaking for the building department.
The city retained neels and strategies to undertake a detailed assessment and to identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the existing development approval system and find opportunities to enhance and align customer service
with industry expectation and standards.
The review is now complete.
Mr. Nielsen is here today to provide an overview of his review and findings.
In consideration of Mr. Nielsen's findings, staff have also completed an implementation plan.
Following Mr. Nielsen's presentation, the director of the development planning, Mr. Collins,
outlined next steps for staff with respect to implementation.
I'll turn it over to Mr. Nielsen for his presentation.
Thank you very much, Mr. Nielsen.
Thank you. Your worship and members of council for having me here today.
It's always nice to be in front of Secretary Council, especially the day after the collapse wave.
So that's, you look very colorful.
I was going to say you make us let the little underdressed.
But we're going to sell inventory mood.
Thank you.
And well deserved.
Your worship, I will do a very brief presentation.
The number of slides, I'm going to go through them fairly quickly.
Then of course, happy to answer any questions council may have.
I'll talk a little bit about the purpose of the scope of the review.
I'll talk about the approach that I took as they consulted along with my colleague,
Shelly Hearst, the we took.
I will talk very briefly about the courage system that's in place right now as it relates to
development approval process.
I'll talk about opportunities for change and then finally some recommendations that are made to the city.
With respect to the purpose of the scope of your worship,
really it's, we started off this review to identify opportunities to strengthen the system we have in place
right now for receiving, examining, and approving applications for development.
The effort really reflected the commitment the atmosphere has and that you've demonstrated in different areas of service
to customer service and continuous improvement.
And it was undertaken also in a context as council will appreciate of significant growth in British Columbia,
but it now is for the particular of affordability pressures and of legislative change
from the provincial government as it relates to the legislative development approval process
and housing regulation in British Columbia cities.
The specific objectives that we put into the review and that we reference several times against the different recommendations
speeds we want to ensure that we have a very fast or as fast as possible review process
so that applicants can get their permits and get their approval as quickly as possible.
We want to make sure that we're efficient in how we use our resources.
We're not creating duplication, we're filling gaps, but in an efficient way.
We want to look at measuring and so what kind of data are we generating, what kind of data are we getting
so we continue to strive for continued improvement.
Customer experience obviously is important and everything the city does and development approvals are no exception to that.
Transparency, very important for transparency for and the sense of transparency for applicants for different types of development approvals
to understand how decisions are being made and understand where their applications are going to be at any particular time in the process
and the filing clarity and predictability.
Really speaking about uncertainty there and one thing that the development industry and all applicants will speak to as the importance of certainty.
In fact, several applicants will speak, I would suggest to certainly be an even more important than speed.
If we know exactly what to expect in the system, we can rely on that.
We can tailor our process, we can deal with our consultants, our sub consultants, our financing, we can line all that up to meet that timeline.
The scope of the review, your worship included processes that are focused on our range of applications,
all the types of applications you would expect everything from rezoning, even official community plan changes,
to development permits, development variants, permits, subdivision, and so forth.
And we wanted to examine the role of different city departments in the process review.
And there are two important particular that are important to examine the first planning and development services that the most important in this respect
and because it is the most heavily involved and owns the system as a word, but also development engineering which plays a very important role
as part of engineering services, engineering utility services, and so that's the other department that we looked carefully at.
The approach, any state work plan was followed, your worship, we had to introduce with all staff who were involved in this system.
That was important, we looked at best practices from across British Columbia, particularly.
We had consultation with the developers and industry professionals, we met a number of times and we went with a number of different applicants and developers.
We had consultation with two of your committees, two of the city committees, and we also one point which isn't listed on this slide,
we did make a presentation of graph findings, two city staff involved, so we consulted with city staff,
and then we went back to staff and shared all of our findings and answered questions.
The current system I once spent any time in this year worship only to mention that it is laid out in the report in detail.
The report's very long documented as you'll notice, so it talks about the purpose of the function, why we have development approvals and what the role of the city is
and providing development approvals.
We talk about the legislative framework that is the framework from both the provincial level, but also the framework as it is at the local level in terms of bylaws.
Staffing all the different staffing who are in the rules and responsibilities of staff and the two different departments,
the approval process itself, the steps that applicants must go through as follow in order to receive their approval.
The technology that we use and in some cases the technology changes we would like to see there that is in place today.
Information applicants as well, the city generates a lot of information, a lot of guidance to applicants which is important part of the process.
And then finally our statistics that we collect and we do that so that we can improve our measurement, we can continue to improve the speed of which we're providing application,
the applicant service and also the types of metrics that we want to and the KPIs that we want to identify there.
The report lists out a number of different opportunities.
I'm going to list these very quickly and then I'm going to jump to the recommendations because the recommendations your worship correspond to these opportunities.
And we've divided the opportunities into two parts, the first is for the planning to development services department and the second is for development engineering.
Opportunities relate to development and acquiring meetings, these are the meetings that applicants have with the city prior to submitting an application.
File management, once an application is submitted to the city, how do we manage that file to make sure it gets to the right people at the right time.
Application tracking, I talked earlier about transparency being very important, how do we track applications through the system and how do we show applicants where the application is at any particular time target timelines.
Do we have specific targets that we aspire to that we want to reach targets about how long it's going to take us to review and applications and provide approvals.
The development application review team is a multi-disciplinary team.
The city has a place to bring together staff from different departments to focus on individual application that have implications for the different departments.
It is a best practice, it is something that is relatively unique to applicants for it's been emulated by other places.
We think it's an excellent thing to have in place. We've identified a few things that we would suggest the city consider changing to make it even stronger.
Streaming applications on other point, how do we ensure that we are focusing our efforts and resources on those applications that council deives to be most important.
Review letters, we'll talk about review letters, they're the letters that go to the applicant.
Once the application has received a review and they outline all of the conditions that must be met in order to receive approval.
Delegation of authority, council makes a number of decisions and cannot delegate authority for decision making or certain things, but it can in other cases.
And we like to do that whenever possible in order to expedite the approval.
Authority of file managers, every file gets a file manager, it's important that the file manager understands their role in the system and has the authority to make decisions.
Templates and Professional Alliance, how do we give guidance to applicants that they can give to their consultants to provide the reports that will expedite the review process.
Technology, how do we harness technology to ensure we move quickly through the system and then internal support.
How do we support our staff to make sure that they can make decisions that make sure that they information flows across desk.
Very quickly, your worship development engineering, there are just four opportunities listed in here.
The first talks about the role of the authority of the development engineering section.
We'll talk about that.
The second or late hits, those are asks that come late and later than expected in the review process.
Development and servicing agreements, habits for a little bit unique in this respect.
You have two different types of agreements that are required of applicants.
We'll talk about that.
And then the quality of applications that comes through the system and how it's so important to ensure that applicants understand and are given the tools to be able to provide very high quality applications.
You're worried about both through just touch on some of the key recommendations listed here.
The report lays on all of the recommendations I've just taken extra from those and the ones that in my view are the most important to communicate at this point.
We'll start first of all with the planning and development services.
The first as it relates to development and choir meetings, those meetings I mentioned are the ones that happened before an application is submitted.
They right now at the city and other places where they are provided.
They tend to be very quick affairs.
They tend to be free of charge.
They get staff can easily get inundated with responding to these.
It's a way to kind of clog up the system as a word.
We're suggesting some changes to require a pre-application meeting, which is a development and choir meeting.
That is much more than that.
It is a very robust process that brings together key staff from...
Different departments to review applications with the applicant or to review concepts I should say, with the applicant prior to an application being submitted.
So we believe that it's a best practice that is a place of many places and it tends to set a little bit of a higher bar so that those individuals who are thinking about applying tend not to go through a pre-application meeting until they're quite certain they wish to apply.
One of the reasons, one of the ways that we enforce that bar is that we attach a pre-application meeting fee.
We suggest that that be $1100 that is based on a review of the same fees across the lower mainland.
It is also something that would be credited back to the applicant if they do proceed with in a six-month period.
Again, it's a way to try to keep from the system applications that are perhaps not robust, not serious enough those kinds of things so that the applications that are in the system are the ones
that really provide the housing and the other kinds of developments that the community wishes.
File management, we've suggested here that once an application is submitted, that a file is assigned to a file manager within two weeks.
Sometimes things get a little backed up and there's a whole bunch of legitimate reason for that backup.
We suggest in the report some ways, however, to ensure that within two weeks it's with the file managers, so that we expedite that as much as possible.
We do like the application tracking, as I mentioned, it's a way for staff to track where the applications are, but also more importantly, perhaps, for the applicants to understand where their applications are in any particular time.
They do also benefit as they reduce the amount of time staff have to respond to inquiries from applicants.
We're asking about where their applications are, so by putting this type of data, by putting these types of this type of information into an online system, applicants can see that quickly.
Once we start to get that data, once we start to get that capacity in place, we can then start also to measure how long it's taking us in a more robust way.
Measure more robustly, how long it's taking us consistently to review and to issue applications for development, different types of permits.
And that allows us then if we wish to start to identify and even publish target timelines, so that we have that certain that we also make ourselves more attractive as a place in which to develop.
So we've suggested that the city create publisher report annually on a set of timelines for milestones.
The development application review tonight, I mentioned earlier as a team as a, as a, meets weekly as a team that comes together with represented as a various departments, all the room have some roles to play in reviewing applications for development.
Right now, all applications for development come to the development application review team.
We think that's a notable and summary specs, but it's a little bit overkill.
What we're suggesting is that we streamline that a little bit so that people who are participating in that meeting can be a little bit more focused on those specific applications that have the potential to create conflicts between and among departments.
Because the purpose of that team really is to sort out how the different departments are going to work together and
reach compromises and determine how they're going to allow the development to proceed through the system.
So it's important to get that done quickly. We can get it done more quickly if we focus specifically on those types of developments.
Streaming applications right now, habits for like many municipalities has a first-in first-out system.
That system says in essence, when I submitted an application to you, you will look at mine in the order in which I submitted it irrespective of the magnitude of the type of development behind me or in front of me.
That is a very egalitarian approach. It has also an approach that recognizes that every application is important to the city.
However, it's an approach that doesn't recognize that the reality is that not all applications are equally important to the city.
Some applications based on council priorities based on the need to the community will be more importantly more important than others.
What we're suggesting here is that we try to parse or try to pull apart that first-in first-out system and we use our staff and assign staff in a way that we have a separate line for very simple applications to get them done and out of the systems so people are waiting for simple permits.
That we have our main applications and then we also have a third line if you will for applications that can form two or pick up on specific council priorities and that's for council to decide it could be related to affordable housing or whatever council wishes.
Review letters, I noted earlier that every application every major application gets a review letter through the review process.
We want to always make sure that there's one review letter and that means that there's only one review letter and there are multiple review letters that tell applicants the conditions they must meet.
It's going to take a little bit of time so we want to have that in place we want to have a comprehensive we want to have templates and checklists that staff can use and applicants can use to read through the review letters ensure that they've addressed everything in the review letters so that when they resubmit the information or when they submit additional information.
The likelihood of having a very complete second submission is very strong.
We've also been because putting together one review letter could be a little bit more time consuming we've suggested that file managers use their authority to communicate in advance of your buff letters with different applicants and to let them know the kinds of things that we know we're going to be coming in the review letters so that they can start to address them.
Delgation authority we've suggested that the city maximize the delegation of approval authority to staff for development permits minor development variance permits and all of their permits for which approval may be delegated.
As a way simply to recognize the council it's very important for council to hold on to that authority and in fact a must hold on to the authority for resilience and other types of applications.
But some types of applications staff are you have a very qualified staff and they're able to look at those and understand councils policies and how they may.
That the room within which those policies that that are is acceptable and for staff then to approve those on behalf of the city.
Templates and Professional Reliances we always want to make sure that we provide guidance to applicants and their consultants so that the reports that come in in response to the requirements to see puts out are easy to go through and easy to make decisions on there is a provision.
The municipalities have to require peer reviews of different reports that come in different works of consultants and where the city deems that a particular report does not pass mustard does not kind of reach a certain level of standard that the city wishes it to see.
The city can require the applicant to get a peer review to have a peer review of the applicant's cost that's not something the city's like to do regularly but it's important authority to have in place so that we can continue to allow things to flow through without getting too hung up on on a piece of work that is not to there's not meeting the city's needs or standards.
There was a very quickly then with respect to development engineering right now development engineering is the very important group with the city that will look at applications for development and will provide comments and information back and.
And a link conditions back on the works and services that must be provided by the applicant in order to receive approval for the development.
Development engineering technicians are the people who do those reviews they're in a separate part right now that that section is part of the broader engineering services.
When applications come in, a present what has been the case and effort is not entirely unique in this respect what has been the cases that applications come in the go to development engineering development engineering then fans of those applications to all of the other engineering groups utilities the roads and so forth.
That results in quite a bit of delay because of those folks in those different groups don't spend their time typically focusing on development applications they're focused on other things ensuring that the city has the worst of services in place risk is managed to so forth.
So it takes a lot of time for those referrals come back and in most cases we know those referrals aren't adding much value because a lot of the stuff is fairly straightforward.
So there are going to be cases where developments come in that have particularly unique or challenging infrastructure implications and needs.
And in those cases we're going to want the development technicians and engineering technicians to indeed pass it on to the engineers in the different sections of engineering and provide.
And receive input back and guidance back from those engineers so we always want to allow for that but a good 80% of the application should be manageable and be able to address to be addressed by the development engineering technicians which will cut a lot of time out of the system and really also emphasize and amplify the role of the development engineering team.
So we've suggested then that the city strengthened the role of this development engineering section leading and not merely coordinating the works of services review of applications and we have a tool that we've laid out in the report which is a development review process protocol to acknowledge the authority of the development engineering section.
And to assign clear roles and limits to other groups and engineering and regional utilities.
We said threshold in place beyond which we go to the other groups, shy of which we stay with the development engineering.
Late hits, we suggested that the city create a late hits policy to limit the imposition of additional demands on development component after comprehensive letters have been issued.
Development service and agreements, development and service and agreements excuse me, it's very common it's in fact it's it's ubiquitous across municipalities that when applications come in they typically get a service and agreement with the city which lays out and take security deposits for the types of works of services that applicants must provide in order to proceed with their development.
So we have it for a little bit unique that it has two different agreements one is a development agreement which happens as a condition of zoning and then the others a service agreement which happens later in the subdivision building permit process.
That's a little bit difficult in the sense that it puts towards the end of the process of the service agreement the full more robust set of requirements.
And at the front end it allows a later touch as a word that later touch favors applicants who are more interested in selling their in flipping their their lots are not proceeding with development after they receive rezoning.
We're suggesting that the city has had some review of this done by another technical consulting group as well on this some time ago we're suggesting that we replace these two separate agreements with a simple service and agreement that would be done as a condition of rezoning would move everything to the front end.
Which would add time to the front end but would save time to the back end but more importantly we would also then ensure that the developers who are going through our system have met and laid out and paid their deposits on all of the service agreement issues early in the process and then would want to continue in order to recover their investment would quickly go to develop once they have approval in that.
So that's that is the standard approach across municipalities we're simply suggesting that average food follow that approach.
I will pass it now your worship over to Blake who's going to make some comments on implementation.
I think I would like to say thank you to Mr. Nielsen but there's a lot of recommendations in here and potentially a lot of work moving forward.
So thank you Mr. Nielsen.
As councilors heard there's a number of recommendations contained within this report and by way of summary there's 16 in total for the two divisions dealing with development at the city of Abbottford.
When staff reviews those opportunities that have been laid out by Mr. Nielsen we kind of cluster those recommendations into three kind of categories expanded use of technology.
Business innovation and process modernization and communications.
The last of that is simply the tools that we used to do our job and how we can utilize those tools better to achieve our objectives.
16 recommendations is a lot and unfortunately moving from where we are today to executing those is going to take some time so subsequently receiving the report.
The first step for staff was to review those recommendations with committees and others involved in development process to verify those outcomes on those recommendations.
staff did approach to different committees and the urban development instantly is on group that the city of Abbottford hosts to review those recommendations with the consultant.
And as a result of those I can say that there was a general tone of optimism and committees and appreciation for both wanting to complete this exercise and the recommendations kind of coming forward.
Unfortunately we won't be able to do it all at the same time so subsequent confirming those recommendations staff reviewed all of the recommendations plus some additional opportunities that staff felt there was to come up with the short term priorities that could come out of the data review.
The slide in front of council today is the five key outcomes that staff believe can be delivered in the short term and they are anticipated to provide the greatest benefit to our customers whether that's in terms of timing information sharing collaboration etc.
So by way of summary the five short term priorities is staff are recommending to council that we move forward with or one the digitization and modernization of development application processes.
This is simply wrapping our digital processes into every single application that we have at the city of Abbottford and then putting that online forum where developers can follow their applications moving through the system.
Number two on the list is alternative public notification number of years ago the provincial government amended the legislation to allow opportunities beyond the newspaper to complete required statutory notification requirements.
There are some hiccups in this system when we have multiple council meetings today and in terms of our notification requirements in newspaper deadlines.
So we think that there's an opportunity to pursue other means to achieve that objective that will streamline the development application process.
Number three is Mr. Nielsen suggested is the delegation of minor variance permits to staff.
There is some themes that council sees very regularly in terms of the variances and we think there's an opportunity to recalibrate the system and save some procedural touch points and steps for developers and applicants.
Number four is the replacement of development agreements with servicing agreements as we heard earlier this is a fairly unique process to Abbottford and lower mainland and so moving to a single servicing agreement would align us with industry expectation throughout the lower mainland.
And number five and complete the immediate short term priorities is reviewing the terms of reference for the development application review team.
And that's really to institute that tearing effect or the multiple streams effect that.
The consultant is suggested in their recommendation. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that Project 1 is the largest and probably most complicated of those projects in the list, but there is funding support that comes from a housing capacity funding to the tune of approximately $500,000 to execute that project.
That project would require external resources that we would partner with IT in order to deliver and build out that part of the project.
So with that to all said, this is the recommendation for Council's consideration today. I have a recommendation number one is simply receiving a report and item number two is to direct staff to proceed with the immediate short-term priorities as we've highlighted here today.
Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Nielsen, for a very comprehensive report. I know it's even working a long time on this.
Do we have a mover to move by Councillor Ross and seconded by Councillor Loan and questions? Councillor Gibson?
Well, it's a pretty impressive report. A lot of very helpful information but I have a couple of questions.
Development agreement is replaced by the servicing agreement. So what's the benefit to our development community? What will that change implemented?
Will it be the benefit to our development community and our citizens?
Thank you for your worship, too. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you very much.
There were a couple of minutes. And I should mention, just as Mr. Collins mentioned, as I mentioned earlier in my comments, right now we have both the development agreement and the servicing agreement.
The advantage of eliminating one and simply having the servicing agreement and moving the servicing agreement to the front end of the process.
The advantage for developers is, first of all, we have, it's industry standards, Mr. Collins mentioned, so they're used to doing that.
Second is that they understand very clearly early in the process during the rezoning what the different requirements are going to be.
So they have that information early, they can do their costume early. The third and then two is that the building permit process, which at the time at which developers are keen to start building,
because they've already got their finance, inflation, everything, that goes faster at that point because you've moved it to the front end.
I notice the financial services industry has one person that is their contact, so if you go into a credit unit bank, you'll talk to Bob, you won't be put off to somebody else.
Have you alluded to it a little bit, but do you recommend that we do something like that where public has a personality, an actual person here, they can contact, rather than a kind of an amorphous approach.
I'm just wondering what you think about that.
Thank you very much for the question, again, through the mayor.
Yes, we do that and we already do that to some degree and we're suggesting to both of that even more.
Every application will have a file manager and that file manager is very important that that person understands their role very clearly and their responsibilities and also has the authority to be the sole contact point.
Many cities, every city pretty much have use of that file manager system.
It's first got some very good staff to play that role.
At times there can be, depending on workload and stuff, sometimes what will not always get the clarity would want, but we've been talking with staff and talking with the report that we put forward and really emphasizing the role and the authority of that person to be exactly.
So as you mentioned, that single point of contact to be able to make decisions to be able to be that kind to it to others in the organization without having the applicant feel that they perhaps should be approached the others.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Situ and then Councillor Griesen.
Thank you, Mayor.
I have a question for you.
Thank you to Mr. Nielsen.
I've mentioned the servicing and grieving and moving that up.
Would that cause any issues with the developers as far as funding is concerned?
Because now they're generally in third reading PLA.
Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but they can go for funding and now we're asking that up front.
Will that cause not issues with the developer?
Thank you very much for the question for your worship.
We talked to a number of developers in the industry who favor this move because it's standard for them across the lower mainland.
So I don't think they'll still get the certainly they'll have from having the rezoning, because they'll still have the rezoning as they get their funding.
So they'll still be that certainty.
They'll still make their security deposits to the city based on that.
It's arguably because it is more front-end.
They will need to get that financing earlier than they would if it's back in.
That's even with the current system where we have our development, our where we have our development agreements.
Even then we're still happy to do some bonding.
The facility provides some financing now.
So it could be a small impact.
However, we feel that we, in reaching out to the development community, that wasn't raised as a concern.
And in the report, there's one of the recommendation was late hits.
But again, I couldn't miss that, so I do apologize.
But I didn't see that in the implementation.
Through the mayor to Councillor Situ, so staff acknowledge that late hits can be very problematic for developers.
And although the late hit policy is not on the short-term list, it is front-end center and on the mind of staff while reviewing files.
Staff of identified several process changes to reduce the likelihood of late hits occurring.
These changes are built into the existing five short-term projects, particularly in the dark review process.
And as well as the transition from the DA to the servicing agreement.
Wait, another question?
Sure.
And just the question to staff.
And I know he goes short-term and medium-term long-term and starts from about a year and a half to about three years.
And what would success look like at the end of what are metrics that we potentially may be using?
Through the Mayor of Councillor Situ, thank you for that question.
Well, the goal of the onset of this, of course, was to seek opportunities for efficiency and improvements to the developing application process review.
Mr. Nielsen outlined the objectives of the project and each action item has those objectives associated with them.
So we understand what objectives we're achieving with each one of those recommendations.
You know, those include things such as quicker turnaround and shorter timelines or better customer experience or greater transparency and start to the process.
Some of those can be measured. Others to a lesser degree.
But we do feel that collectively these recommendations will make a significant and noticeable improvement to our development application process review.
And while this report certainly is a milestone for us in this journey of process improvement,
I will say that process improvement is ongoing. So beyond this report, staff will be continually looking for opportunities to improve and be efficient.
And that's based on priorities of council and priorities of the development community at that point in time.
Great, thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Fesan.
Thank you, Mayor, and to Councillor Situ for asking the questions about late hits because that was one of the ones I was going to also ask.
The other and for Mr. Neil for that explanation.
My question. The other thing I had noted here was regarding strengthening the role of the development engineering department.
And there was mentioned of the development review process protocol agreement.
But is that included? Is that somewhere within the implementation summary as well? That's actually sorry.
I've been clear. Where can you start it up? Is that in there? Is that just under short the very first digitization and I'll just let you answer actually before I make assumptions.
Through the merit to Councillor Driesen again under that role and authority umbrella.
There's many things the staff are looking at through each of those short term staff and as we work through our processes in the digitization process.
The dark review again is looking at what files go to dark what files stay in the development engineering world, but not get referred up to engineering.
So all of that kind of role and authority is built into those short term things as well. Yes.
So just to clarify then that they're built into the short term. So you're thinking that it'll be within the eight.
Sorry. What is this again? 18 to 36 or that's medium zero to 18 month. That is how long you're thinking that will. Okay. Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Council department.
My question is to do with who monitors the success or not the success on the media short term files or the 16 recommendations.
Does that come under or with the file managers bring that information back to someone else or house it monitors.
Through the merit to Councillor Barkman. I believe the question is how are we tracking these recommendations and implementation of these items.
Yes. So Mister Mister calls it outlined the five that we see is the the greatest opportunity or the quick wins or the low hanging fruit as you may to achieve some some opportunities and that's done over the next zero to 18 months.
So that that means that that happens within this council term and then the remaining items which are a little more involved and ongoing or longer term would be something we revisit at the completion of this first round of short term.
This is now it be something we bring to council for endorsement for implementation.
If I've gotten application in where six months through the process and there's changes being may do they get made with application from when the reviews done or can they go.
Congratulations you had to do for the first six months, but now you're under the changes that we've identified because of whatever issue comes up.
Yeah, through the merit to Councillor Barkman. Thank you for that follow up.
In some cases, these are our changes that require by a lot change or policy change. I'll be brought to council and once that is adopted or endorsed by council.
The implemented immediately others are procedural changes happening within the department and we will be looking to implement those immediately in the short term.
So if it applies for an application today and it's a procedural change, we'll look to make that change immediately.
Great.
Thank you. I don't see any other questions. I just wanted to comment that this work has all been ongoing and we appreciate you work on this.
Mr. Nielsen because we've also had record number of building permits and building permit values coming through the system and I know some of these changes to some people seem overdue but I have to say we are in full flight and so your work has been very helpful and I know that we're continually trying to improve as we go.
The changes that we have to make through by us as Mr. Nielsen has just brought up will happen hopefully sooner as opposed to later but just wanted to give a special thank you for the work on this but also the staff and you know for those watching.
We've got a lot going on in this community. I've a lot of things are going well and we're constantly looking at improvements to try and move things forward a little quicker.
And also to build the housing that is needed but also to make sure that we have a well functioning community that are adding also to our infrastructure and all the things that we need to go with it.
So just wanted to acknowledge that that doesn't happen overnight, it doesn't happen by accident and so thank you.
With that, I'll call the question, all goes in favor and the motion carries.
Thank you, and next item please.
Next item 7.7, this is a rezoning application for 320066 and 320082 Tim's Avenue and 282828292838 and 2839 Alice Street.
Thank you very much. subject lands are located in Central Habitsford near the city center neighborhood planning area.
subject lands are located adjacent to Clearbrook Road.
The proposed assembly have involved six properties and those properties are presently designated urban one mid rise by the 2016 OCP.
These parcels carry corresponding RS3 zoning and the applicant has requested rezoning these parcels to new comprehensive development zone and 104.
And 104 zone is largely based on the city's standard RMM multifamily apartment zone with a 6 story built form.
In this instance there are a couple of deviations that are included within the proposed C zone and that includes a setback reduction from 6 meters to 5.44 meters.
Staff generally have no concerns with the setback reduction in this context given there's a 3 meter pan handle to the south and existing substantial vegetation along the adjacent property.
In addition to that there is a deviation included within the proposed C zone to permit a projection of 1.2 meters along the interior of a lot line.
Again this doesn't change the overall living area but will improve the livability of outside decks and that sort of thing so staff have no concerns with that deviation.
Overall the proposed forming characters of a high quality and utilizes a contemporary style of architecture to satisfy the development permit guidelines.
Staff is in receipt of a form and character development permit and should council favorably consider the rezoning that application will be reviewed by staff.
In conjunction with development there are approximately 32 onsite trees that are proposed for removal removal and replacement will be reviewed and fine.
Analyze with the corresponding development permit. This proposal is consistent with the Official Community Plan and staff supports this application.
Recommendations been moved by Councillor Situ and seconded by Councillor Barkman and any comments or questions on this item.
All those in favour? The motion carries. And the next item, please.
Under the new rules that the province has brought in, the would have been notifications that went to the community.
So if you have specific questions, you can ask staff and if you wanted to wait,
don't be too much longer and then you can ask staff those specific questions.
But unfortunately, this aligns with the Official Community Plan.
So public comment is directed to work directly with staff when those notifications go out and they would have been that notification time.
And you could have, that's the time to have specific questions, but there's still time to have a chat with staff on those.
But they do not have public hearings anymore if it aligns with the Official Community Plan.
So that's the new process that they put in place. I think it's been in place about a year and a half now.
But staff will be here if you want to have a chat with them after and it will be probably another five or ten minutes.
Next item, please. Next item, seven point eight, a rezoning application for two, three, six, six Broadway Street.
Subject lands are located near the intersection of Broadway Street and Pairdenville Road.
These lands are presently designated urban three info by the Official Community Plan and carry a corresponding RS-3 eye zoning.
This time the application wishes to rezone the parcel to RS-4 eye, which is the city's standard duplex zone to facilitate a future duplex development on the subject property.
This proposal is consistent with the OCP and staff support this application.
Move by Councillor Lowen and seconded by Councillor Ross and any comments or questions on this item.
Call the question that all those in favour and any opposed.
Was that in favour or opposed Councillor Gibson?
Thank you. Then the motion passes the next item, please. Next item, seven point nine, a rezoning application for three, three, four, zero, six, Hawthorne Avenue.
Subject lands are located north of King Road and south of Highway 1.
The site is located west of the McCallum Road interchange. Subject property was located within the U District Neighborhood Planning Area and as a result of that process, the existing urban three info land use designation was reaffirmed.
Subject properties presently zoned RS-3 eye and at this time the applicant's wishing to rezone the land to RS-7, if that is approved by Council of the applicant tends to construct an 18-lot subdivision.
The site has substantial trees located on it today and in conjunction with development approximately 132 trees are proposed for removal.
A tree cutting permit is required to complete this work and through that permitting process replacement trees or cash and lieu will be secured.
This proposal is consistent with the OCP and staff support this application.
This has been moved by Councilor Sidhu and seconded by Councilor Jason.
Councilor Jason has a question.
Yes, thank you. Just wanted to confirm the Kirk Avenue will still go through. Well, that still doesn't change is to that road.
Your worship through the Councilor Jason, the section of Kirk Avenue that's contained within the subject property is not dedicated today.
The application would be dedicated and constructed.
Okay, so the plan then is for it to eventually not not go through. Sorry.
With this application, Kirk Road will be completed and that work will be finalized.
That's sorry, that's what I meant. Yes, thank you for understanding.
Great. Any other comments or questions?
All those in favor?
Sorry. Did you have a comment?
I don't know if it's something I should be saying at this point. I can say just expressed that I was disappointed that there are so many trees there.
And almost all of them are going to go. I did read the arborist report, but most of the justification mainly just said that it confronted with the building envelope.
But it just, I don't know. It's easy for me to say from this and but it did look like some of them could have been saved because they could have been accommodated within the backyards, but
I don't know. I'm sure staff have had those discussions, but I'm just I'll just express my disappointment that more trees could be saved here. That's an awful lot that we're losing.
Great and hopefully the developer understands that trees and backyards might help sell the lots, so hopefully hopefully there will be some some abilities there.
But I appreciate reason out all those in favor and any opposed motion carries. Next item please.
Next item 7.10. This is a rezoning application for 2.826 Maple Street.
Subject lands are located in Central Abbotsford and located within the historic downtown neighborhood planning area.
As a result of that process, the existing urban three in Philanious designation was reaffirmed.
Subject lands are presently zoned RS-3I and at this time the applicant wishes to reason the parcel to RS-7. If that rezoning application is approved by Council, the applicant intends to construct it to subdivision.
Subject lands contain 17 existing trees and 8 are proposed for removal and conjunction with development with the remaining trees in the rear yard set proposed for retention. This proposal is consistent with the official clean plan and staff support this application.
It moved by Councillor Gibson and seconded by Councillor Varkman and any comments or questions on the Maple Abbott view.
All those in favor in the motion carries in the next item please. Next item 7.11 is rezoning application for 3.2564 Peertonville Road.
Subject lands are located fronting Peertonville Road near the intersection with Broadway Street.
This designated urban three in Phil by the official community plan. This time the applicant wishes to reason the parcel from RS-3I to RS-4I in order to accommodate a future dueplex proposal. This proposal is consistent with the OCP and staff support this application.
We moved by Councillor Lowen and seconded by Councillor Ross and any comments or questions on the Peertonville Road one.
All those in favor in the motion carries. Next item please. Next item 7.12 is a rezoning application for 2.028 Primero Street and 3.3069 Marshall Road.
Subject properties located at the intersection of Marshall Road and Primero Street. These lands are designated health campus by the 2016 official community plan and the building was constructed on the southern larger personal adheres to that menu designation.
This time the applicant's wish to reason the northern parcel from RS-3 to P-8 in order to accommodate a 430 meter square due to office building. In conjunction with that map amendment the proponent is also requesting a site specific text amendment to the health campus zone to add a veterinary hospital as a permitted use on that property.
Site planning councils package shows the proposed configuration that includes some surface parking and also an extension to the underground parking in order to satisfy the zoning pilot requirements.
Should council favorably consider the zoning amendment staff will be reviewing the associated form a character development permit.
Overall the architectural style is generally of a high quality and staff have no concerns with the proposals ability to comply with the official community plan development permit guidelines.
Staff support this application recommend council proceed as highlighted in the recommendation.
Recommendations will move by councilor.
Seconded by councilor Kipsen and you have a question.
Through the staff through your mayor. How is the parking accessed.
Thank you. Your ship through the councilor gives in access is anticipated by a Primero Street into a surface lot.
That surface light you would have access to the underground parking as well.
When vehicles turn off Marshall under the side street to access the building.
What's the what's the magazine there in terms of between.
Sometimes I've seen that where cars.
Turn.
But they're creating obstacles behind because there's lots of cars turning off Marshall. How do we avoid any problem like that.
Your ship through to council gives in access here was determined in the previous phase of development. It was located as far north as possible based on the assembly that occurred.
This application was reviewed by engineering at this point there was no concerns with that access configuration.
Thank you.
I don't see any other comments or questions. I'll call the question then all those in favor.
The motion carries.
And next item please.
Next is item 7.13. This is a rezoning application for 2.385 Pyrtonville Road.
Subject property is located in the intersection of Simpson Road and Pyrtonville Road.
Subject lands are presently designated general industrial by the Official P plan and have a historic zoning of A1.
This time the applicant wishes to resume that to general industrial to accommodate future industrial development on this parcel.
There is an access right of way that is presently registered on title of the subject lands.
Although the access that is evident on the air photo here does not align with that.
There is a recommendation in the recommendation for council to resolve this discrepancy prior to adoption.
In conjunction with this application there is a small cash and blue recommendation to allow for future signalization of the industrial areas consistent with past practice and previously considered rezoning applications in this neighborhood.
Overall this application is consistent with the OCP and staff support this application subject to resolution of the conditions contained within the recommendation.
The moves by councilperson and seconded by councilor work and in any comments or questions.
All those in paper motion carries.
Thank you. That was a marathon for you.
And next item please.
Thank you Mr. Mayor item a point one is by law three six three three twenty twenty five which is a development cost charges in position by law twenty twenty one number three one seven four.
Amendment by law twenty twenty five number three six three three this by laws ready for adoption.
Adoptions been moved by councilperson and seconded by.
Councilor Ross and any comments all those in paper.
The motion carries next item please.
Item eight point two is by law three six three seven twenty twenty five which is the amenity cost charges in position by law twenty twenty five.
This by laws ready for adoption.
Move my councilor Ross seconded by council Park.
And this is the amenities cost charge by law that councilor Gibson was asking about and that will be able to start collecting those next year.
All those in paper.
The motion carries next item please.
Item eight point three is by law three six three four twenty twenty five which is the abyss for zoning by law twenty fourteen number two four zero zero.
Amendment by law twenty twenty five number three six three four this by laws ready for adoption.
The options been moved by council and no one and seconded by.
Councilor Sedu and.
All those in paper.
The motion carries in the next item please.
Item eight point four is by law three five eight nine twenty twenty five which is amendment six five three to the city zoning by law.
Further properties located at one nine seven four horizon street three three three three eight three and three three three nine one hall and avenue three three four four three three four three four three four four three four three four four three four four three two four and three three four three four three zero Marshall wrote this by laws ready for adoption.
The options have been moved by Councillor Soudou and seconded by Councillor Ross and all
those in favour, the motion carries.
We will now recess the council meeting and reconvene after the public hearing which is
scheduled for 6 p.m. this evening.
So if I could, I would entertain a motion to recess, move by Councillor Ross, seconded by
Councillor Gibson and all those in favour and then the folks, the lady that had a
question, if you just want to, our staff will come and have a chat with you.
Thank you and we'll see you at 6 o'clock.
Thank you.
We are ready to go, so good evening, and we will now convene the regular meeting of council.
Can I have a motion to convene?
Move by Councillor Gibson, second by Councillor Brackman, all those in favour?
Welcome back. I'll turn it over to staff for the next item, please.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Item 9.1 contains three motions for council's consideration.
The first motion is by law 364525, which is amendment 35 to the city's official community plan by law.
For the property located at 3474 Gladwin Road, following this evening's public hearing.
This by-laws before council for consideration of third reading.
Third reading has been moved by Councillor Shawall and that has been seconded by Councillor Drieson.
Any comments or questions? This is the Gladwin Road I perversite property on the United Church.
Councillor Loan. Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, just it's very encouraging. I just want to make this
good general comment about this innovative way of using large institutional properties
in this case, specifically church properties that may be underutilized and they turning it into
a social purpose such as the one that is proposed is commendable for that church community.
I want to applaud them and for my understanding there are maybe a few other local churches who
are in the process of moving in the same direction. So kudos to this community for
a championing this use of their property. Highly committed. Thank you.
And I know there was some written submission, a little bit of a concern about parking
traffic. And I could, you know, the church is going to remain there but it would be included in
the project. So, and then it will be seniors housing. I don't think there's going to be
and as our staff had indicated through the reports that there isn't going to be an unreasonable burden
of extra traffic as a result of this that has basically already there. So I do concur with your
comments. This is, I think it's going to be a template for maybe others to follow because it is a unique
and innovative way and a better way to utilize properties. And so I think it's a great template for
others to follow and it was worked well in other air in a couple of other cities. So I'm looking forward
to seeing this go through. So, I'll call the question, all those in favor. And it passes unanimously.
Thank you. Next item, please.
The second most. Sorry. I caught myself a little too late there. I can also work into
needs to refuse for, I'll let you. Just a moment, Mr. Mayor, before we go there we do still have two remaining
sub items for 9.1. I'm a rest of your actually than I think. I am so sorry. Yes, I will go back
to you for the second and third motions. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The second motion for council's
consideration is by law 364625, which is amendment 688 to the city's zoning by law for the property
located at 3474 Gladwin Road. This bylaws before council for first second and third readings.
Move the council by council. I'm a councilor Ross, all those in favor. Motion carries.
And the third motion, please. The third motion for council's consideration is by law 366125,
which is amendment 701 to the city's zoning by law for the property located at 3474 Gladwin Road.
This bylaws before council for first second and third readings.
Move a council for Barclin. Seconded by councilors to do and any further comments or questions,
all those in favor. The motion carries. Thank you for being gracious.
And now I will turn it over to council. We're content to say statement. Yes, I'll have to step out
you a conflict that's previously discussed. And I will now turn this back to staff for the next
item, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Item 9.2 contains three motions for council's consideration.
The first motion is by law 36392025, which is amendment 34 to the city's official
community plan by law for the properties located at 2111 and 2133. Welcome road following this
evening's public hearing. This bylaws before council for consideration of third reading.
Third reading has been moved by council shahal and seconded by council Ross and open two
comments or questions council Ross. Thank you. Yes, first of all I just wanted to say how much I
appreciate the people who spoke that clearly read the report. I always love to see that.
So just in terms of the concerns of the wildlife corridor area, I get people's concerns about
that pinch point and the wildlife crossing walk. But so after that I reread the part of the report that
discuss that. So I just want to pull out a couple of pieces of that that over 1000 meters square
of naturalized force will be maintained and there will be a 2.1 rehabilitation but
just pull out some of the things that they're going to be doing. The rehabilitation includes
a planning of 400 trees and shrubs removing and existing driveway and grass lawn and replacing them
with native trees and shrubs. It also includes removal of invasive plant species and wildlife
savage relic salvage relocation. It will also be protected by a fence to the east so that people
can't encroach into the wildlife area. So looking at all that it does look like we are actually creating
more home in habitat for the wildlife area there and maybe I know wildlife still likes to move around but
maybe they might be less inclined to feel the need to cross a busy highway. If through this development
it will create a better home behind that for them. So I will support this.
Thank you. It's Sarah. I just want to, yeah. Also, I just want to thank those who came out as well.
I appreciate staff's response when it comes to traffic because I also feel that having driving in that
area frequently as well. But knowing that the current zoning supports could support potentially
even higher level of cars in and out of driveways if they were to for example have another fast food
restaurant or whatnot at that end. It does help help me to lean more towards supporting this
development. Knowing that this is actually the better of two options and wanting to make use of that land
and the other piece that I was just going to speak to was with regards to this school capacity because
I did ask this question when this was first presented and I know the staff didn't quite respond but they
know the elementary school and this catchment is at 68%. So I know the middle and you all sorry middle
and high secondary schools are over capacity but at the elementary level there is still that capacity there and as
they move up hopefully we'll have see some movement with the school district and some expansions but
reading through the report and seeing that the school district did not flag this or indicate that they were
just unsupportive of it for those reasons I think I will be supporting this application.
Thank you council Parkman. Yes I might go back to what was brought up at the
lady about the speeds and the amount of traffic I guess I'm just said before I travel as
quite frequently and if the development or at this time we don't maybe I should go back to
you have we had any traffic counts on that area to see at what point this would
weren't left-turners at that intersection. You're worship yes we have and it is not warranted at this time
and it's not warranted with the addition of this development. I guess my concern is level crossing
versus the speeds that come down the hill from Mountain Drive as the lady had indicated
is that all taken into consideration with when that might change for different kind of signaling
even though with this with the study or with the step recommendation this development would
not they don't have any concerns with Mountain of traffic additional traffic pardon me at that intersection.
A worship all factors are considered we do know that speed is an issue in some places in the city
and we do partner with our partners and we have a police department we play a role in providing
engineering solutions but there is also the enforcement piece and the absolute police department do
their role in enforcing speeds including on that road there. Thank you Councillor Gibson.
Thank you I'm especially persuaded by staff remarks that this property could be used for commercial purposes
in an area that's really I think we problematic for that and so the fact that this building is
appears to be very sensitive to the topography and the greenery there persuades me to endorse it tonight.
Thank you. Just I want to thank a couple of comments so well aware of the speed challenges I
travel that road every day and I am not one of the speeders I actually go speed limit I'm surprised
to how many times people pass me as if I'm standing still but this is on the radar of the police
excuse the pun but the police department is on the traffic enforcement they are putting more
effort in and but it is a that is a challenge in today's society so but if you have concerns
by all means continue to put those through to the police department they're very responsive
and if you're noticing challenges they are responsive to those we've got a very good
traffic enforcement unit. I know there was comments made about transit and yes that is a bit of a
challenge there is going to be our hope and when the freeway is widened that there will be a park and
ride and our our hope is that that would be another stop for the freezer value express there will be a
line as we increase our transit there would be a direct line from this area right to the historic
downtown to the Montrose exchange unfortunately we do require partnerships with our friends at BC transit
and so we we do have a new facility built in conjunction with the federal funding and BC transit down
on on Gladys and so we have the capacity to add more buses we just need deeper pockets at the
provincial government so there is a plan for our transportation for our transit it's not happening as fast as
we'd like and but that's why we have a transit master plan so please dialogue through let's talk
habits for it in our official community plan process and and and feet that information in
I wish I could say transit was going to happen faster but there is a master plan in place and we are working
that plan and but that is a challenge and then hospitals again we're well aware we continue to work
we know we need some capacity at that component to say no to development is contrary to what the
housing targets that the provincial government has put in place so the provincial government has has put in
housing targets that we have to need but that's the same provincial government that also funds hospitals and and so
we continue to have that discussion we continue to raise those concerns and ideas in issue and that we're
well aware of but to say no to development is not an option and so how we plan that development in
meaningful and thoughtful ways and this I believe coincides with meaningful and thoughtful ways according
to our official community plan and I know this is an amendment but we're in the process of doing
an official community plan update and so this aligns with what our vision is and the only other option
is to not develop anything on this property but as you can tell people are paying you know this property
is zone to go to higher use commercial and I would imagine that the taxes you know for somebody to live
there is a single family is just not in the realm of reality so all things considered I think
That this is a very good fit for this particular property and I think time will prove that this is going to be a good addition to that neighborhood. So I will be supporting this.
So with that, I'll call a question. All those in favor? In the motion carries. Next item, please. Oh, thank you. Councillor, if we get this Councillor work into back.
Mr. Mayor, we still have two sub items to consider.
Sorry. Thank you. I am so glad that you are on top of it. Sorry, next, next motion, please.
The second motion for council's consideration is by law 364025, which is amendment 685 to the city's zoning by law.
For the properties located at 211-1 and 2133-Walkham Road. This by laws before council for first second and third readings.
The move against the city and second of a Councillor hall. Any further comments or questions?
All those in favor? The motion carries and the third motion.
The third motion for council's consideration is development variance permit 2538 for the properties located at 211-1 and 2133-Walkham Road.
Staff's recommendation is that this permit be approved in principles subject to the conditions outlined in the report.
Move by Councillor Ross seconded by Councillor Drieson and any comments or questions?
All those in favor? The motion carries. Thank you and now we can bring back council work into.
Great, and I will turn that back over to staff for the next item, please.
Item 9.3 contains one motion for council's consideration. The ALR exclusion and inclusion applications are now before council for consideration.
Recommendations with a Councillor Lowen and seconded by Councillor Shawall and any comments or questions?
Councillor Drieson.
Yeah, so I have been waiting to speak about this publicly.
So I just wanted to thank staff for all the hard work to get on this application and move it forward so quickly to develop a new sports and recreation park.
In Abbasford is a very exciting thing for our community and to have it so close to the university and in the U District. I think is amazing spots as well close to transit and major transportation routes.
I echo the comments that were made from our agriculture advisory committee and staff report that the LaFever road trade off is very much in favor of agriculture given the property locations and also the very similar classes of soils.
So I appreciate the feedback that are a committee gave us and I just also wanted to acknowledge former and current council members who identified this special study area in the past because I know planning for this did not happen over the last few years and has been in the works for quite some time. So I'm excited to move this forward and look and to see what comes from it.
Great. Thank you for those comments. Any other comments or questions?
I concur and I appreciate the people's patience. These things take time.
But I do think that we are moving in the right direction and cautiously optimistic.
What we will continue to put our best foot forward and I think we I really appreciate the way staff have dealt with this.
And I think that we're in a very good position. I think the best position we've been in a long time to be able to see this to fruition. So it's been a long time in the making and with that I will call the question.
All those in favor and it carries unanimously. Thank you.
And with that, no new business that I'm aware of. And so I will entertain a motion to adjourn.
Councillor Gibson and Councillor Parkman. I can always count on that. All those in favor and anybody opposed to adjourning.
We are adjourned. Thank you.
Thank you.