Last Wednesday evening (May 22), the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) held an information gathering session for the review of the RDKB Area D Official Community Plan (OCP).
At the meeting, one woman asked me how we make decisions about what to put in the plan. “Is there a vote? Do we tally the frequency of different comments for or against certain policies and choose the most popular?”
Given the relevance of the question to anyone interested in our OCP review, I’ll explore the question more here: how do we make these decisions?
First, what’s an OCP?
Think of it as a strategic plan for the area; a plan that sets out a sense of where we (the community) want the community to go. What do we want the future to look like here? Can we identify what we would like to see as an ideal (while still realistic) social, economic, and environmental future for the area?
Once the vision is set, we develop policy to help create and secure this vision.
Given the tools available to the regional district, land use and development are two key operational aspects of that future that are regulated by policies enshrined in the OCP.
Beyond this, the OCP provides guidance more broadly to other policy development and decision-making by the RDKB board.
Lastly, the OCP will also include maps to document spatial components, such as environmentally sensitive areas, or recreation trails
So, we just need to get the input from the people and then draft the appropriate vision statements and policy, right? No, it’s not that simple.
What people do we need to hear from? First off, there are the 3,100 residents of Area D – we certainly want to hear from them and then, the people that live nearby that might have some stake in the future of the area. And the businesses that operate in the area and the people that recreate in the area and so on.
Further, once we can clarify the vision that all these people carry, then what about the policies to support the vision? How do we go about weighing the costs and benefits of certain decisions against the others? This is another complicated step that requires plenty of public input and may consume a great deal of time.
Thus, our challenge is to get as much input as possible from those people who have a stake in the area, and then to distill out the strategies (goals, policies, etc.) that best provide and protect the future vision and help make our area be as vibrant and enticing as possible.
To complete this process properly is clearly no simple task.
We will be repeatedly bringing different stages of the process to the community, from information gathering through to comments of draft plans. Please, one way or another, weigh in and tell us what you want. You are welcome to contact myself (rrussell@rdkb.com) or the OCP steering committee with questions.
What kind of vision might be captured in this rendition of the plan? The early OCPs for our area were focused on increasing our population and housing. Then OCPs seemed aimed at protecting agricultural land. Thus far through our surveys and in conversations at the open-house review, we are hearing not just support for protection of agriculture land but for facilitation of production on those agricultural lands.
People want to get our farms growing! They want to facilitate family farm succession, to reduce weed problems, to strengthen our local food systems and to increase food security. And that’s just the agricultural part of the puzzle! Do you like it? Tell us!
– Roly Russell is alternate RDKB Area D director