Suppose you’ve scheduled a public hearing but you don’t really want to hear from the public. What do you do? Read More
Then they pulled the little agenda shuffle on Monday so the hearing will likely be postponed until late summer when voters’ anger may have died down and fewer people will be paying attention.
Then they pulled the little agenda shuffle on Monday so the hearing will likely be postponed until late summer when voters’ anger may have died down and fewer people will be paying attention.
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Suppose you’ve scheduled a public hearing but you don’t really want to hear from the public. What do you do?
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You rig the agenda so the hearing gets delayed by seven weeks and you send the public home with insincere apologies for wasting their time.
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That’s what the majority on Edmonton city council did on Monday.
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With a hundred angry city residents packing city hall waiting to unload on council over the new development bylaw that is wrecking neighbourhoods in some of Edmonton’s most mature districts, council was asked to move several far less important items to the bottom of the agenda so residents would have a chance to speak.
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The lefty majority — who support the controversial new infill and densification rules and don’t want them changed — said ‘no.’ They used procedural trickery to deal with a host of mundane subjects first, even though that meant sending all the public speakers home with no chance to be heard until after council’s summer vacation.
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At least in Edmonton’s most mature neighbourhoods, the development bylaw is issue No. 1. After changes implemented by council last year, developers are rushing to build eight-unit, three-storey apartments or eight-unit row houses on standard lots in the middle of blocks.
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Because council also abolished off-street parking requirements for multi-unit developments and made it possible for developers essentially to take up the entire lot, nice quiet blocks are being turned into chaotic free-for-alls.
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The new developments block the sun for neighbouring single-family homes and often create windows or decks with views into the yard next door.
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Council knows that Edmontonians are angry. They also know their political jobs are on the line at this fall’s municipal election. So they first proposed to limit the number of units on a single, mid-block lot to six, from eight, thinking that might fool the public. (As if it matters how many units are in the hulking monstrosity rising up beside your home.)
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Then they pulled the little agenda shuffle on Monday so the hearing will likely be postponed until late summer when voters’ anger may have died down and fewer people will be paying attention.
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Councillors who support the bylaw (whether with a development cap of eight or six units) and who voted not to move the public hearing up to its proper spot at Monday’s meeting, will no doubt take exception to my characterization of their move as self-interested and underhanded.