Monday October 23, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated 10:10 pm]
Local news analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The City of Langford has prepared a draft strategic plan for 2023-2027. The new council (elected one year ago) wanted to formulate some new directions and solidify existing directions through which to apply their vision of the growing and changing municipality.
The public input portion of tonight’s Langford council meeting ran hot and cold mostly on the process of public input … with people saying either they appreciated the public input (while making further suggestions) or that there wasn’t (nearly) enough public input.
From September 21 to October 15 there was an online survey and comments could be submitted by email. There was a five-hour public open house on October 5, followed by two smaller pop-up events in the community (at the Goldstream Farmers Market and Ponchos Cafe). The city also contacted 25 groups in the community with an invitation to complete the survey, attend the public engagement sessions, or send in written submissions.
Attending tonight’s council meeting in person were Mayor Scott Goodmanson and Councillors Colby Harder, Kimberley Guiry, Mark Morley. Councillor Lillian Szpak attended via Zoom. Councillor Keith Yacucha did not attend.
Where people get their news:
Many of the Langford public who tonight voiced complaint or concern about having missed the opportunity to take part in public participation are possibly getting their news from social media silos (e.g. Facebook groups) but may not be paying regular attention to general community media sources like the Goldstream Gazette or Island Social Trends.
Perhaps not too many folks are yet visiting the Langford website to using the Langford Chat platform.
Langford presently does not post on X (formerly Twitter) which does have a broad reach in real-time.
Strategic Plan vs OCP:
The previous long-term council had no public strategic plan and was essentially guided by social networking and a few keynote speakers.
An Official Community Plan (OCP) is something different than a strategic plan. The former is comprised of bylaws and policies and a long term vision, whereas a strategic plan is usually focussed on more targeted goals with achievement of those goals fleshed out with steps and benchmarks (including timelines) to be achieved and measured by.
Councillor Mark Morley said the two tools complement each other.
Councillor Mary Wagner said power of launching the city’s first draft strategic plan was to get the decision going. She pointed out that there would be annual review of the strategic plan with ongoing engagement.
“It would be great if more people had participated. But we’re keeping track of the time”, she said, as in seeing some approved guidelines so council can proceed with actionable plans.
“Every city should have a strategic plan. We’re not out on a limb here,” said Wagner. She cited transportation as one area to get started, and to undertake review of the OCP (last formulated in 2008, with subsequent updates).
Councillor Kimberley Guiry said “we want the public to be excited about the OCP refresh”. She noted that items in the strategic plan marked funded or unfunded are all important to council (or they wouldn’t be listed), but that funding has not yet been found for some items.
It seems prudent to want to get the strategic plan approved before deliberations start around Budget 2024. There could be a future town hall, breaking things down into groups for further discussion.
The survey also included open-ended questions which staff need to read through. There were also direct emails in response to the strategic plan. Wagner explained that the strategic plan ideas are all lined out so that the public can hear them all.
The Mayor’s summary:
Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson rounded up the nearly 90-minute public input session as “a fairly good read” of public comment with about an even split of ‘for and against’ passing the strategic plan at this evening’s meeting — and that people on either side had essentially the same mindset as to why they were for or against.
Goodmanson noted that most speakers further stated their views on wanting more public input.
The mayor invited more such vigorous public participation at future meetings. Indeed, the level of public interest in what this 2022-2026 council is doing is refreshing from a civic perspective; people feel they have room to speak up and make themselves heard.
Suggestions for more public input:
Suggestions from the public included suggestions to hold more public input perhaps as:
- open house discussion pods on three key areas (e.g. housing, affordability, and community resilience)
- facilitated focus groups
- mailout of a survey to every Langford home and business address
Who was there:
Members of the public participating either in person or via Zoom or phone included (alphabetical): Mary Brooke, Devin Dignam, Lisa Foxall, Wendy Hobbs, Sarah Plank, Laurie Plomp, Dianna Seaton, Dora Stroud, and Mike Wignall.
Vote to defer:
On this Item 9.3 on the agenda about the strategic plan, council ultimately voted for Option 1 — to defer passage of the strategic plan so that staff can assemble all the input that has been received.
From there council will have an updated document to consider around the strategic plan. Only then will council possibly consider more public input.
===== RELATED:
Goldstream Farmers Market wraps up 2023 season (October 7, 2023)
Langford strategic plan open house draws steady crowd (October 5, 2023)