Friday January 26, 2024 | LANGFORD, BC
Opinion-Editorial by Gabe Haythornthwaite
Posted in Island Social Trends
My expectations were not high for the January 23 information session on Langford’s Official Community Plan (OCP) ‘refresh’ process.
After all, contrary to the assumptions of both supporters and opponents of the current Council, the recently passed Langford 2023-2027 Strategic Plan confirms substantive policy continuity with the previous regime; particularly, the private monopoly over housing development and City service provision.
The exclusion of direct public input signaled that City Hall administration wanted tight control over this OCP session. Matthew Baldwin, the City Planner, emceed the evening, indicating that public speaking was not permitted — “certainly not an open mic”.
Bravo to the women who broke through the embargo on public speaking. The first interjection highlighted accessibility matters for those with mobility issues at the beginning of a 40-minute meandering presentation on transportation.
RELATED: Editorial news coverage of the January 23, 2024 OCP Refresh event (by Mary P Brooke)
The second interruption expressed authentic exasperation at “preaching to the choir” around diversified transportation. The attendee wanted to know, instead, what the City was actually going to do with the OCP.
The long-overdue review of a key governance document like the OCP should allow people to speak with their own voices during public events. There are ways to skillfully draw out insightful public input which emerges from frank debate around policy direction and options.
Process and format:
There were several other missing elements from the OCP session.
Instead of dominating the meeting with transportation statistics, the OCP review should have begun with an informative summary of the document itself. The public missed a chance to learn about OCP basics and to see that City Hall could competently lead the review process.
Why were attendees not given a run-down of outlined steps in the OCP refresh process? Community members missed hearing about the types of events and activities they could expect to participate in over the next year. Does City Hall want the public to participate, or not?
Why was no one from the Council included in the OCP presentation? There was a missed opportunity for elected officials to share how the OCP review is an essential part of realizing their Strategic Plan. Do the Mayor and Council understand they must be seen to directly provide leadership in key governance development and not simply defer to the unelected administration?
Why was the City Hall website missing an announcement about the OCP session on January 23rd? [Editor’s note: The January 23 presentation was in fact on the city’s website, but buried within the Events section, which may be one reason to prompt a website navigation rethink.] Why are such events not announced at Council meetings?
Political context:
The biggest missing piece was the local and provincial political context in which the OCP operates. This includes 37 cited amendments; an average of more than two changes a year since the OCP was ratified in 2008. The provincial power-grab of Bill 44 over municipal zoning decisions was mentioned only in passing at the event along the lines of an inevitable triumphant march of history.
The OCP refresh will go into next year and so there is time to make good on this muddled start. Will the six missing elements at the January 23 session — public input, an OCP summary, refresh steps, elected officials, promotion at City Hall, political context — be addressed by political leadership going forward? Will the public return to participate?
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Gabriel Haythornthwaite is a Langford resident and a former Cowichan Valley school board trustee.
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends covers ‘news that matters’ through a socioeconomic lens with an eye to political directions.
It’s the fourth publication in a series of regional professional news publications founded, edited and published by Editor Mary P Brooke: MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), and Island Social Trends (online at IslandSocialTrends.ca 2020 to present, and in print starting January 2024).
===== RELATED:
- Well-attended intro to Langford OCP refresh (January 24, 2023)
- Langford OCP refresh presentation Jan 23 (January 18, 2023)
- High-density transit-oriented housing development will have exceptions & municipal input (Dec 4, 2023)
- BC takes transformative action on housing in fall session (November 30, 2023)
- View Royal town hall: housing shortage, societal change, government overreach (November 24, 2023)
- Apply urgency to urban planning goals, consultant tells Langford (May 18, 2023)