You can imagine my surprise when I downloaded the agenda for Monday’s 7 PM Council Meeting: 967 pages. I guess City Hall expects people to cancel all their plans for the weekend, as it’s not exactly a light read.
Three days to read 967 pages is pretty unreasonable. Many people won’t even want to wait for it to download. Can’t download it? City Hall offered paper copies, for a $20 charge, but the document became available midday Friday and then closed for the weekend at 4:30. It’s available no charge to read at City Hall, but how can you read 967 pages while standing at the “Administration and Finance” counter?
Even outside agencies (neighbouring municipalities, school boards, etc.) that must be consulted on an OCP change don’t appear to have been given enough notice to get their comments in on time for the public hearing (after all, only 10 business days are passing between posting of the final draft on the website and Monday night’s meeting).
Despite the tight timelines, the importance of the document cannot be denied as “Every parcel of land within the City of Langford is affected by Bylaw Nos. 1200 and 1201,” according to Langford’s classified ad Read the rest of this entry »
