Home stretch for city plan engagement

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This article was published 02/02/2023 (1205 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon’s new city plan is entering the final stages of development, and residents have one last period to submit feedback before it’s finalized.

From February to December last year, city staff held surveys, public engagement sessions, events and stakeholder consultations to help guide development of the Wheat City over the next 30 years.

The city has assembled a draft plan summarizing the priorities identified through public feedback and is presenting it at various events from now until May. Many of those events are being referred to as “mobile open houses,” and some consist of static displays set up at locations around town for residents to visit.

“The expectation is that somebody arrives, reads the information and if they have a comment, they can write on a sticky note,” said Sonikile Tembo, a community planner in charge of the city plan project.

“I’ll be there, so they can have a discussion with me as well.”

There are currently three stations: one at the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation’s Blue Door facility on Ninth Street until Feb. 17, one at each of Assiniboine Community College’s campuses in Brandon and another at Brandon University’s student lounge until Friday.

There are also several one-day-only open houses that will be set up for a few hours at different locations across the city. The first was scheduled to take place at Grand Valley Church on Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. with the second at the Green Acres Community Centres on Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m.

At those events, information learned through previous phases of the project has been grouped into three different categories: growing city, moving city and healthy city.

According to the city’s website, inclusion, community engagement and reconciliation are elements being applied to all parts of the city plan.

Under each section on the website, residents are welcomed to click on a pop-up window linking them to a survey.

For “growing city,” residents identified a desire for increased density in established neighbourhoods with zoning rules that allow for small-scale businesses like convenience stores and medical offices to be built anywhere. This would require revision of the city’s zoning bylaws once the city plan is complete, Tembo said.

They also expressed they wanted housing to be treated as a right with a focus on accessible design across the whole city.

Under waste management, residents said they want more resources devoted to recycling and landfill diversion, the creation of a bottle depot for can returns and for the city to encourage large polluters within its borders to invest in greening efforts.

“Moving city” desires are focused around transportation both with and without a vehicle. In this category, residents said they wanted more walkable and fewer car-dependent neighbourhoods.

To help make that a reality, residents suggested having services within closer walking distance to homes, the creation of bike paths for commuting as well as car and bicycle sharing options.

On public transit, residents called for a greater frequency and a larger network of routes, especially near seniors’ homes.

For those who do use vehicles, residents said they wanted longer allowed parking durations in residential areas, shared parking options and the removal of parking minimum requirements.

In the “healthy city” section, residents expressed a desire for more resources for those struggling with addiction including safe injection sites and recovery centres.

They also called for greater emphasis on tackling homelessness by addressing root causes, providing shelter for those who need it, finding sustainable sources of food and water for people experiencing homelessness and creating more employment opportunities.

When it comes to food, residents also wanted the city to address so-called food deserts downtown and in the east end where there is a lack of access to affordable fresh food.

In downtown Brandon, where the homelessness issue is most prevalent, residents said they’re concerned by the negative perception of the neighbourhood and the high number of vacant lots and buildings.

There’s a desire for a greener city, with residents asking for more community gardens, outdoor recreation spaces, parks and green spaces, the planting of fruit trees around Brandon, to preserve native prairie grass habitats where animals and pollinators live and to turn empty lots into green spaces.

Tembo said the climate change action plan is being developed at the same time, and it will tackle many of these issues.

“The city plan is the highest-level plan,” she said. “Under that are the master plans; those that have very specific top, very specific actions. But if someone were to look at, generally, what is the city prioritizing, that would be the city plan.”

According to a document on the city’s website, stakeholder groups consulted under the city plan project in the second half of 2022 included people associated with the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples’ Council, immigrant communities, middle-school-age children and seniors.

“I think we got more out of these stakeholder engagements than before because we really had the groups that are on the ground doing work having the discussions,” Tembo said.

While some of their stated desires lined up, some requests stood alone among the groups consulted.

For instance, all four groups expressed a desire for better transit or active transportation options and all groups except seniors said they wanted an effort to stop racism.

Immigrant communities consulted also wanted the city to provide services and information translated into a language they understand. People in the BUAPC group expressed interest in increased Indigenous representation among available cultural activities and in leadership positions.

Children indicated they wanted more recreational opportunities. Seniors’ groups said they’re looking for better communication since they often don’t know what’s going on in the city as well as better snow clearing around the homes of people who use mobility scooters.

Given the chance to list three words that should be part of the city’s vision, the top words mentioned were: inclusive, safe, sustainable, vibrant and affordable.

According to Tembo, the current phase is really to make sure the city correctly identified residents’ desires during last year’s consultations.

“We’re in the phase we’re calling ‘confirm the vision,’” Tembo said. “We’ve summarized all this information, but we need that last push. There are a lot of people who we still haven’t engaged.”

Once the mobile public houses are complete, Tembo said it will be her team’s job to create a final draft of the city plan. The hope is that draft will be presented to Brandon City Council sometime next winter.

While the plan is being designed to guide the next three decades of development and growth in the city, it’s not being set in stone. Every 10 years, the hope is to revisit the plan and consult with the community to see if it still meets the city’s needs.

“If another plan comes through that is not in line with the city plan, hopefully we as an administration can say ‘Hey, this is missing some key components.’”

The full schedule of mobile open houses, a copy of the information obtained through feedback and access to user surveys can be found online at brandon.ca/cityplan.

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