City plan passes second reading

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This article was published 07/11/2024 (395 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The approval of Brandon’s new city plan is in the hands of the provincial government after city council passed second reading of the bylaw implementing it at its Monday meeting.

All councillors present at the meeting voted in favour of the bylaw except Coun. Greg Hildebrand (Ward 5), who said he disagreed with the plan’s elimination of public hearings for certain kinds of residential properties.

The creation of a new city plan was made necessary by the dissolution of the Brandon Planning District in 2020 as the old development plan included elements for the other municipalities within that district.

Monday’s meeting was the first time the city plan was discussed at council since an Aug. 19 meeting when a public hearing on the subject drew a crowd so big that council chambers were filled to capacity and some attendees were forced to watch from either the hallway or an overflow room.

Principal planner Sonikile Tembo explained some of the tweaks made to the plan since it was given first reading in July.

Some of the changes, she said, were based on feedback from the province as well as from residents.

She said language has been added recognizing that Brandon is a “winter city.” The first draft, she said, focused on the impact of the winter months on the city’s infrastructure, but some new policies have been added regarding winter’s effect on recreation and transportation.

A policy has been added acknowledging Brandon’s need to maintain truck routes through the city in collaboration with the provincial government.

Tembo said the provincial government came in “quite late” with requested changes, but none of them were major.

Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure came forward to ask that policies be added affirming that Brandon will work with the province to protect both existing and future highways in the city. There was also a request that the city consider heritage resources in the plan.

A major concern brought up by some residents throughout the development process, Tembo said, was that the city was not developing a plan that accounted for its current reality.

“Over and over again, we have talked to the public and different groups about how to be this idealistic city, it’s about having more options for the different groups that we have right now,” Tembo said.

“We went through the plan and saw where maybe there are some gaps where we’re not recognizing that we’re a regional centre and some changes were made there as well.”

Concerns raised regarding aggregate (gravel), fiscal responsibility, agriculture and the timeline of the plan were deemed to either have been already addressed in the plan or in earlier rounds of feedback.

In terms of implementing the plan, Tembo said much of it is already in progress.

As an example, many of the items in the plan regarding housing and zoning are already being worked on as part of Brandon’s agreement with the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

Some of those changes include more permissive zoning, some reductions in parking minimums and the elimination of some public hearings related to residential construction.

Having already voted against those changes when the related bylaws and amendments came up, Hildebrand said he would also be voting against the full city plan.

“I think there’s a lot of ‘should’ statements that could hamstring us,” he said.

Hildebrand said that sometimes elements of various strategic and master plans can be held against council. He said sometimes council votes against master plans anyway, like when council decided against the closure of the Park Community Centre despite the recreation master plan recommending it.

“But it’s difficult to change those plans and once they’re in place, it’s really difficult for us to say ‘hey, we want to make something different out of this,’” Hildebrand said.

Another major concern of his was the elimination of some public hearings as part of the zoning changes, saying he believed it took some residents’ voice away.

The Ward 5 councillor was the only one present who voted against both the amendments to the city plan and the second reading of the amended city plan.

Much of the difficult work that remains in implementing the city plan, Tembo said, is communicating the changes in the city plan to residents.

Coun. Shaun Cameron (Ward 4) brought up the new development plan currently being put together for the communities in the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region, saying there have been misconceptions from residents about Brandon being involved in that process and whether the city can opt out of doing a new city plan.

The provincial government has announced that municipalities in the WMR will be allowed to opt out of Plan 20-50 if they so choose.

“We’re not involved with that process at all and this is not a regional plan,” said Ryan Nickel, Brandon’s director of planning and buildings.

“This is a plan just for the City of Brandon. We certainly have interests that we share with our neighbours, so we have some planning policies for our fringe area … we’re not imposing policies on any governments around us.”

Now that second reading is passed, Tembo said the next step is for city staff to send the plan and its supporting documents to Municipal Relations Minister Ian Bushie for approval. This process could involve the minister consulting the Municipal Board, she said.

Once provincial approval is granted, the city plan will come back to council for a third and final reading.

» cslark@brandonsun.com