Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Steve Rant - WL Council Highlights Document

This afternoon, I received the Council Highlights from last night's Council meeting from the City's Executive Assistant and I noted the following error:

Zoning Amendment Bylaw No. 2030
Rural Residential and Acreage Reserve Zones Connection to City Services

Council held a Public Hearing and subsequently gave third reading and final adoption to Zoning Text Amendment Bylaw No. 2030 which will require future subdivisions of properties within Rural Residential and Acreage Reserve Zones to connect to City water and sewer services.
Key points:
• The Rural Residential and Acreage Reserve zones, under the City of Williams Lake Zoning Bylaw No. 1825, 2002 are intended to accommodate rural residential development that may not be serviced with a community water or community sewer system.
• The City of Williams Lake has received queries from residents living on Woodland Drive for extension of municipal servicing in response to concerns related to water quantity and/or quality available from individual groundwater wells and/or from concerns related to individual on-site sewage disposal system function.
• Proposed text amendments will ensure that future subdivisions of rural lands within the City of Williams Lake boundaries are required to connect into the Community water and sewer infrastructure to ensure that the City and future residents do not incur future capital cost burdens for extensions of Community water and sewer infrastructure when problems arise with private sewer systems or wells.
• The proposed Bylaw will be forwarded to Advisory Planning Commission for review and comment.


Unfortunately, the last bullet highlight that Bylaw #2030 will be forwarded to the Advisory Planning Commission for review/comment is incorrect, given WL Council last night gave 3rd Reading and Adoption of Bylaw #2030. I personally advised Ellen Power (Executive Assistant)and the Mayor of this mistake and Ellen Power has made the necessary correction.

However, this tells me that City Hall is not taking the issue of good, honest communications seriously. I personally ensure my blog entries and summaries of:

i) Council
ii) Committee of the Whole
iii) CRD Board

are accurate and truthful, prior to me submitting them to both the Welcome to Williams Lake website and this blog. It really looks "amateurish" when you recall a press release an hour after you press the "send" button because of 1 or more mistakes in said press release or Council Meeting Highlight

I know that City Hall is capable of much better and I look forward to the day when Press Releases/Council Highlights are sent from City Hall with no errors to correct

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