The MD held a public hearing during its regularly scheduled council meeting on August 28 to discuss proposed amendments to five separate bylaws.
Only one bylaw on the docket caused a stir with the public – Land Use Bylaw #525, which deals with when a development permit is not required.
A number of MD residents contested the changes, sending letters of complaint to the MD and appearing at the hearing to voice their concerns.
“Your website and media statement are very deceptive and misleading,” said MD resident Mike Wasylyk, who attended the meeting with his wife Aggi. “(This amendment) is going to take away our right to appeal.”
“You guys are my elected officials. I didn't vote for the administration,” said Wasylyk as he addressed council. “(The amendment) is going to take the authority away from you guys having a say in what is going on in the MD, and I don't like that one iota.”
Wasylyk addressed council for over 12 minutes without a single response from a councillor to his comments.
Afterwards in an interview with the Nouvelle, MD CAO Ryan Poole mentioned that he understood where Wasylsk was coming from and recognized his concerns.
“I am big enough to recognize that maybe we went a little bit overboard, a knee jerk reaction sort of thing,” said Poole. “In reading both our old bylaw and the amendment we are proposing, I recognize in the amendments there are a few clauses that are way too open, allowing the MD to do a lot of stuff without getting permits. Our purpose, what we want to do, is to be allowed to do the day-to-day operations.”
Doris Langridge was the second and final person to speak in person, coming to council on behalf of herself and her husband.
“I really believe this bylaw is going to hurt the residents, but it is going to hurt council as well,” said Langridge. “As residents, we want to have the right to be able to appeal something; we want to have the right to come to you. So if you approve this bylaw you are going to lose a lot of respect within the MD.”
After Langridge was done speaking, Rondeau responded to the six members of the public who attended the hearing, saying, “When we meet to deliberate on this we will make sure we go though this carefully.”
The third concerned resident was unable to attend the meeting in person, so John Foy, Director of Planning and Development, read the letter out loud.
Poole also mentioned after the meeting that the public will always be able to come to council and request a hearing.
“The public always has a forum where they can come and talk to council, always,” said Poole. “If we are going to build a road or do something that the public doesn't like, they can always come to council, 12 months of the year.”
Many residents were unhappy to find out that a final decision on the proposed amendment to LUB #525 won't be made until the next council meeting.
“We got all of this information, we are going to put it together and we want to take some time to review it,” said Rondeau.
Poole added, “I personally think that maybe a compromise somewhere in between would be a best fit and that it is what I will probably bring forward to council.”
He would like to see a list specifying the day-to-day public works activities that would not need a development permit to be carried out.
The four other bylaws were presented to the public at the hearing and went by unopposed.
They all received second and third readings later at the council meeting and were carried unanimously.