When you fail to plan, you plan to fail

The consultants have been hired and the Quality of Life Survey is under way. The City is hoping to find out what we think, having put 90,000 dollars aside to embark on an update of its Official Community Plan.

Mayor Herb Pond urged participation in the survey by the city’s residents, as he feels that the city is at a “pivotal point in its evolution”, with the expected economic opportunities on the horizon. And because of that feedback from the community is something the city would like to have regarding the city’s future direction.

With that in mind, the first phase of updating the Official Community Plan is to develop a Quality of Life component, which is where the survey process comes into play.

Over the month of November there will be a community wide random telephone survey conducted, looking for feedback on what citizens want to see to make the city a better place to live.

After the survey period is complete there will be a series of community meetings held in January and December to discuss what kind of community we wish to have on the North Coast.

The Daily News provided some background on the plans in its Wednesday paper.

LONG AWAITED UPDATE OF CITY’S PLAN BEGINS
Official Community Plan a blueprint for growth
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Page five

A $90,000 review of the city’s Official Community Plan is underway this November, starting with a Quality of Life Survey.

Gord Howie, city administrator, said the city has hired Jennifer Wilson Consulting Ltd. and UMA Consulting Ltd. to help with the process.

“Jennifer’s part is to do most of the community survey work and then overseeing the actual Official Community Plan with UMA providing engineering and planning advice,” said Howie.

He added that Corinna Morhart a student in the social work program at the University of Northern British Columbia will be helping with the consulting work for the Quality of Life survey.

Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond said the city is at a pivotal point in its evolution – with opportunities linked to the expansion of the port, increased tourism and economic development projects they hope will translate into community growth.

To shape that growth in the way that supports the unique aspects of the port city, he explained the city is developing a Quality of Life component to its community plan which the city hopes will ensure the city is a great place to live and work.

There are two ways people can participate in the Quality of Life survey. The first is a random, community-wide telephone survey that will be conducted in November. Because the survey is random, everyone has an equal chance of being involved. This means the plan will not be based on the loudest or most vocal people, but rather a representative sample of the entire community.

“If you are contacted, please take the time to respond,” said Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond. “If you do, you have a 1 in 300 chance to win a Motorola “Razor” Cell phone that has been donated by CityWest.”

Then starting in December and into January, there will be a series of community meetings held to discuss the kind of community people would like to see.

Key aspects that will be discussed include those relating to community spirit, social interaction arts, culture, recreation, economic development, education, housing, the environment, safety and transportation.

Interested residents are asked to contact Corinna Morhart at 627-5433 or qualityoflife@citytel.net to register for the meetings because space is limited.

The information gathered from the survey and meetings will provide a baseline to understand what is important to community members and what are the priority focus areas.

This will then be combined with technical expertise from UMA Consulting to create a comprehensive community plan, including land use plan.

A Quality of Life report card will also be developed to track the city’s progress throughout the years and ensure it stays on course.

The last update to the Official Community Plan was done more than 20 years ago, in 1985, and revamping the OCP was identified as a high priority by community members during the public forum tin the last municipal election.

While the city has budgeted for the cost of the plan, it is also pursuing grant funding to help with the cost of the work.