Banff politicians and bureaucrats are looking to make the Municipal Planning Commission more open and transparent.
At a meeting Monday (Jan. 11), Banff town council directed administration to draft amendments to the land use bylaw that would allow MPC members to deliberate and reach their decision in public, rather than in camera.
MPC does make some of its decisions in public, but officials say the bylaw currently states that MPC “shall” deliberate in private and they want the wording to be changed to “may” discuss in camera. They always make their motion in public, however.
“This is an effort to create more transparency in the decision-making process,” said Councillor Brian Standish, a councillor representative on MPC.
“I realized this isn’t right. This is the one board that should be the most transparent.”
Banff has seen many high profile development projects in recent years, including the proposed redevelopment of the Homestead Inn on Lynx Street, the construction of an apartment housing complex in the 300 Block of Banff Avenue (Birchwood), a high-density staff accommodation apartment housing complex in the 400 block of Beaver Street and the development of the 172 room Moose Hotel in the 300 block of Banff Avenue.
MPC deliberated the merits all of these projects in private, but in each instance, came out of camera and voted on the projects in public.
“I don’t think that’s fair. The public didn’t know how and why,” said Standish.
Coun. Stavros Karlos voiced support.
“I always appreciate more transparency,” he said. “If this passes today, I will endeavour to bring this same philosophy to some of the committees I sit on as well.”
The drafting of these amendments will form part of a larger review of the administrative section of the land use bylaw.
Randall McKay, the Town’s planning and development manager, said one area the review will look at is the section covering duties and responsibilities of development officers, MPC and DAB, as well as consider how development permit applications are issued.
“It’s a standard review,” he said. “We’re looking at making the process as transparent as possible.”
McKay said informal changes have already been made at MPC, which now allow members of the public to make submissions to the commission, either written submissions or a five-minute presentation.
He said the bylaw indicates MPC is not required to hear any representation with respect to any matter it makes a decision or recommendation on.
“It says it’s not required, but it doesn’t say they can’t. We want to formalize that,” said McKay. “We’ve had a couple of high profile applications where there was a desire for correspondence or verbal submissions from the public.”
In other development news, the Town of Banff plans to host a series of neighbourhood community conversations on higher density development. Council approved $4,500 for this initiative.
