The amount of work that Canmore council would like municipal planners to undertake over the next two years is more than the capacity staff currently have to complete projects, according to administration.
As per the Municipal Government Act, the Town of Canmore is the development authority for the community – meaning the municipality is in the business of development and its planning and development team handles that workload.
The planning department is responsible for working with property owners on planning applications – of which there are a variety, including amendments to statutory plans like the Municipal Development Plan or applications for development permits – but it is also responsible for updating statutory planning documents, master planning processes and bylaws.
And when council wants an issue studied, researched or examined – like tourist homes in residential areas, for example – it is the planning department that either prepares the report or manages the consultant hired to do the work.
All of this takes staff time and during recent finance committee deliberations on the 2017-18 operating budgets, general manager of municipal infrastructure Michael Fark said the biggest concern administration has for the planning department is the volume of work being asked of them.
“We have a whole list of historical or recent priorities of council, or issues that have come up and we have been requested to take on,” he said. “We do not feel, given the resources we have and the current workload, that we have a realistic chance of addressing them all.”
Given that concern, Fark said administration also looked at what projects meet the priorities council have set out and what kind of volume of development could be expected in 2017 – including the recently submitted area structure plan amendment for Three Sisters Mountain Villages resort core area.
“There are other potential large-scale projects we know will be coming forward in 2017 and we have to make sure we have the resources to address those,” he said.
For the next two years, the budget provided funding for development management and planning for the old daycare site and Palliser employee housing projects, an update to the Land Use Bylaw for secondary suites, monitoring implantation of the new Municipal Development Plan and dealing with applications that are made for development. That includes the amendment to the area structure plan for the resort centre area of Three Sisters Mountain Village and Smith Creek.
According to Fark and the operational budget information sheet, the projects that would not be worked on due to lack of resources include an update to the comprehensive housing action plan, update to the Teepee Town area redevelopment plan, an employee housing policy, tourist homes in residential areas, revisions to the sustainability screening report process, a review of visitor accommodation and reviewing the cash in lieu of parking policy.
Mayor John Borrowman and council expressed interest in making sure that the important projects they would like to see worked on are properly resourced. Administration indicated that for each full-time equivalent staff position – whether contracted or full time – they could address two projects from the list in a year.
Manager of planning Alaric Fish said there will also be staff time required throughout the corporation when some of these items come up for public discussion as they could be “contentious and may need a high degree of public engagement.”
Fish also recommended against relying on outside consultants to deal with issues that have a high degree of local complexity.
“Our environmental nuances adds layers of complexity and makes it difficult for outside consultants to come in and understand,” he said.
As a result of the staffing level realities, council voted to fund two, one-year contract positions in the planning department with the goal being that four of their “to-do list” projects would be addressed.
Manager of human resources Therese Rogers indicated the department currently has two term positions that will expire in April or May – and that administration would take the motion to fund two positions as direction to extend those positions another year.
