FLASH ALERT: What’s All This About?
The District announced that the July 19, 2021 regular Committee of the Whole Council was cancelled. Then, with no reason given, scheduled a Special Council Meeting for the same date with very little notice. The last two Council’s were criticized for presenting important documents in summertime months when many residents are away.
What is particularly disturbing about this “meeting switch maneuver” is:
Is Council and Staff out of touch with how split the Community is on this issue? Even the last Mayor stated in a Community Association of Oak Bay publication, “Whether Oak Bay should allow secondary suites is a matter of no small controversy” (See Appendix #1 Attached). The Community has previously let Council know in three open meetings they are not in favor of legalizing this type of land-change densification in our single-family neighbourhoods.
So far there has only been one “show-and-tell” secondary suite open house in April 2019 and two highly criticized surveys. What could be the reason this Council has not engaged the Community face-to-face in a two-way conversation on this important land-change densification issue?
Appendix #1
The District announced that the July 19, 2021 regular Committee of the Whole Council was cancelled. Then, with no reason given, scheduled a Special Council Meeting for the same date with very little notice. The last two Council’s were criticized for presenting important documents in summertime months when many residents are away.
What is particularly disturbing about this “meeting switch maneuver” is:
- Council and Staff must have known when they cancelled the Committee of the Whole Council meeting, they intended to hold a Special Council meeting given the subject matter. Wouldn’t it have made sense to provide the meeting information in a single message alerting residents that a Council meeting had been scheduled instead?
- The Oak Bay website states the mandate for a Committee of the Whole Council meeting is: “The purpose of the Committee of the Whole is to deal with applications and issues that require more detailed investigation than can be undertaken at the Council level. Committee of the Whole is also the venue for informal public input beyond statutorily mandated processes.”
- Council has just announced that in a few weeks Council meetings will allow public attendance and council members have indicated it would be more appropriate to address important issues with residents present.
- The July 19. 2021 Special Council meeting Agenda is to receive a 111 page Secondary Suite Survey Report and Strategy. Could part of that strategy be to not require “detailed investigation” and “limit public input?"
- Presumably residents sign up for email notifications of Council and Advisory Body meetings because they want to know why decisions are made and how they are being represented. The notifications replace having to find when and where these meetings are to be held. It is Oak Bay Watch’s understanding no such notification was provided for the July 19, 2021 Special Council Meeting.
Is Council and Staff out of touch with how split the Community is on this issue? Even the last Mayor stated in a Community Association of Oak Bay publication, “Whether Oak Bay should allow secondary suites is a matter of no small controversy” (See Appendix #1 Attached). The Community has previously let Council know in three open meetings they are not in favor of legalizing this type of land-change densification in our single-family neighbourhoods.
So far there has only been one “show-and-tell” secondary suite open house in April 2019 and two highly criticized surveys. What could be the reason this Council has not engaged the Community face-to-face in a two-way conversation on this important land-change densification issue?
Appendix #1
