City council and staff continue to work towards updating Merritt’s Official Community Plan (OCP), which is nearly a decade old, having last been updated in 2011.
At Tuesday night’s regular council meeting, Bob Evans from WSP, the engineering consulting firm contracted by the City of Merritt to revise the OCP, provided council with an update of the project, particularly the community engagement plan which will need to be approached differently due to the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing.
“A lot of the events we have planned are obviously subject to Bonnie Henry and the provincial plans and where we can go,” said Evans.
“I’ve been involved in a few public hearings over the past couple of weeks, some live some over Zoom so there are ways to do it, and with the new reality I think everybody’s more accepting of that.”
Planning and Development Services Manager, Don McArthur, agreed that even though the engagement process will not be the same model used in previous projects due to the pandemic, community input is still paramount.
“It is staff intention to have the public attend those workshops,” said McArthur, referring to Open House and Sector-specific workshops that will take place in October and November of this year.
“We’ll have the stakeholder interviews, which will be the consultant and stakeholders having conversations to get some of that knowledge, but in terms of the actual public engagement, whether it be sector specific, the neighbourhood workshops or whether it be the visioning session etc. we’ll have an opportunity to do that. Of course, we have to follow the COVID regulations of the province, so most likely we’ll have an RSVP scenario where there’s only a certain number of tickets, and if we’re hosting at the Civic Centre we’ll try to have the largest space available so we’ll be able to accommodate people, but it’s our full intention to have residents participate in the workshops.”
Evans is no stranger to engaging Merritt citizens. A registered planner and registered landscape architect, Evans worked on both the Spirit Square project and as master planner for the NVIT college campus.
“Your last OCP was in 2011 so it’s probably time,” Evans added.
“We like to think of this as a refresh and a refocus as your community shifts. New things are happening, new pressures, new people in town and new visions. The lifespan of an OCP is generally 5-10 years. This is a refresh, and this will bring us a vision for 20 years to 2040.”
Council was also given the task of naming the OCP and were provided with several options by WSP, including:
merritTogether
Merritt: Flourish Together
Merritt: y?é te skícetip (‘It is good you come to visit us’ in the n?e?kepmxcín language)
Merritt 2040: Grow. Diversify. Flourish
Merritt eMERgence
Council did not choose a name during the meeting, although Merritt: Flourish Together and Merritt: y?é te skícetip received the most comment. Further discussion on the name is slated to take place amongst mayor and council at a later time.
According to a statement from the City, the updated OCP will guide Merritt in all aspects from Emergency Services to Land Use and even poverty reduction.
“The Official Community Plan document will include policies for Active Transportation and Transit, Economic Development, Emergency Services, Infrastructure (including roads, sewer, water, stormwater, waste and recycling and food security), and Parks, Recreation & Culture, in addition to Land Use. It will also have a poverty reduction lens, include Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and Winter Cities policies, and celebrate local Indigenous culture.”
