NANAIMO CITY HALL BLOG

Archive for April, 2011|Monthly archive page

In Praise of Commercial Street

In PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT on April 26, 2011 at 9:22 am

Daniel Appell: April 26, 2011

A recent nomination to “Great Places in Canada” competition and a subsequent shortlisting has inspired me to write on the virtues of Commercial Street.

Commercial Street is a graceful remnant of our Georgian heritage. Now, it is hard to imagine its inspiration, but it was a purpose built street. It was designed and built to expedite commerce. Designed at a time when most people walked to the shops to get their supplies. At a time when pedestrians dominated traffic, the road was purposefully made wide enough to accommodate carriages. Read the rest of this entry »

Ignorance is Bliss?

In CITY GOVERNMENT on April 12, 2011 at 12:33 pm

Ron Bolin, April 12, 2011

The email exchange below has led me to some pretty scary contemplation of the slippery legal slope on which we are all so delicately balanced:

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Hi Ron,

Yes you heard correctly.  The City has no obligation to enforce its bylaws.

This is true even if the City is aware of an infraction.

Failure to enforce a bylaw has no implication (in law at least) to any future enforcement ability.

Al Read the rest of this entry »

The Rubber hit the Road

In PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT, UNCATEGORIZED on April 6, 2011 at 11:19 am

Daniel Appell: April 6, 2011

Council’s decision Monday night returned us to the same point we were at two years ago. It reduces the planning exercise for the Newcastle and Brechin Hill neighbourhoods to an unnecessary detour on the long road towards completing a transition on those waterfront properties.
It was (I believe this sincerely) the finest moment for this council. Afterwards, I was talking to some of the stakeholders, including property owners in the neighbourhoods, and I was very encouraged by the responses of both competing groups. Read the rest of this entry »

Newcastle-Brechin Rubber hits the Road on Monday, April 4 at 4:30

In CITY GOVERNMENT, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT on April 1, 2011 at 2:48 pm

Ron Bolin: April 1, 2011

At Council’s Finance and Policy Committee of the Whole (FPCOW) meeting on Monday, April 4, 2011, the major topic appears to be the Newcastle-Brechin Plan as regards its two contentious issues, building height on the waterfront and the density in Newcastle.  This meeting has been moved from its usual location at the City Hall Board room to the Shaw Auditorium at the conference centre. The time of the meeting however remains the same, i.e. 4:30pm, which is not conducive to broad citizen participation. Read the rest of this entry »

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