The new zoning bylaw will rezone every property in the City!!
Ron Bolin: Feb. 17, 2011
While I have been blissfully contemplating the effects of the possible upzonings in the “Corridor” areas of the new rezoning bylaw, I was brought to a sobering halt when, in response to a question put to the planners about which parcels would see zoning changes as a result of the new bylaw, I received the following response: “the new zoning bylaw will rezone every property in the City if adopted.” (emphasis his).
Upon reflection he is, of course, correct. While looking at the trees, I have overlooked the forest. While most of the proposed changes will not impact land use categories ( by changing the major type of land use (though there are some)), the intensity of use or possible lot size changes which may impact our urban density are to be found virtually everywhere and the number of zones has been reduced. Everyone should be aware of the changes to their property rights and those of their neighbours which would be brought about by accepting these new zoning definitions. These changes have been rewritten in an attempt to better implement the Official Community Plan (OCP) which we have adopted as a vision for Nanaimo’s future development. If the congruence between the plan and the zoning can be improved we should find less time taken up in these matters by our planners and our Council, leaving them more time to innovate and improve.
A Map showing existing zoning classes (colours) with proposed zoning labels and black boundaries can be found here.
For myself, I find I am in general agreement with the objectives of the OCP (Official Community Plan), though I have to add that I am still sore about the movement of the Urban Containment Boundary to the City’s perimeter to accommodate the Cable Bay/Oceanside resort which, after so much civic expense has done next to nothing on the ground to justify a $60,000,000 price tag. But I digress.
Given the current status of the OCP, I concur generally with the planners in their intentions, but find myself concerned that we do not seem to have a very good handle on the area where the rubber hits the road. How many more potential housing or commercial or industrial units does the new plan create over and above those now permitted? How many more potential lots in the various classifications are created? How does the plan affect the potential for increasing density which is called for in the OCP? What problems can be expected in implementing the plan when intentions meet implementation? Does the entire community derive benefits from these changes or are they limited to a few.
I grant that it is impossible to give definitive answers to these questions as we don’t have a very good grasp of where the world is taking us these days, but the new potentials can and should be identified before the new Zoning Bylaw changes is adopted by Council. All Nanaimo property owners need to understand what could happen to their property as a result of these changes, many, if not most, of which, I anticipate will be positive.
Take a look. Let me know if my optimism is naïve. What will happen to your property? Let us know what you think.
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We love those old European cities which were created without the benefit of city planners and we often instinctively dislike the modern city with its land use patterns which rigidly segregate residence from workplace from shops. Nanaimo, a city with a population of about 80,000 currently has over 70 different zoning categories. This is segregated use zoning with a vengeance.
There are thirty commercial zoning categories alone. It sometimes approaches the absurd. In C-17, for example, until recently certain kinds of office use were allowed (engineering) while other kinds of office use were not (accounting or legal).
The Downtown area is a patchwork of different zoning categories. While the notion that there are three distinct districts in our tiny urban core is a stretch, the sixteen or seventeen separate commercial zoning categories are very real.
Often Zoning By-law 4000 ingeniously creates spot zones. For example C-26 (Wallace Zone) has two “site specific” allowable uses – a fast food restaurant for 15 Wallace Street and a liquor store for 278 Selby Street.
The new zoning bylaw does reduce the number of zoning categories overall – to 45 zones by my count – with 12 downtown zones. To some extent it is an improvement.
Personally I do not think City Planners are the best people to design a city. The end result of micro-managed planning is what we see in Nanaimo – a very stereotypical, automobile oriented small North American City without a lot of charm (despite a spectacular location).
There are numerous changes throughout the draft Zoning By-law beginning with additions, revisions and deletions of terms and definitions found in the Definitions Section and obviously affecting the interpretation of the entire document. It would be helpful if changes through-out the document were highlighted as it is difficult to compare the old and the new given the change in format.
The change in format is not particularly helpful either as it requires searching through many pages to determine the requirements of any one zone. It is always more user friendly in my view to list all the requirements of a zone in one place as was previously the case.
It would also be helpful if the Rewrite Survey could be completed online through the City website and was advertized as such. (http://www.nanaimo.ca/assets/Departments/Current~Planning/Zoning~Bylaw~Rewrite/DraftZoningBylaw.pdf)
There are revisions that do not necessarily reflect an effort to align this document with the OCP but rather seem to be responsive to various lobby efforts, or perhaps experience with problematic issues, or according to the latest half baked planning trend which will soon fade. Time will tell how this works out but I suspect that without serious revisions to this draft there will be a lot of unhappiness in the future when people find out what has happened to their neighbourhoods and their property values.
I find it odd that individuals can amend the Zoning Bylaw by rezoning a property through a Public Hearing process, but that the City can rezone that same property along with every other property through a rewrite of the entire Zoning Bylaw and a single Public Hearing, and that this can be done without any comparative analysis, without any rational and detailed explanation, and without any beta testing.