I think the committee if there actually is one, consists of one person, Mr Rogers. Everyone knows Mr Rogers likes a nice neighbourhood. Now if we could only define ‘nice’ .
If only the OCP could get rid of, say over perhaps 10 or 20 years all the vacation rentals. If that isn’t possible, make the owner live here and make the rule that for every vacation rental suite on a property an equal or bigger sized one is made available for long term rental.
We did have an OCP and it was amended periodically and reviewed periodically. But because of the hourglass structure something has been decided about the existing OCP by somebody and so now all the work and thought and care that went into the first one is thrown into the trash bin. Mr. Rogers appears to be the director of information and everything else here despite not being elected to do so. No one will answer the question..... What's wrong with the existing OCP?
The process started in spring 2018, it has been addressed in many Council meetings, in detail. If you are relying solely on this blog for information and it's your first time hearing of this, don't bitch about not having gotten your comments in yet.
According to the hourglass method there is to be no personal communication of any kind whatsoever between the members of Council and the public.... Except through surveys designed to only get the answers the district wants or, invitations to comment online without actually talking to a real person, looking them in the eye, and asking hard questions. Real questions. Not the baby food that council is accustomed to pretending are relevant questions. And if we wonder why the municipal government here is acting as though they are above anything real that's why. Grabbing a councillor by the shirt front wouldn't do any good because they're not allowed to answer.... By who? The mayor and the administrator? This is a sorry state of affairs
The whole administration of the town ignores any input. Commenting is a waste of time as they ALWAYS ignore them. Especially if the ideas do not concur with the concept of Mr Rogers neighbourhood. I have had comments on public meeting boards deleted in final reports because they did not like the point of view. So much for public input. They do what they want.
i concur with 9:14 once you find out that all the charrettes and open houses etc. are only a disguised event so that people can be deluded into thinking a. They have a voice; and b. their voice matters, there is no point in wasting your time or your breath for any more of that nonsense.
For anybody that hasn't done it a good example of how fruitless these exercises are is the affordable housing debacle: the district had open houses etc. where people could sign up for affordable housing availability as soon as it became a reality. It was projected that within a few years or sooner affordable/attainable housing would be available for occupancy. Couples with children or not who either grew up here and were working or who were here working with a steady job were excited and signed up................. 15 years ago. Those people are long gone. Or bought into market housing. Five years later more people signed up. They are gone... Why is it like this? No one is going to do this when it comes to putting any faith whatsoever in the district's ability to follow through whether it's affordable housing, the community plan, doing anything about parking in the Chesterman's Beach area, building a sewage treatment plant, and so.
Perhaps our newly elected minister of municipal affairs in Victoria will go about changing how things actually work? Oh what am I thinking?!? Under her administration in Tofino the administration and these charette games became perfected so that public input was better ignored.
Mr.Rogers will do/say whatever is necessary to remain gainfully employed. He's just that kind of guy. The new minister will do nothing to improve the situation. She's just that kind of minister. But her past will catch up to her.
Say what you will about Poolsland but there are a good number of people who started their west coast life broke or broken but now contribute greatly to our community. Mabey Magys farm needs to be reworked
Is there no room in the work houses? What about the beggars prisons? Are they full? No need for PooLandia. At this time of year it is usual to make some small provision by way of food and drink. And there is always room in the Temporary Use Zones to keep them off the streets if need be.
Let's not forget the elephant in the room.....There's still a housing crisis in Tofino.
Josie's "affordable housing" plan isn't filling the need, there's still no place for people to live. One building, with a few staff accommodation apartments will fill the needs of about two resorts, and there will still be dozens or hundreds of folks searching for housing. And Tofino council is still doing nothing about it. No land rezoned, no development proposals approved or even under consideration, and no conversations regarding the future direction of where Tofino sees people living 5-10-15 years from now.
Taking Josie's excuses as true, and blaming the situation on short term rentals, is not a solution, it's just a way for people to express anger and frustration. It's not a solution to the lack of housing.
There should be a third party planning consultant (ok insert eye roll here but wait) that would form a committee of local residents and business owners. This committee would co ordinate public input through unbiased means and be over seen by the independent Planner/Consultant.
This consultant would be hired to provide unbiased direction to the committee in current planning principles and standards and not be influenced by local politics or friends and neighbours.Having this important community document done “in house” by local planners will be strife with personal believes and agendas.
Co-vid has also impacted the public’s ability to attend work shops and public meetings. Even the ones held before Co-vid were poorly attended due to the lack of more aggressive pubic awareness.
No one will ever be impartial. Even a so called "third party" will have their own opinions and be influenced by people. And in theory we WANT this to be influenced by the people we chose for office, the people who run businesses in town, the 'neighbors and friends' who make up the community. It's unfathomable that a complete outsider would understand the wants and needs of the town.
Covid has made it so anytime can attend online - everything you need is accessible at your fingertips. How aggressive do these things need to be presented to you? Do you want someone to personally knock on your door at home to update you anytime something is going on? Take some personal responsibility for being informed.
From the districts point of view being informed is some stranger consultant ramming their vision of tofino down our throats whether we like it or not.. I do not like this way of being informed. Having gone to a few of these things over the years and seeing what results it is a complete waste of time for me to go and write little sticky notes and put them on a map. Or buttonhole one of the consultants to express myself personally about what I see is needed after living here for many many years. I might as well have stood in the middle of the street and yelled. The consultants who have never lived here or engaged in the economic or social aspects of the town believe they are more than well-qualified to put really stupid things in places where they arent needed. We end up with second-rate junk in our town given to us as "exciting', thrilling, dynamic," things that either don't fit or are an abomination... With the exception of some benches and lookouts. If we keep going this way it will end up a total hipster theme park with not a trace of art or real culture or what started out as a fishing village theme. What has been sold to the District as cutting edge urban planning is no more than cut and paste from some source of master design for any place I feel the way it's done is an insult to any local people who can actually think.
Those benches 11:39 refer to are a joke on us. They are starting to rot and the shelter roofs over them are worse than useless in a rainstorm. Oh yeah it was RMI money but we have to pay to either maintain them, replace them or simply and better yet rip them out. All designed by a consultant from out of town and rubber stamped by the district staff. They like consultants as they can pass the buck and hide their responsibility in the waste of money.
The Grand Prize award for design stupidity is the Main Street shelter across from the Maquinna. It doesn’t protect someone from the rain and the “seat” is designed so you cannot sit on it.
I hear a lot concern here about the input Tofino receives from residents, about things like OCP's or 5 year tax plans, or any other policies. Concern that no one is listening. But we have other problems here too. Your getting me worked up now.
Here are the facts kids. 25% of the working population won't be here in five years. They move on. Replaced by some others who fall in love with Tofino for a period of time but eventually grow up and need a real job or realise it ain't gonna happen here for them. Never get a house here, no pension plan, it actually does rain alot, living out of the back seat of the car has limitations regardless of whether you are a surf kahuna or not, and that cute girl/guy doesn't like me any more sort of stuff. All kinds of reasons. They love it here for a while, but they move on. And they can have big input into local issues, and they can vote. Work as a surf school instructor for a few months and you can vote. And then leave. Just like some of our former Mayors and councillors have moved on.
Problem is they won't be seeing the place the way people who are more committed to the place see things. Committed because of ownership or family or history or occupation. They might pick up plastic at the beach and rail on about how the town is destroying the environment, etc That is one of our big problems apparently or Tofino is needed to solve the world climate disaster or LBGTQ rights. They see completely different issues. If you think that water and sewer and taxes are important you are some kind of red neck geek. To me it seems they have brought their issues with them and then apply then to the town. Their views do not spring from here.
And the oldies move on too. Because they can't afford to retire here. Goodbye diversity
And another thing. I have heard certain staff at the DOT rail on about the complete inadequacies of the local school system and staff involved. How they would never send their kids to high school here. No for sure they are "getting out of this hole." How can you expect people to run the town or plan the town or make things better when they show a complete disrespect for where we live, and who we are. Signed, Before You, Old Stock
Tofino's last OCP "Vision Tofino 2002" was spearheaded by an excellent outside Professional Planning consultant who's direction was provided by a Planning Committee made up of locals.He was there to "heard the sheep" keep the committee focused and on track. That OCP (by local committee) has been in place for close to 20 years now (with some minor updates).Pretty good value for me as a local tax payer i would say.
Okay 4:52 I admit that I have not examined closely any of the lookouts or benches. I'm just seeing people in the one on fourth Street and it looks like it works for taking selfies and such. And yes the benches made out of fir without being adequately treated are doomed to rot. A tiny tad of local experience in dealing with the weather and various woods might have prevented this obvious waste of time and money.
Re: 10:59 When the benches were first installed I remember being at a Council meeting where councillors Thorogood and McMaster said that the benches should be treated to prevent rot/weathering. Councillors Baert and Anderson thought that the grey weathered look was more in keeping with the Tofino look and were supported by staff. That is why the the benches like Tofino have rotted!
That's an appropriate analogy... That unwise decision based on lack of experience causes things to rot. Not only the untreated very expensive 12 x 12's but about the structure of the district of tofino if I can compare the outside consultants as unwise and inexperienced. That's why it seems like were getting a lot of rotten decisions.
The OCP of 2002 was a lot of work done for free by dedicated citizens. There was arguing and disagreement in the committees but ultimately the referee got to the end of the process and we had something we all felt good about. I think the committees did a really good job. I'm not sure about the new OCP but I can tell you this: whoever is doing it has no intention absolutely none of listening to anything any of us say based on the reality of living here.
33 comments:
Comments end????? When did they begin????
Apparently this process started a couple of years ago . Does anyone know who is on the OCP committee ?
I think the committee if there actually is one, consists of one person, Mr Rogers. Everyone knows Mr Rogers likes a nice neighbourhood.
Now if we could only define ‘nice’ .
If only the OCP could get rid of, say over perhaps 10 or 20 years all the vacation rentals. If that isn’t possible, make the owner live here and make the rule that for every vacation rental suite on a property an equal or bigger sized one is made available for long term rental.
We did have an OCP and it was amended periodically and reviewed periodically.
But because of the hourglass structure something has been decided about the existing OCP by somebody and so now all the work and thought and care that went into the first one is thrown into the trash bin.
Mr. Rogers appears to be the director of information and everything else here despite not being elected to do so.
No one will answer the question..... What's wrong with the existing OCP?
6:35 answer is simple. The current OCP does not have enough socialist dogooder goals in it.
This document appears to be more concerned with the Indigenous agenda rather than the best interests of Tofino residents.
Would it be hard to extend the comment period so more people who are now aware of the plan could weigh in?
Civic governance is supposed to be about the community members and supplying services not playing at tossing around Don Quixote ideas.
The process started in spring 2018, it has been addressed in many Council meetings, in detail. If you are relying solely on this blog for information and it's your first time hearing of this, don't bitch about not having gotten your comments in yet.
According to the hourglass method there is to be no personal communication of any kind whatsoever between the members of Council and the public.... Except through surveys designed to only get the answers the district wants or, invitations to comment online without actually talking to a real person, looking them in the eye, and asking hard questions. Real questions. Not the baby food that council is accustomed to pretending are relevant questions. And if we wonder why the municipal government here is acting as though they are above anything real that's why. Grabbing a councillor by the shirt front wouldn't do any good because they're not allowed to answer.... By who? The mayor and the administrator? This is a sorry state of affairs
Lmao you've had 3 years to comment. This hasn't been a secret project!
the council has had 3 years to ignore comments
The whole administration of the town ignores any input. Commenting is a waste of time as they ALWAYS ignore them. Especially if the ideas do not concur with the concept of Mr Rogers neighbourhood.
I have had comments on public meeting boards deleted in final reports because they did not like the point of view.
So much for public input.
They do what they want.
i concur with 9:14
once you find out that all the charrettes and open houses etc. are only a disguised event so that people can be deluded into thinking a. They have a voice; and b. their voice matters, there is no point in wasting your time or your breath for any more of that nonsense.
For anybody that hasn't done it a good example of how fruitless these exercises are is the affordable housing debacle:
the district had open houses etc. where people could sign up for affordable housing availability as soon as it became a reality. It was projected that within a few years or sooner affordable/attainable housing would be available for occupancy.
Couples with children or not who either grew up here and were working or who were here working with a steady job were excited and signed up................. 15 years ago.
Those people are long gone. Or bought into market housing.
Five years later more people signed up. They are gone...
Why is it like this?
No one is going to do this when it comes to putting any faith whatsoever in the district's ability to follow through whether it's affordable housing, the community plan, doing anything about parking in the Chesterman's Beach area, building a sewage treatment plant, and so.
Perhaps our newly elected minister of municipal affairs in Victoria will go about changing how things actually work?
Oh what am I thinking?!? Under her administration in Tofino the administration and these charette games became perfected so that public input was better ignored.
Mr.Rogers will do/say whatever is necessary to remain gainfully employed. He's just that kind of guy. The new minister will do nothing to improve the situation. She's just that kind of minister. But her past will catch up to her.
An employee in any organization will do whatever is necessary to remain employed. That is pretty much the terms of employment anywhere.
Say what you will about Poolsland but there are a good number of people who started their west coast life broke or broken but now contribute greatly to our community. Mabey Magys farm needs to be reworked
Is there no room in the work houses? What about the beggars prisons? Are they full? No need for PooLandia. At this time of year it is usual to make some small provision by way of food and drink. And there is always room in the Temporary Use Zones to keep them off the streets if need be.
While we await the miracle of attainable housing, the sewage treatment plant, more water, and a living wage for all.
Let's not forget the elephant in the room.....There's still a housing crisis in Tofino.
Josie's "affordable housing" plan isn't filling the need, there's still no place for people to live. One building, with a few staff accommodation apartments will fill the needs of about two resorts, and there will still be dozens or hundreds of folks searching for housing. And Tofino council is still doing nothing about it. No land rezoned, no development proposals approved or even under consideration, and no conversations regarding the future direction of where Tofino sees people living 5-10-15 years from now.
Taking Josie's excuses as true, and blaming the situation on short term rentals, is not a solution, it's just a way for people to express anger and frustration. It's not a solution to the lack of housing.
There should be a third party planning consultant (ok insert eye roll here but wait) that would form a committee of local residents and business owners.
This committee would co ordinate public input through unbiased means and be over seen by the independent Planner/Consultant.
This consultant would be hired to provide unbiased direction to the committee in current planning principles and standards and not be influenced by local politics or friends and neighbours.Having this important community document done “in house” by local planners will be strife with personal believes and agendas.
Co-vid has also impacted the public’s ability to attend work shops and public meetings. Even the ones held before Co-vid were poorly attended due to the lack of more aggressive pubic awareness.
No one will ever be impartial. Even a so called "third party" will have their own opinions and be influenced by people. And in theory we WANT this to be influenced by the people we chose for office, the people who run businesses in town, the 'neighbors and friends' who make up the community. It's unfathomable that a complete outsider would understand the wants and needs of the town.
Covid has made it so anytime can attend online - everything you need is accessible at your fingertips. How aggressive do these things need to be presented to you? Do you want someone to personally knock on your door at home to update you anytime something is going on? Take some personal responsibility for being informed.
From the districts point of view being informed is some stranger consultant ramming their vision of tofino down our throats whether we like it or not.. I do not like this way of being informed. Having gone to a few of these things over the years and seeing what results it is a complete waste of time for me to go and write little sticky notes and put them on a map. Or buttonhole one of the consultants to express myself personally about what I see is needed after living here for many many years. I might as well have stood in the middle of the street and yelled.
The consultants who have never lived here or engaged in the economic or social aspects of the town believe they are more than well-qualified to put really stupid things in places where they arent needed.
We end up with second-rate junk in our town given to us as "exciting', thrilling, dynamic,"
things that either don't fit or are an abomination... With the exception of some benches and lookouts.
If we keep going this way it will end up a total hipster theme park with not a trace of art or real culture or what started out as a fishing village theme.
What has been sold to the District as cutting edge urban planning is no more than cut and paste from some source of master design for any place
I feel the way it's done is an insult to any local people who can actually think.
Those benches 11:39 refer to are a joke on us. They are starting to rot and the shelter roofs over them are worse than useless in a rainstorm. Oh yeah it was RMI money but we have to pay to either maintain them, replace them or simply and better yet rip them out.
All designed by a consultant from out of town and rubber stamped by the district staff. They like consultants as they can pass the buck and hide their responsibility in the waste of money.
The Grand Prize award for design stupidity is the Main Street shelter across from the Maquinna. It doesn’t protect someone from the rain and the “seat” is designed so you cannot sit on it.
I hear a lot concern here about the input Tofino receives from residents, about things like OCP's or 5 year tax plans, or any other policies. Concern that no one is listening. But we have other problems here too. Your getting me worked up now.
Here are the facts kids. 25% of the working population won't be here in five years. They move on. Replaced by some others who fall in love with Tofino for a period of time but eventually grow up and need a real job or realise it ain't gonna happen here for them. Never get a house here, no pension plan, it actually does rain alot, living out of the back seat of the car has limitations regardless of whether you are a surf kahuna or not, and that cute girl/guy doesn't like me any more sort of stuff. All kinds of reasons. They love it here for a while, but they move on. And they can have big input into local issues, and they can vote. Work as a surf school instructor for a few months and you can vote. And then leave. Just like some of our former Mayors and councillors have moved on.
Problem is they won't be seeing the place the way people who are more committed to the place see things. Committed because of ownership or family or history or occupation. They might pick up plastic at the beach and rail on about how the town is destroying the environment, etc That is one of our big problems apparently or Tofino is needed to solve the world climate disaster or LBGTQ rights. They see completely different issues. If you think that water and sewer and taxes are important you are some kind of red neck geek. To me it seems they have brought their issues with them and then apply then to the town. Their views do not spring from here.
And the oldies move on too. Because they can't afford to retire here. Goodbye diversity
And another thing. I have heard certain staff at the DOT rail on about the complete inadequacies of the local school system and staff involved. How they would never send their kids to high school here. No for sure they are "getting out of this hole." How can you expect people to run the town or plan the town or make things better when they show a complete disrespect for where we live, and who we are. Signed, Before You, Old Stock
To 4:52PM, Funniest comment of the Year. Ralph, give them a gift certificate for an all expense paid tour of Radar Hill Radar Hill.
Tofino's last OCP "Vision Tofino 2002" was spearheaded by an excellent outside Professional Planning consultant who's direction was provided by a Planning Committee made up of locals.He was there to "heard the sheep" keep the committee focused and on track. That OCP (by local committee) has been in place for close to 20 years now (with some minor updates).Pretty good value for me as a local tax payer i would say.
Ok Andrea, posting this stuff as anonymous isn’t going to get you elected any quicker.
Okay 4:52 I admit that I have not examined closely any of the lookouts or benches. I'm just seeing people in the one on fourth Street and it looks like it works for taking selfies and such.
And yes the benches made out of fir without being adequately treated are doomed to rot.
A tiny tad of local experience in dealing with the weather and various woods might have prevented this obvious waste of time and money.
Re: 10:59 When the benches were first installed I remember being at a Council meeting where councillors Thorogood and McMaster said that the benches should be treated to prevent rot/weathering. Councillors Baert and Anderson thought that the grey weathered look was more in keeping with the Tofino look and were supported by staff. That is why the the benches like Tofino have rotted!
That's an appropriate analogy... That unwise decision based on lack of experience causes things to rot. Not only the untreated very expensive 12 x 12's but about the structure of the district of tofino if I can compare the outside consultants as unwise and inexperienced.
That's why it seems like were getting a lot of rotten decisions.
The OCP of 2002 was a lot of work done for free by dedicated citizens. There was arguing and disagreement in the committees but ultimately the referee got to the end of the process and we had something we all felt good about.
I think the committees did a really good job.
I'm not sure about the new OCP but I can tell you this: whoever is doing it has no intention absolutely none of listening to anything any of us say based on the reality of living here.
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