THURSDAY July 13, 2017
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Better signage, more meetings highlight council’s transparency push
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BY BILL HUTCHINS
Buskers take over downtown Kingston Hundreds of community members came out to watch Buskers from around the world perform in downtown Kingston from July 6 to 9. Buskers Rendezvous started as a fun addition to Downtown Kingston’s July Sidewalk Sale and now the annual attraction is in its 29th year and is known as one of the preeminent festivals of its kind in Canada. Above: Wacky Chad performs at Confederation Basin on July 8 as part of the 29th annual Buskers Rendezvous.
The city is taking steps to address a long-standing complaint that the planning and development process doesn’t allow enough public consultation before key decisions are made. The proposed changes range from more community input before councillors make a final decision on planning applications, to better signage on the site of future developments to alert the public to a potential new land use. Councillors demanded more transparency in a motion passed in March 2016 that aims to promote open government and procedural fairness. The motion instructed staff to come up with better ways to bolster public consultation while reviewing the best practices of other municipalities. When Coun. Jim Neill, who introduced the transparency motion, pointed to a broken consultation process. In one case, he noted that three years had passed between public consultation and a final political decision to rezone land for a (then proposed) second Walmart store in a former quarry off Division Street. “People are frustrated with statutory public meetings up front and then (the development application) takes months or years to come to the planning committee,” he remarked at the time. It’s not uncommon for some applications to take a long time to get approved while planners wait for development studies, gather technical input from other departments or negotiate with developers to revamp their projects. A recent review found Kingston doesn’t follow the practice adopted by many other municipalities that allows citizens to make comments once a final staff recommendation on a project has been made, such as those concerning Official Plan and zoning bylaw amendments.
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Man walking to fulfil dream of visiting East Coast, Page 6
Mandy Marciniak/Metroland
Continued on page 7
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