AY - Sunday, April 4, 1982 - North Shore News

FIGHTING FOR PLANNING CONTROL
GVRD united in Lan
Use Act opposition

ELECTED representa-
tives of municipalities
and regional districts
from Vancouver to
Hope have given Muni-
cipal Affairs Minister -
Bill Vander Zalm a
clear message that they
do not like the
provincial govern-
ment’s proposed Land
Use Act (Bill 9) as it

relates to regional
planning. 2
At a recent meeting in MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS MINISTER Bill Vander Zalm

Langley with Vander Zalm,
over 150 members of the
Lower Mainland Municipal
Association were virtually
unanimous in adopting a
resolution urging the

assured his audience of about 70 people at Gleneagles
School last Sunday he will be pushing the “omnibus”
planning act through legislature before the current
session ends. (Eric Eggertson photo)

minister to amend the Land
Use Act to retain the role of
regional planning and to en-
shrine the planning function
in an amended version of the
bill.

The Greater Vancouver
Regional District (GVRD)
was represented at the
meeting by Chairman Alan
Emmott of Burnaby, Plann-
ing Committee Chairman
Tom Kirstein of White Rock
and about haif of its 24-
member board of directors.
All voted in support of the
resolution. Directors of the
other three regional districts
in the Lower Mainland —
Dewdney-Alouette, Fraser-
Cheam and Central Fraser
Valley - also supported the
resolution.

The proposed Land Use
Act, introduced in the
legislature in December,
would replace regional plan-
ning, now the responsiblilty
of locally elected represen-
tatives, by a co-ordinating
committee made up of pro-
vincially appointed officials.

The municipal politicians
were not content with minor
changes in the wording of
the bill suggested by Vander
Zalm, nor with his argument
that regional planning could

Municipalities gave up some

of their autonomy under the
proposed act.

While support was ex-
pressed for the minister’s ob-
jective of simplifying and
Streamlining the planning
and development approval
process, there was concern
over the amount of control
which would reside in pro-
vincial hands.

Most. speakers favoured
the present arrangements
which, although not pertec<,
have proven workable in
many areas of _inter-
municipal retations,  in-
cluding transit, parks and
water and sewer operations,
as well as planning.

The Lower Mainland is
seen as being a_ single
economic and_ inter-
dependent unit with unique
planning needs, and the
minister was urged not to
destroy the close co-
operation which has enabled
local officials to meet those
needs.

“We may not always agree
on everything,” said Pitt
Meadows Mayor Danny
Sharpe, “but we have always
been able to get along

“together and work out our

differences.”

tee Chairman Tom Kirstein
said regional planning is best
carried out by locally elected
representatives, as is the
case now.

“Local councils and their
representatives on the
regional board are closest to
the people and can best res-
pond to local needs.

“We aren't parochial, and
don’t want to be. We've
shown that we can work
together. it would be wrong
to take away that local con-
trol and centre it in Vic-
toria.”

The meeting’s chairman,
Chilliwack Alderman Edith
Grainger, a Fraser-Cheam
regional director, summed
up the feeling of the meeting
when she said that represen-
tatives of the Lower
Mainland are confident of
the way they are handling
their municipal and regional!
planning responsibilities and
want these responsibilities to
continue as they are.

Directors of the four
regional districts will meet
together soon to come up
with specific proposals for
changes in the “aet to be
presented to the minister
before the bill is debated in
the upcoming session of the

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