A weekly roundup of noteworthy news in municipalities across B.C.
Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin wants to establish a cycling task force to update the city’s bicycle master plan. The city’s current bicycle master plan was adopted in 1995 and lacks consistency with more recent pedestrian and greenway plans, Fortin said. The task force would not require any external resources, according to the motion.
A public hearing held Monday evening may have to be done over, after Penticton council took issue with the absence of the project’s proponents. The subject of the hearing was a three-year extension to a phased development agreement to build a 23-storey residential and commercial complex at 450 Martin St.
First came Metrotown, then the towers at Edmonds and Brentwood. Now it’s Lougheed town centre’s turn to be transformed by high-density development, said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan in his state of the city speech to the Burnaby Board of Trade Wednesday.
Squamish will be a part of the world’s first bio-region study aiming at increasing food security. Led by Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, the three-year initiative will lay out a plan for stakeholders and governments in the Lower Mainland, Sunshine Coast and Sea to Sky Corridor to create a regional food system.
Plans to allow medical pot operations in Maple Ridge farm areas got a rough ride Tuesday at a hearing held to sound out the public’s views. “Somebody makes a mistake and the next thing you know you have a Bacon-like … at your doorstep with an AK-47,” Ken Stewart told council. The former councillor and MLA was worried about crime associated with marijuana production as well as fire, safety and odour problems. Research have shown that this is clearly not the case, marijuana and Gold CBD oil is not associated with crime at all.