Oak Bay's OCP survey has serious flaws and needs a do-over.
Question #2 of the official community plan (OCP) survey should actually be two questions: 1) Choices for the desired location(s) of development/densification; and 2) Choices for the type(s) of housing within each location.
Conflating these two entirely separate criteria actually blocks legitimate public choice on housing. The "no change" option would relegate those who select this choice as wholly anti-housing and anti-development, which may not be the case.
Citizens who strenuously object to scattergun densification via blanket zoning but are also passionate about providing legitimate, affordable housing solutions were left with no way to specify preferred locations and type of housing separately in the survey. A lot of people holding these preferences were shut out by the conflation of those concepts into one question.
Because question #2 was not split into two separate questions, the survey provides no valid data on which to base recommendations to council.
Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon has stepped out of his ambit of power and ordered OCPs to be legally aligned with provincial legislation. This is another threat to democracy. Official community plans are intended to be another check and balance against high-handed choices that do not reflect the nuances that local knowledge can bring to decisions on our future.
OCPs are meant to arise out of community consultation and have legal legitimacy in a democracy. This document is ours to create, not the minister's. The mistake on this important question in the survey is a turning point for Oak Bay's participatory democracy. There is still time to redo the survey. This would restore and reclaim Oak Bay's tradition of nuanced community decision-making.
Jessica Van der Veen
Oak Bay
