Chamber boss wants more business consultation on Sarnia planning matters

Sarnia-Lambton’s chamber of commerce boss is asking for the organization to get a seat at the table when it comes to municipal planning talks.

Article content

Article content

Recommended Videos

Article content

That’s so local businesses don’t get left out of the conversation, said Carrie McEachran.

“Business people feel like they don’t have a voice,” she said, when it comes to planning decisions like a partial city parking lot donation to the County of Lambton that was scrubbed at the last minute after opposition.

Sarnia and Lambton went back and forth for more than a year on the subject before council pulled the plug in October.

The donation would have made space for supportive housing on part of Sarnia’s Victoria Street lot.

A group called the Downtown Business Collective petitioned council to back away from the donation proposal, amid concerns about losing parking spaces, and other issues.

McEachran said she was in contact with city staff at various points during several months as council considered the donation idea, but there was never any public meeting, online survey or any other forum held to gather public and business-operator input, she said.

Article content

“Something could have happened and nothing happened,” she said.

The donation-proposal process fell outside of provincial Planning Act consultation requirements for municipalities, city officials have said.

McEachran said she was told, in talks with city staff, that there wasn’t any consultation with local businesses because the process had to happen quickly.

“It certainly didn’t have to happen quickly if a year later it’s still on the agenda,” she said.

Having a chamber representative on a city committee or decision-making table on social issues could help ensure broader conversations happen on topics like this without unduly slowing down the process, she said, acknowledging a provincial home-building strategy emphasizes speed with as little red tape as possible on planning matters.

Article content

“The chamber would really like to see some more involvement with some of the city committees,” she said, to help get the word out.

City and county staff do sit on chamber committees, she said.

City council in November unanimously voted for a staff report on what can be done to make sure people and businesses are better informed about looming city planning decisions.

Sometimes property owners don’t pass along legislatively required notifications from the city about planning matters like rezoning or official-plan-amendment proposals to tenants — including businesses — city community services general manager Stacey Forfar said.

“It’s why we encourage our applicants to do a door-to-door, to go and do that ground work,” she said.

Article content

Circumventing property owners — planning application notices are sent out using city tax roll info — and sending notifications to business owners directly would mean site visits, lots more city staff time, and create opportunities for error, she said.

“I am unaware of any other municipality that has gone down that path for just that reason. . . it opens the door up to significant misses,” she said.

Signs also are posted on properties where changes are planned, Forfar said.

And public input meetings are required under the Planning Act, she said, adding council can hold multiple meetings if there’s a lot of interest in a subject, or if council thinks people need more time to weigh in.

Any add-ons council considers to the process should be consistent across the board, she said.

“Otherwise it just gets a little bit confusing for the staff on the front line to be putting out notices.”

A report back to council is expected in February, city spokesperson Steve Henschel said.

[email protected]

Article content