Council pushed through zoning changes to achieve housing targets, despite a small group of residents voicing opposition for a second time.
Published Apr 25, 2024 • Last updated 16 hours ago • 4 minute read
Mayor Sandra Masters watches Councillor Andrew Stevens during City Council at Henry Baker Hall on Wednesday, February 8, 2023 in Regina. Photo by KAYLE NEIS /Regina Leader-Post
City council checked off a number of outstanding items at the end of a lengthy meeting Wednesday, voting unanimously to approve the latest consent agenda (a group of non-controversial items that is voted on without discussion).
New citywide accessibility plan
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The Regina Accessibility Plan was approved with unanimous support, solidifying the new strategic framework designed to make all City of Regina spaces, services and programs more inclusive to residents with disabilities.
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The plan lays out 60 actions over the next 10 years, with a focus on viewing infrastructure, communications, transportation, employment and procurement processes through an accessibility lens.
Advocates in the gallery celebrated the step forward with cake and balloons after council officially backed the plan and the meeting was adjourned.
Zoning Bylaw alterations for low-rise apartments
Despite opposition from about 20 people in the gallery, city council voted through the necessary readings to update the Regina Zoning Bylaw. The vote wrapped up the second phase of changes needed to take advantage of the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF).
The amendments allow six-storey residential units as-of-right within 200 metres of identified main transit routes and inside intensification areas. As-of-right means those developments will not need discretionary use approval from city council.
Delegates Brian Black of the Whitmore Park Community Association and Aura Lee MacPherson pleaded again with council to delay, arguing the community doesn’t know enough about the impacts.
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“The rapid pace this is going forward (at) does not make us confident,” MacPherson said. “It’s a very top-down approach, and (the community associations) are not happy.”
Aura Lee MacPherson inside MacPherson Engineering in Regina on May 10, 2021. Photo by TROY FLEECE /Regina Leader-Post
“I think sometimes its just a fear of the unknown,” Mayor Sandra Masters told media after the meeting. “Bringing folks along, that’s important, but we also know it was called the accelerator fund with intention.”
Regina has inked a deal for $35 million in federal funding to add 1,100 new housing units to the market by 2026, an objective Masters noted the city has a “very narrow window” of time to achieve.
City council has discussed Regina’s intent to partake in HAF since last May, having first announced the three-phase zoning plan in November.
Reserves to pay $230K bill to REAL
City council approved a plan to draw on city reserves rather than the General Revenue Fund to cover an outstanding $232,529 owed to REAL, and a year-end operating deficit of $2.7 million.
The REAL invoice is for work done by the city’s catalyst committee in 2022. It was left unpaid because no budget for the committee was ever presented to city council for approval before its activity that year.
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“I have no idea, honestly, how it wasn’t paid in the year it was fundamentally incurred,” said Masters after last week’s executive committee meeting.
Council also approved the 2023 final financial reports and a directive to administration to begin giving quarterly updates on payroll audits starting in September.
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REAL board chair and Regina city manager Niki Anderson. Photo by KAYLE NEIS /Regina Leader-Post
Arm’s-length land development corporation to wait
Renewed conversation about the creation of a separate, arm’s-length municipal land development corporation (MLDC) was successfully pushed ahead until later this summer.
An MLDC would be a city-owned development entity, tasked with leveraging the city’s real estate interests in the private market, much like REAL does for the entertainment sector.
Instead of dismissing the idea, as originally recommended by the city, council decided to have administration come back to a special executive committee meeting before July 31 with an updated report that includes in-progress strategic work already happening internally.
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Candidate rules for fall election set
City council also agreed to recommended updates to the election bylaw to lock down details for the upcoming municipal election.
Little was changed from the previous election rules for candidates, save for an update to adjust candidate spending limits, as required, and to set remuneration rates for election workers.
Criminal record checks will still be required for school board trustee hopefuls, but not for city council nominees.
Coun. Shanon Zachidniak (Ward 8) moved that both the general election bylaw and the Local Government Election Act be amended so that a byelection is held in the event of a tie vote for mayor or any city councillor seat. Previously, procedure was to pull a candidate’s name out of a hat.
“I’m proposing we follow proper democratic principles,” Zachidniak said.
The motion was approved even though administration said the city has never seen a tie vote and to hold a byelection would cost an estimated $83,000.
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