Vernon City Council at the regular meeting Monday, June 10 (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

Survey Closes July 1st

City gets hundreds of responses to OCP and transportation plan survey

Jun 11, 2024 | 5:00 AM

Hundreds of people have had their say on the City of Vernon’s Official Community Plan and Transportation Master Plan joint review.

The city launched a survey to get feedback on the two key plans, and has advertised the public engagement opportunity by sending cards to residents in the mail and by posting advertisements on city buses.

Barbara Everdene, Vernon’s Long Range Planner, said the advertising efforts have led to a large number of responses.

“We’ve had 857 responses now to the survey,” Everdene told council at the regular meeting Monday.

“Our engagement vision is to have a full and meaningful participation of the community in this process of reviewing the OCP and the Transportation Plan, and do the best we can within the extent possible that we have with the provincially regulated timeline. And just make sure everybody that participates feels heard and valued and that the plans are informed and enriched by the results of the community engagement process.”

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Everdene added the advertising has “more than doubled” the survey response totals.

The city has also held five workshops with council committees and the Social Planning Council, including meetings where staff received input from the affordable housing sector, people with lived-experience or at risk of homelessness, as well as community-based service providers. Three more of these meetings are planned to run in June.

Pop-up kiosks have also been set up at various events to promote public engagement, and those will be set up at the upcoming Sunshine Festival and Polson Night Market.

Danielle DeVries, Vernon’s Manager of Transportation, added several technical studies related to the OCP and transportation master plan review had been launched, and the city had entered the procurement stage for the larger studies with the goal of having them in place by the end of July.

Upon receiving the report for information, council applauded staff for the work to engage the public so far.

The OCP and Transportation Master Plan Joint Review survey can be found here.

by Liam Verster

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