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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCouncil this Week 2015-02-02.pdfRepresentatives of the Metro Vancouver Mayors Council and TransLink made a presentation to Council outlining the 10 Year Transportation & Financial Plan that would be funded by the 0.5% Sales Tax that is the subject of a referendum that will be held in the Spring of 2015. The presentation was live streamed to the community on the City web- site, and the full Council Workshop meeting is available for video review here. Mike Budda, Executive Director of the Mayors Council walked Council through the development of the Transportation Plan. He noted that the region is expected to grow by a million citizens in the next 30 years. He presented a number of statistics related to Maple Ridge’s projected population growth and provided data relating to the average commute times of citizens in the region. Mr. Budda explained the process the mayors used to develop the plan Cont’d... City of Maple Ridge Council This Week Maple Ridge 11995 Haney Place Maple Ridge, BC V2X 6A9 Canada Tel: 604-463-5221 Fax: 604-467-7329 Website Enquiries Email Unsubscribe Inside This Issue:  TransLink 10 Year Transportation & Financial Plan  Workplan Overview: Information Technology  Maple Ridge Tree Management Bylaw Process Report TransLink 10 Year Transportation & Financial Plan February 2, 2015 TransLink 10 Year Transportation & Financial Plan ...cont’d and how the final report reflected a broad approach to increasing service using existing services along with some of the larger capital plans that would require the financial support of senior lev- els of government. Bob ? from TransLink then walked Council through the proposed increases in service for the West Coast Express, the introduction of rapid bus service from Maple Ridge to the new Evergreen line, increases in existing bus services, work on the local road network and improvements to the cycling and pedestrian network. Mr. Budda completed the presentation by reviewing some of the steps that will be taken to improve transparency and accountability to citizens and new powers for the Mayors Council. Council asked a number of questions relating to some of the presentation points and looked for guarantees of when some of the enhanced services would be up and running for the community. We strongly urge you to take the time to review the video of this presentation so that you can see the questions and comments of your Mayor and Council. Once again, here’s a direct link to that video presentation. Council This Week Page 2 Workplan Overview: Information Technology Christina Crabtree, Director of Information Technology, provided Council with a verbal overview of the department’s 2015 budget and work plan. Ms. Crabtree summarized her background and described the work that the City Information Tech- nology (IT) department does to support the broad needs of the community. She noted that local governments have a far wider range of services, from the registration of citizens for recreational programs to the infrastructure to allow online services across a number of areas. Simple things like the management of sprinkler systems in our parks require remote technology. She noted that there has been a great deal of work to ensure that there is a strong technology infrastructure to support the delivery of services to the public. She highlighted some recent en- hancements to the systems used by the Building Inspections and Bylaw teams to allow for more efficient management of data and to improve customer service in these areas. She noted that Maple Ridge is working on a joint Request for Proposal for enhancements to the system used for recreation registration and program management with other cities to ensure that all taxpayers get the best value and that common software standards are developed in the region to mitigate the costs associated with software upgrades. Cont’d... Workplan Overview: Information Technology ...cont’d She finished her presentation by noting that the goal of the IT department is to be nimble and re- sponsive to the changing technology needs and the services that our citizens are demanding re- lating to mobility and access to information. Council asked a number of questions relating to the IT department and some challenges they are dealing with managing their large volumes of emails. Ms. Crabtree will be following up with them to provide training and improvements to ensure they can do their work efficiently. Council thanks Ms. Crabtree for her presentation. Council This Week Page 3 Maple Ridge Tree Management Bylaw Process Report Chuck Goddard, Manager of Development & Environmental Services provided Council with an overview of work that had been done on the development of the City’s Environmental Manage- ment Strategy, and the desire of Council to make the development and implementation of a new Tree Management Bylaw a priority in the new term. Mr. Goddard noted that the development of the new bylaw would require a public consultation process and that an interim amendment to the existing Tree Protection Bylaw would be required to ensure that there was no inappropriate re- moval of the tree canopy while the new legislation was being reviewed. Rod Stott, Environmental Planner with the City of Maple Ridge, provided Council with a presenta- tion highlighting the key points of a report on the existing Tree Protection Bylaw and the develop- ment of an updated bylaw that would reflect some of the best practices in the region to manage the tree canopy in our community. Mr. Stott noted that the report contained a draft of the proposed Tree Management Bylaw and outlined the public consultation process that would see experts in the field and community stake- holders provide their input. He also spoke about a public open house so that the community would have an opportunity to provide feedback. That consultation would be brought back to Council as the bylaw moved through the approval process. Council passed a recommendation that approved the consultation process and an amendment to the existing Tree Protection Bylaw to protect the inappropriate removal of trees across the com- munity. Council gave the amendment three readings and called a special Council meeting for 1:00 pm on Wednesday, February 4, 2015 in the Blaney Room to give the amendment final read- ing. There is a media release related to this item that was posted after the February 4, 2015 meeting.