Here’s what’s on the agenda at Burnaby’s March 7 council meeting

It’s five o’clock on a MondayThe regular crowd shuffles inThere’s a lil’ cat sitting next to meWondering why I’m not playing with him

He says, “Son can’t you ignore this week’s council night?I’m not really sure why you won’tBut it’s sad and I’m sweet; how could it competeWith me and my little pink toes?”

Well as much as Hobbes would prefer I dangle a little toy on a string for him, I, for one, am happy to be watching council tonight!

“But Dustin,” you protest, “didn’t council do last week?” To which I say: That’s not a real grammar, friend, but I get what you’re saying. And yes, in fact, we’ve got back-to-back council meetings, what with Family Day messing with the regular schedule last month.

So here’s what we’re watching for tonight:

Delegations!

We’ve got all kinds of delegations here today, including from the Burnaby Board of Trade and the Burnaby Primary Care Networks.

The former is going to give an update to city council on the Buy Local Burnaby campaign and efforts to promote local shopping.

The latter is set to ask council to consider developing a local poverty reduction strategy.

We don’t know much about what either of them will say tonight until it happens, so we’ll update you on that.

The third delegation is a resident, Joe Sulmona, speaking on the city’s proposed Bainbridge urban village plan. The plan has been controversial for residents to the east of the area after a “Bainbridge east” section was added for council’s consideration.

Families are upset about density increasing in their direct neighbourhood.

Sulmona took issue with a delegation last week from nearby residents, calling the delegation an example of NIMBYism in a letter to Burnaby Beacon.

Speaking of Bainbridge…

City staff are asking council to give the latest draft of the urban village plan tonight. The current draft up for consideration is based on phase 2 public consultations, and approval of this draft would send the plan into phase 3 consultation.

Phase 3 consultation would then guide the plan into its final form for council approval.

The city held two virtual open house workshops on July 22 and Aug 3 last year, each lasting about two hours. And an online survey received 939 responses, including 3,185 long-form comments.

Despite opposition from local residents, the city found 74% of respondents supported including Bainbridge east in the plan “and the potential to explore additional housing forms that could be developed incrementally in these areas over the long term.”

Find the staff report here and the draft Bainbridge plan here.

‘Competition is fierce’

With the upcoming election, the city is going to have to hire election officials to work at voting booths. This is often a challenge, notes the city’s chief election officer, Lynne Axford, with high turnover between recruitment and voting day.

That’s in part because of the schedule—just four days in one month, along with training.

Currently, however, the employment market is favouring the labourers, and Axford said it’s “necessary to establish pay rates competitive with other local governments,” adding: “Competition is fierce.”

Those competitive rates? Well, you can find a full list of the proposed rates here.

The rates include $1,900 for the chief election officer, $1,500 for the deputy CEO, $1,250 for election supervisor, and $1,000 for area supervisors.

Community gardens

The city is inching towards establishing a community garden program in Burnaby. I won’t get into it here, though, as Simran wrote a story about it last week here.

It’s official…

The Burnaby Mountain restaurant, formerly known as Horizons, now has a new name: Mintara on Burnaby Mountain. The restaurant’s name is a reference to the Playground of the Gods poles on the mountain, which is referred to in Japanese as Kamui Mintara. Mintara loosely translates to “garden,” staff said.

The name of the restaurant was approved in a closed council meeting, and the decision is being made public in today’s council meeting.

Another big Brentwood development

A concept plan for a development in Brentwood, proposed by Grosvenor, a multinational corporation owned by the Duke of Westminster in the UK, was approved in a closed meeting in late January.

City staff pitched the concept as being an “activity hub in the centre of the town centre and adjacent to the Brentwood SkyTrain station.” The land is situated between Alpha and Beta avenues to the west and east and by Lougheed Highway and Dawson Street to the north and south.

The proposed plan would include different districts, “each with a distinct and unique architectural and landscape expression,” notes a staff report.

“The site sits at the centre of the Brentwood town centre and will become a hub of activity with a variety of open air shopping experiences, cafés and restaurants, office space, and high-density rental and strata residential opportunities, all designed around new public plazas, and terraced open space,” reads the report, which you can find here.