The City of Armstrong has had discussions with Anhart Community Housing, a Social Housing developer based out of Vancouver, who wants to build a development in Armstrong, BC. The city decided that they could use the Parkland area located directly behind the Norval Arena, with access from Poole Street (off Jackson Ave.) to accommodate Anhart’s proposed development. There was a tight timeline for the developer to apply for funding from the Federal Governments Rapid Housing Initiative grant, so the Mayor and 5 Councillors for the city, quickly drew up a new bylaw (RM.4) to change the zoning of this Parkland area to Multi-Family Residential on December 14, 2020. The city gave the bylaw its first and second readings and they then proceeded to set up a Public Hearing by Zoom, for January 18, 2021. (The Public Hearing was a Zoom meeting due to pandemic restrictions). In the city’s haste to get the public hearing scheduled as quickly as possible, they made a mistake in the notice and had to add another hearing for January 25, 2021. Even though the city received an overwhelming number of concerns from residents about the lack of information, infrastructure and transparency, and the majority of the responses submitted to the city were against the proposal, the city proceeded to move ahead with the bylaw change and passed it, with only Councillor Jim Wright opposing.

Public Hearing Agenda & Resident Submissions:

https://armstrong.civicweb.net/filepro/documents/182?expanded=394,136239&preview=136240

It has come to my attention that the City of Armstrong cannot vote to pass a bylaw that changes the zoning of Parkland and Open Space until there is a referendum, and the residents of Armstrong approves the change (the city needs to have electoral approval).

Local Government Parkland Ownership & Disposal:

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/local-governments/planning-land-use/asset-acquisition-disposal/parkland-ownership-disposal

It states:

Parkland Disposal - Local governments have the authority to acquire and dispose of real property. However, due to the significance of parks to community values, there are two limitations on local governments' ability to dispose of parkland:

Disposal of parkland dedicated on subdivision: Elector approval is required for disposal of these parklands. All proceeds from sale must be placed in a parkland acquisition reserve fund.

Removing parkland dedicated by bylaw: Elector approval is required to remove the dedication. Once a dedication is removed, the local government can dispose of the property under regular land disposal rules.

It would appear the Mayor and supporting Councillors have done this illegally. When Councillor Jim Wright tried to bring forward a motion to delay the current bylaw process during the last council meeting (February 8, 2021), the rest of council would not even second the motion so there could be a discussion about the apparent error. The Mayor and rest of the Councillors are determined to force this through, before too many people know about it and it is too late to do anything. The Mayor has been trying to deflect everyone’s concerns, by saying that the land has never been developed as part of a park. However, this land is listed in the Official Community Plan (OCP) as parkland AND they called it parkland in the Bylaw that they used to change it to Multi-Family. The Mayors press release is noted in the link below. (You will note in this press release, that there is only mention of disposal of parkland dedicated on subdivision, but there is no mention of removing parkland dedicated by bylaw). It appears that the Mayor has purposefully omitted this portion.

https://armstrong.civicweb.net/document/136727

Please sign this Petition if you want to protect your very limited parkland in Armstrong and force the City to do their jobs properly, as they were elected to do. The Mayor cannot ignore the due process, just to get his way. The Mayor and Councillors are elected officials and are beholden to the taxpayers of Armstrong.