By Laura Keil
Members of Valemount’s Official Community Plan (OCP) consulting team presented aspects of the draft plan to residents online and were open for comments Monday night during a virtual open house.
The Official Community Plan is the long-term land-use plan for the Village and is only updated every 10-15 years. The last one was done in 2006. The new draft plan encompasses many issues that did not exist when the last OCP was completedâ€challenges like affordable housing and parking.
The consultants solicited feedback on specific areas of the draft plan like rules regarding additional dwelling units (such as secondary suites or laneway homes), policy on short-term vacation rentals, how to improve parks and trails and how to better manage downtown parking.
Residents gave specific suggestions on how to solve some of these issues like having a set number of short-term vacation rental permits based on the population size of the Village (permits could increase if the population increases), preventing laneway homes from being short-term vacation rentals, providing downtown parking time limits and designated staff parking, improving bathrooms and trash facilities at parks, creating a dog park and having dust control along proposed pedestrian routes like Dogwood.
Monday night’s open house can be watched anytime on the Villa Valemount YouTube Channel or by visiting this link: tinyurl.com/ocpvalemount
Residents can read an overview, the draft OCP and provide their input via a survey on the Village’s website here: tinyurl.com/ocpsurveys
Once public feedback has been gathered on the draft plan, it will then be finalized and turned over to Village Council who will again have the opportunity to make changes before adopting it. Accompanying the OCP will be a new zoning bylaw that will harmonize with the OCP’s new recommendations and bylaws.
