Thanks, Bunk. As much as our opinions differ on various matters, I truly respect your openness and willingness to provide credible and interesting information on various municipal issues.
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Originally Posted by Bunk
...Calgary Planning Commission is a big point of conversation - what role should it play? What should its mandate be? Is its function overlapping with Urban Design Review Panel? If there is peer review, where should it lie in the process. And, with everything in this transformation asking questions like "should it exist?" are being asked and discussed...
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My take on this: CPC has made itself redundant long time ago when Druh polarized it so much. Most of the controversial issues make their way to Public Hearing (or SDAB) anyway regardless of CPC recommendation. And most of the non-controversial issues can get approved at the File Manager's level without taking significant time and resources of the CPC. As you well know, some major cities don't even have this layer of approval and function well.
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Originally Posted by Bunk
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Re: geORGe. This is a big organization review, happening in concert with Transforming Planning. One of the big issues identified is that the organizational structure within PDA (as well as the relationships across business units) may not be working in favour of the outcomes everyone's looking for. So for instance, should policy development and implementation be so separate? How do you break down silos between departments and business units? Should we be more geographically oriented and multidisciplinary focused in our structures? That sort of thing. It's a huge thing...
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These big reviews are always scary, because noone knows what's going on for a long time. I can name three issues that I think need attention desperately:
- Disconnect between LUPP and DBA results in policies that are difficult if not impossible to follow.
- Accountability for decisions is completely absent. Decisions on files must be rendered within specified times.
- Disconnect between transportation, engineering, parks and PDA is mind–boggling. Departments don't like talking to each other and when they do, they don't like accommodating each others concerns. A mechanism of someone making a decision after hearing all comments needs to be looked at and improved.
But I am sure you guys know about all of these already...
When is GeORGe scheduled to be completed?