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Terry Barton isn’t making excuses for himself or the City of Vernon’s planning department in the face of recent criticisms.

But the relatively new head of that department is facing the same rather sudden challenges as are all other planners in BC in the face of new provincial housing regulations and tight timelines to implement them.

“Generally, Vernon does a very good job,” Barton, the city’s director of planning and community services since August, told iNFOnews.ca. “It needs constant attention to be good on the customer service front and there are things Vernon definitely needs to do to modernize, but I think big picture things are pretty good.”

He was responding to an iNFOnews.ca story about a developer of a proposed 49-unit rental housing complex who waited six months for his application to be reviewed only to find the file had been moved to another planner because of the need to deal with the provincial changes.

READ MORE: Badly needed rental housing bogged down at Vernon city hall

“Somehow some unfortunate event happens on one particular file then that leads to that kind of story,” Barton said. “That’s fair. Every so often one’s going to kind of get away and there has been a lot of movement in our department, a lot of change in the last three or four months and I’m assigned all these provincial regulations coming down. I’ve reassigned planners so it is possible there is some confusion.

“When you change the planner, that’s a recipe for disaster. Nobody likes doing that. Everyone likes to have the continuity from when you assign the file, to have the continuity right through so you have the relationship and the understanding and I hate when I have to reassign things that way.”

Dan Winer, executive officer for the Canadian Home Builders's Association, checked with his members and got only positive feedback about the City of Vernon, including one developer saying it only took four weeks to get a permit.

Still, Barton is faced with rewriting many of Vernon’s residential zoning bylaws in light of new provincial requirements that most single-family lots in the province must now be allowed to accommodate up to four housing units.

Municipalities have until the end of June to make those changes.

Two weeks ago, Vernon city council authorized Barton to hire three more planning department staff, using provincial grant money.

“It will take four to six months to be able to hire and get somebody good then, when you do have them, it takes probably another four or six months for them to ramp up internally to really make a difference,” Barton said.

“I’m happy to have the resources but it would have been better to have the resources right now. It would have been better if the province had actually announced the funding for these positions in the fall or late summer so that, when all these changes were brought in, I would have the resources to deal with them.”

The first challenge, of course, is just finding a planner in what used to be a tight market but is now being overwhelmed by other municipalities desperately needing help to implement the changes.

“It’s a huge problem,” Ron Mattiussi, the former city manager in Kelowna and a local government consultant throughout BC. “The province has been booming.”

Some smaller communities don’t even have planners so, for example, Mattiussi just gave a planning workshop to non-planners on Salt Spring Island.

“The requirement for planning is the same, whether you’re in Haida Gwaii or in Vancouver,” he said. “These smaller communities are really under the gun. When they get an application, you’re often dealing with clerical staff who have never dealt with planning. It's a big problem and, even in the next range – the Goldens, the Fernies, places like that – they’re holding their own but it is a big problem.”

It's not just the changes to the infill zoning rules and the need to rewrite bylaws.

READ MORE: Four-plexes can now be built next to single-family homes in Okanagan, Kamloops

More and more routine things, like development permits (that govern the form and character of projects) and variances that went to city councils in the past are now being turned over to planners in an effort to speed up the development approval process.

“The development permits are a good idea,” Mattiussi said. “Why it's a political decision to decide whether beige stucco is better than taupe is beyond me. Maybe nobody should be making that decision.”

Next week, Barton is going to ask Vernon city council to allow planners to take on variances.

“As soon as I started here, one of the things I did notice was the high number of variances that Vernon has,” he said. “We did a little bit of an analysis and, I think, it was somewhere between 90 and 95% of them were being approved but with a very, very lengthy process – public hearings, having to go to council on things that were really trivial and quite minimal.”

While the change, if approved, should speed up the development process, it will also change the dynamic at city hall.

“The delegated authority tool has now been taken out of the political realm so the decision is going to be made at the technical level which basically puts my position and my planning department on the hot seat,” Barton said.

“Now, when the public is upset with something, they’re not complaining to the politicians. They’re now going to be in my office saying: ‘Why did you approve that variance?’ It’s going to make planning departments more accountable and transparent because they are going be making the decisions now.”

Of course, it all adds to workloads in a world where it’s hard to find planners to come in to help. Plus, the provincial funding is only for two years.

“I would fully hope – and the province has sent out media releases – they are prepared to continue to fund this program,” Barton said. “Housing is important to them so, while this is the initial wave, I hope and fully anticipate these positions will turn into long-term postings with the province’s help.”

Mattiussi, who has dealt with the province for many more years than Barton, is more skeptical.

“I would hold no hopes that it’s going to go beyond the two years,” he said. “The province does that. They’re helping them through a bind but I can’t see a long-term commitment. I may be wrong, but they never have made such long-term commitments.”

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