At September 25 council there will be a presentation on the draft Village Design guidelines and there will be review of the Staff report.  The scope of the guidelines is very wide as it includes built structures, street scaping and its elements, parks and trails which are located in the cores of the 3 villages and employment areas and established neighbourhoods of the 3 villages.  The current village guidelines (2006) did not include the latter two.  The guidelines, as is, excite me; and I recognize that they are important as the only way to influence the evolution of the 3 villages is to be able to identify upfront to builders and developers what you want. I am very pleased with the idea of including the concept of formalizing “desire lines.”  And its valuable to see guidelines for addressing the new possibility of having 3 residential units on one lot due to Bill 23.  Unfortunately I am skeptical about implementation. Our zoning bylaws already cover many of the guidelines for built form but applications for minor variances are frequent.  Several places in the draft guidelines the importance of mature trees for a variety of reasons is mentioned; without a tree bylaw we are incapable of preventing loss of mature trees as property owners build new homes or expand.

I encourage attendance (either in person or virtually) to increase understanding.  The guidelines will not be approved at September 25 meeting; there is still time to make comments. To register to make a deputation or to send in email comments you need to do so by noon September 25.  Register or send emails to clerks@king.ca.