The District of Houston has applied for nearly $750,000 to help with projects identified as key to its long-term objectives.
Four applications went to the Northern Development Initiative Trust’s Northern Healthy Communities Fund specific to housing, infrastructure development management, emergency planning and updating the District’s development bylaw.
Over the course of two years, the District wants to first develop a strategy to provide more housing within the community and then to act upon that strategy.
Previous studies commissioned for the District have determined lack of housing varieties makes the community less attractive in encouraging people to move here.
And for three years, the District wants to hire a project manager to oversee the number of large infrastructure projects, such as the 10th Ave. work now underway, and to plan for more developments to maintain its infrastructure.
“The District has been unable to efficiently manage and propel projects due to time and resource constraints,” a memo from economic and community development director Andrea Newell indicated.
An emergency program coordinator position, also for three years, is wanted to help the District meet emergency planning and climate change response plans.
“They will coordinate various emergency activities, including implementing alert systems, mitigating risks, recruiting volunteers and enhancing response strategies for extreme weather events,” Newell wrote.
“The District aims to enhance community safety and resilience while complying with evolving legislative standards.”
Also on the District’s long-term project list is updating its development bylaw to make it more efficient.
“The District of Houston’s development bylaw is outdated and complicated, posing an obstacle to investment and delaying development applications,” Newell wrote.
Hiring an expert for a one-year term will help with the changes.
The grants applied for would cover 90 per cent of costs, meaning the District would provide the other 10 per cent or $132,000.
District joins regional accessibility group
The District of Houston has joined with other local governments in the area to form a region-wide committee to identify and remove barriers preventing people with disabilities from participating fully in society.
Requirements to form committees by Sept. 1, 2023 follow on provincial legislation first passed in June 2021.
The District itself does not have the capacity to meet the legislation’s goals, making membership in the regional committee viable, District of Houston chief administrative officer Michael Dewar told council in a memo.
“Under the Accessible British Columbia Act, a barrier is defined as anything that hinders the full and equal participation in society of a person with an impairment,” he noted.
At least half of the committee must be of persons with disabilities or individuals or groups who support persons with disabilities. Indigenous representation is also required.
Farmer’s market lease renewed
Houston Link to Learning’s lease with the District of Houston for space in Steelhead Park to operate its seasonal farmer’s market has been renewed.
The cost is $1 for this year and there are provisions to renew the list in 2024 and again in 2025.
A previous lease agreement expired, prompting the need for a new one.
Pickup purchase approved
The District’s public works department will be buying a used pickup helped, in part, by a budget savings in purchasing two other pieces of equipment.
Another truck in the fleet means there’ll be transportation for the District’s working foreman and for public works employees when seasonal parks employees are using pickups for their own duties.
An earlier plan to buy two pickups this year was deferred until next year to reduce expenditures.
But the purchase now of one pickup will be helped because $18,856 was left from the $125,000 allocated to buy an excavator and trailer this year.