RURAL RESIDENTS DESERVE MORE CONSIDERATION FROM RDOS

Editor:

Re: RDOS Notice of Consultation Opportunity in the August 27th Osoyoos Times.

Through its actions over the past several years, the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) has managed to create a sense of mistrust in the minds of many rural residents.

An air of suspicion now hangs over the recent notice whose purpose is the Repeal and Re-enactment of our Rural Bylaws.

Why is this necessary?

We are told: the OCP, Zoning, and Rural Land Use Bylaws currently enacted by the Regional District contain provisions that may be or are invalid on the basis that they have no legal authority or were enacted with a procedural defect in the final adoption process.

How far back does this go and whose fault is it?

Who has been looking after the store?

Now they want us to trust them in the matter of minor updating and modernizing revisions to the bylaws that are so extensive that they cannot all be listed in their notice!

Haven't they learned from past experience how Rural Area 'A' folks feel about our OCP?

It was only last year that the Director, his Alternate, and RDOS Planners tried to slip in considerable changes under the guise of language clarification.

The public outcry at that information meeting was well covered by the Osoyoos Times.rn
This time we don't even get a local public information session!

The actions of the RDOS over this major blunder are shameful and show a blatant disregard for the residents and taxpayers of all the rural areas.

Their notice states that the purpose of the changes is to make the bylaws more accessible for people “ yet how accessible are the documents?

You can check out their website - but not everyone has a computer or high-speed Internet - especially in the rural environment.

To truly comprehend these extensive changes, one must sit down and compare the old and new bylaws.

For example: my 7-acre property is currently zoned as Small Holding 1 (SH1); in the proposed bylaw to be repealed and re-enacted there is no SH1.

I cannot view the maps online so what zoning does my property become?

By size, I guess it's an SH2 “ but how and when will I be advised of how this change affects me?

Probably when I want to make some change it will come to light and I'll have to deal with it then.

Is this really how we should expect to be treated by local government?

There are no documents available for viewing at any public locations in any of the RDOS rural areas affected by the changes.

From west of Princeton to east of Osoyoos, and from the U.S. border to Summerland and Naramata, everyone is expected to travel to Penticton between Monday to Friday (8:30 a.m. “ 4:30 p.m.) to view the documents and also to attend a proposed daytime Public Hearing to be held at the RDOS office.

Is this issue being handled in this manner to discourage people from making the trek to voice their opinions?

Yes, you can send in your comments, but where is the opportunity to have these changes explained and discussed in an open forum?

Surely if a change to the bylaws made necessary by a new Interior Health regulation (a lot must be a minimum size of one hectare to have a septic approval) warrants a Public Hearing in each Rural Electoral Area “ shouldn't we be afforded the same opportunity for something as important as our OCP and Zoning Bylaws?

Moreover, there is insufficient parking at the RDOS office and the boardroom with its poor acoustics is far too small to consider holding a Public Hearing of this magnitude.

We, the rural residents of the RDOS deserve more consideration and better treatment than this from our Directors and the bureaucrats in Penticton.

Sherry Linn,rnOsoyoos Rural Area 'A'

OSOYOOS TIMES-September 3, 2008