Here is a rundown on some of the highlights from the Monday, Sept. 12 council meeting in North Battleford, the first one back following the reduced summer schedule.
Two bylaws were passed at Monday night’s meeting on a couple of permanent closures of city streets.
The first dealt with a street closure on a parcel of land east of Territorial Dr. and north of Wearing Road. The second one was by the airport and includes part of the runway.
As city planner Ryan Mackrell explained, these streets exist “on paper,” but “if you go out there it’s just a field - there’s no streets or curbs or anything like that.”
The zoning bylaws changes closing the streets passed in three readings Monday night; there were also public hearings at the start of the council meeting in which no opposition was received to the changes.
Also introduced at Monday’s council meeting was zoning bylaw amendments that added several new definitions to the bylaw. Among the changes include adding “night club” and “art studio” as commercial uses in the C1 zone downtown, adding the words “second hand stores” following the word “pawnshops” under that same category, adding “personal service shops” as a permitted use in the C2 zone, adding “crematorium” as a commercial and industrial in the C3A zone, the M1 zone and the M2; and adding “boarding kennel” in the M2 zone. The bylaw received first reading Monday and will return to council at a later meeting for second and third reading.
City council has voted in favor of administration’s recommendation to oppose a proposed subdivision application in the RM of North Battleford No. 437 currently being reviewed by Community Planning.
The proposal calls for creation of a 10-acre residential acreage less than a kilometer from the outskirts of the city boundary, and located directly across from the McMillan Industrial Park expansion.
However, the city is opposing it on the grounds that it does not conform to legislative requirements - namely the RM’s Official Community Plan, Zoning Bylaw or the Planning and Development Act, 2007. North Battleford will be recommending the application be refused in its submission to the Community Planning Branch.
The city has adopted a Public Art Policy, designed to guide the acquisition of public art in the city and to provide more clarity, according to a city memo.
The Planning and Development department has been working with Leisure Services towards creating the new policy. It covers all permanent, integrated or transient public artwork in a public space that is either commissioned by or in partnership with the City of North Battleford.
As part of that policy the city has established a Public Art Advisory Committee, with terms running until Dec. 31, 2020. Council has appointed five individuals to that committee: Janaye Chubb, Patricia Malo, Sherron Burns, Donna Challis and Marlene Bugler.
Also, council has reappointed Mike Waschuk to the Development Appeals Board, expiring Dec. 31, 2019.
The city has granted permission to #43 Royal Canadian Air Cadets Squadron to do a Tag Day on Oct. 7 and again on March 17. The Tag Day is to raise money for building repairs.
In proclamations Mayor Ryan Bater has proclaimed Sept. 18 as Big Brothers Big Sisters Day in North Battleford.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Sept. 25.
