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City's reaction to IKEA 'knee-jerk'

Councillor demands a full public consultation

By: Joe Paraskevas

Posted: 12/18/2008 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

A rash of decisions made to secure the arrival in Winnipeg of furniture giant IKEA underline city hall's failure to include the public in planning decisions, council heard Wednesday.

Councillors pressed Mayor Sam Katz at Wednesday's council meeting -- the last of 2008 -- for more public input into planning decisions that involve not only where new shopping centres are built but also how roads are expanded and how commercial development affects neighbourhoods.

"It's up to the city to provide a truly meaningful consulting process," said Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Jenny Gerbasi, a vocal advocate for broad public input on planning decisions.

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The news this week that IKEA will open a store in south Winnipeg served as a flashpoint for concerns long simmering at city hall about the way the city is being developed.

IKEA's arrival will force the city to widen roads surrounding the proposed new store and to fast-track construction to accommodate an expected increase in traffic.

Such decisions seemed like a "knee-jerk response" to IKEA's plans, Gerbasi said.

"That concerns me," she added, when asked about the way the city and province announced IKEA's impending arrival.

"(The city) is supposed to look at planning issues, cost-benefit analysis," Gerbasi added. "We need to discuss transit services and all sorts of issues. And yet, politicians are out there making announcements. I'm concerned about how the public is going to feel about the (planning) process when (the new store) sounds like a done deal."

Katz, and St. James-Brooklands Coun. Scott Fielding, chairman of the city's property and development committee, said there would be public meetings in 2009 to review Plan Winnipeg, the city's long-term planning document.

"Plan Winnipeg is a living, breathing entity," Katz said. "A lot of people think that because it says something, that's what it is. But as you know, there's always been changes. That's why you see amendments to Plan Winnipeg."

Fielding suggested when details are released about Plan Winnipeg's public consultations they could include more than open houses, city hall's standard way of consulting citizens.

He said he was looking into the possibility of using the Internet through blogs or dedicated web sites to gather public opinion as part of the Plan Winnipeg review.

Senior administration officials have reviewed Plan Winnipeg for months, according to city hall sources, but Gerbasi said city hall should give ordinary Winnipeggers a crack at re-writing the document seen as the blueprint for future growth.

Gerbasi was one of four councillors involved in the last Plan Winnipeg review in 1999-2000.

That review committee held three public meetings while administrators met separately with others in the community who had specific expertise in city planning, Gerbasi said.

She and St. Boniface Coun. Dan Vandal pressed Katz to speed up the latest Plan Winnipeg review.

The document is already two years overdue for its mandated checkup, which is to be held every five years.

joe.paraskevas@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 18, 2008 A5

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