性视界传媒 city council has voted to amend the city鈥檚 streamside protection policy to require all watercourse setbacks to align with provincial and federal requirements.

Coun. Doug Elford said the move will provide 鈥渕ore clarity鈥� as it meets a standard regulation that everybody can understand. Coun. Linda Annis added, 鈥淲e hear so many times about applications getting delayed around streams and ditches and all of this and I think this just provides much more clarity.鈥�

Don Luymes, 性视界传媒鈥檚 general manager of planning and development, presented a to council on March 11.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a simple thing,鈥� he advised council, to ensure the setbacks are consistent with provincial requirements because the provincial manual for determining setbacks is more complicated than the city鈥檚 process, which is 鈥渁lmost intentionally kind-of simple.鈥�

鈥淭here will be some work back-and-forth with provincial staff to determine what exactly those setbacks will be enshrined in our zoning bylaw,鈥� Luymes noted.

Council granted second-reading approval to a related bylaw and then set a public hearing for 7 p.m. April 8.

Luymes noted in his report that the effect new provincial housing legislation has in allowing more density in most zones 鈥渨ill place added pressure on riparian areas to provide tree canopy and natural infiltration.鈥�

He concluded that council鈥檚 direction will 鈥渟ignificantly reduce鈥� the number of development applications that 鈥渢rigger鈥� a Sensitive Ecosystems Development requirement and will 鈥渟treamline the processing of applications without compromising important environmental and public interest values.鈥�