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Friday, July 29, 2011

Week Eleven

I submitted a draft report on the Surveillance Policy for the Committee of the Whole to the legislative Coordinator for her comments. The reason for the report is to have the committee review it before it is recommended to council and the Mayor. I also submitted copies of the policy to the acting City Manager and the Director of Community Services for their input.

I handed in the completed policies- Highway 13 development Standard & the Paving policy- on Monday to the Director of Municipal Planning. She requested me to draft a report for the Committee of the Whole for the Paving Policy. I might need to talk to her again on the exact time she wants it done. I had discussions with the General Manager of Engineering about taking on additional tasks. I was assigned six policies to work on and they include the following:

1. Curb and Sidewalk policy
2. Dust Control policy
3. Roadway sign inspection policy
4. Local improvement policy
5. Parking in city historic downtowns
6. Wayfinding/directional signage in cities

Regarding the local Directional Signage policy I will be working with an engineering co-op student at the Engineering Department to develop it. He will do most of the research and I will draft the policy. I already issued him a list of sources he could look at to get the project going.

I did some comprehensive research on the local improvement policy and made some recommendations on areas that could be improved in the future for the existing policy. One area that could be explored is finding creative and alternative ways to finance local improvement project and maximising local improvements to better serve the community as whole instead of the designated locality. An area that may be worth looking at is the Special Business Units.

Learning Outcomes:
• Learnt how to juggle multiple projects
• Continued to understand the municipal process of decision making

Friday, July 22, 2011

Week Ten

Highway 13 Entry Corridor Development Standard

I completed my work on the Highway 13 Entrance Corridor development Standards.

Working on the development standards project, I conducted extensive research on the various corridor enhancements underway in Alberta and other provinces, and discussed aspects of the development standards that are unique to Camrose with the heads of Municipal Planning and Infrastructure Protection. As well, I contacted the Economic Development Department of the City and the City Chamber of Commerce to ascertain what “theme” or “brand” Camrose advertises to the public. I gathered that there is no consistent theme or image that is promoted. In light of this, I did make some recommendations to the Director of Municipal Planning on how to proceed with branding for the city to contribute to the visual aesthetics of the entrance corridors. I attached copies of specific bylaws and policies that maybe useful in consultation with potential developers and brochures for the type of horticultural standards that meets the city standards. Furthermore, I compiled a collage of various Rural and Urban Municipal Highway Corridors in Canada and U.S. and made recommendations as to what a visually appealing rural municipal entrance corridor could look like.

Bibliography

Bowmanville. Bowmanville East Town Centre; Appendix-Urban Design Plan and Guidelines. http://www.clarington.net/htdocs/documents/Planning/OP-OCT-2010/Bowmanville%20East%20Town%20Centre%20UDG.pdf

City of Anchorage, Alaska. 2010. Land Use Planning http://www.muni.org/Departments/OCPD/Planning/Projects/t21/T21%20Adopted%20Chapters%20and%20Ordinances/21-07Section2ProvisAdopted.pdf

City of Austin, Texas. 2009. Subchapter E: Design Standards and Mixed Use.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/planning/downloads/subchapter_e_design_standards.pdf

City of Camrose. Engineering Services: Projects Plans & Initiatives. http://www.camrose.ca/index.aspx?nid=214

City of Camrose Entrance Corridor Design Research.

City of Edmonton. Yellowhead Corridor East Design Guidelines for the City of Edmonton Planning and Development.
http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/planning_development/entrance-features-national-des.aspx

City of Edmonton. West End Corridor Urban Design Guidelines for the City of Edmonton Planning and Development. http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/InfraPlan/West%20End%20Corridor%20Urban%20Design%20Guidlines.pdf

City of Highland. Community Design Element. http://www.ci.highland.ca.us/GeneralPlan/PDFs/10-Community_Design_Element.pdf

City of Milwaukee. 2009. Northeast Side Comprehensive Plan: Land Use Policies and Strategies http://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/cityDCD/planning/plans/Northeast/plan/NECh3.pdf

Daniel Scott. 2010. Township of Langley, BC: An Overview of Development Trends
http://suburbs.planning.dal.ca/Docs/Langley%20Development%20Trends.pdf

David Gillen, Grahm Parsons, Barry Prentice, Peter Wallis. 2007. PACIFIC CROSSROADS: CANADA’S GATEWAYS AND CORRIDORS
http://www.gateway-corridor.com/roundconfpapers/documents/Gillen_Parsons_Prentice_Wallis_Pacific_Crossroads.pdf

Fort Wayne, NewHaven, Allen County. 2006. Access Standard Manual: Appendix E – Roadway Design Standards.
http://www.nircc.com/user/image/2030-iiappendixe.pdf

Infrastructure Systems Ltd. 1994. City of Camrose Development Standards.

Lovatt Planning Consultants Inc. 2007. Yellowhead County: Draft Edson Urban Fringe Intermunicipal Development Plan. http://www.townofedson.ca/municipal/edson/edson-website.nsf/AllDoc/ACDC020BE453EEC0872576CC008253E9/$File/Intermunicipal%20Development%20Plan.pdf

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. Commercial and Industrial Land Use.
http://www.woodbuffalo.ab.ca/Doing-Business/Land-Development/Commercial-and-Industrial-Land-Use-Study.htm

Region of Waterloo. Visualizing Densities: Part 11- Future Possibilities. http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/doingBusiness/resources/reurbvisualizingdensitiespart2.pdf

Sample Interim Development Control Bylaw for a Rural Municipality.
http://www.municipal.gov.sk.ca/Community-Planning/Interim-Development-Control-BylawRM

Sutter County General Plan: Aesthetics and Visual Resources. https://www.co.sutter.ca.us/pdf/cs/ps/gp/documents/eir/06-02_Aesthetics.pdf

Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission. 2006. Mixed-Use Development Ordinances for the Southern NH Planning Commission Region. http://www.snhpc.org/pdf/mixed_use_report06.pdf


Paving Policy

The paving policy was a bit choppy. It was choppy because you cannot find any policies on paving per se, instead you have to examine various Land Use Bylaws to understand what protocols guides hardsurfacing, lot grading, City right-of-way, storm water management and surface drainage. Based on these findings, you may possibly develop a sense of what may work for developing parking spaces and loading lots.


In developing the paving policy I examined the Camrose Land Use Bylaw and other municipalities Bylaws. The Camrose Land Use Bylaw did not have policy on paving; as a result, its been a bit difficult for Municipal Planning to negotiate with developers. Nonetheless, I developed a paving policy which incorporated the maintenance standards for pavings, the need to issue development permits for paving of parking and loading spaces, the submission of a site-plan for any surface drainage, and the possibility of utilizing the city’s storm water policy when consulting with future developers. Additional resources that I utilized was consulting with the Municipal Planning Department, The Infrastructure Protection and Municipal Engineering Department, The Camrose Storm Water Management Master Plan, The Lot Grading Bylaw, and the City’s Development Standards

Learning Outcomes:
• I developed how to produce a comprehensive project. By this I mean delivering a complete package even if some of the work may not be directly useful to the project at hand but may be useful in future projects.
• Asking work associates questions is very helpful, as they can be very useful resource.

Bibliography

City of Calgary. Lot Grading Bylaw.

City of Camrose. Lot Grading Policy for Single Family Dwelling and Duplex Developments.

City of Edmonton. Parking, Loading and Passenger Drop off. http://webdocs.edmonton.ca/InfraPlan/ZoningBylaw/ZoningBylaw/Part1/Development/54__Parking__Loading_and_Passenger_Drop-off.htm

City of Grande Prairie. By-law Library http://www.cityofgp.com/citygov/bylaws/default.htm?fromNav=ThisSection_Item&item=%2fChannels%2fwww.cityofgp.com%2fcitygov%2f

City of Hamiliton. Hamilton’s New Zoning Bylaw. http://www.hamilton.ca/CityDepartments/PlanningEcDev/Divisions/StrategicServicesSpecialProjects/ZoningBy-law?WT.mc_id=zoningbylawreform&WT.hamilton_redirect_friendly=1

City of Lethbridge. Land Use Bylaw. http://www.lethbridge.ca/City-Government/Bylaws/Pages/default.aspx

City of Red Deer. Land Use Bylaw. http://www.reddeer.ca/City+Government/City+Services+and+Departments/Legislative+and+Administrative+Services/City+Bylaws/The+City+of+Red+Deer+Land+Use+Bylaw/default.htm

City of Spruce Grove.Land Use Bylaw. http://www.sprucegrove.org/government/bylaws_policies/bylaws/land.htm

City of St Albert. Land Use Bylaw: Parking Regulations. http://www.stalbert.ca/bylaws

Strathcona County. Land Use Bylaw 8-2001. http://www.strathcona.ab.ca/departments/Planning_and_Development_Services/Zoning_planning_policies/land-use-bylaw-8-2001.aspx

Town of Bashaw. Bylaw 675-2004
http://www.townofbashaw.com/attachments/view/151/landusebylaw.pdf

The Town of Innisfil. The Corporation of the Town of Innisfil By Law # 011-97
www.town.innisfil.on.ca/uploads/files/C01-ByLaws/458.pdf

Town of Montague. Zoning Bylaw. www.townofmontaguepei.com/docs/bylaws/201101zoningbylaw.pdf

Town of Peace River. Land Use Bylaw. http://www.peaceriver.ca/component/search/?searchword=policies&ordering=&searchphrase=all

Friday, July 15, 2011

Week Nine

The purchasing and the credit card use policy were completed on Wednesday. I engaged with almost all city departments to redraft this policy; however with the credit card policy I had to engage the finance department more to ascertain what limit was reasonable and determine who should ensure the compliance with the policy. Through my work on this policy, I have learnt how decentralized the purchasing process is. It is decentralized because of the unique and specialized need of individual departments; nonetheless, certain capital purchases can be centralized because of the level of expertise required in the procurement process. The credit card use review also revealed how important it is to review this policy. It is significant because it confirmed that not all departments needed the maximum credit limit the old policy had, as well as it redressed the existing internal controls for the card use.



I met with the Director of Municipal Planning and Development to discuss my next project: The Development Standards for the Highway 13 Entry Corridor. We discussed the expectations of the policy which includes enhancing the visual aesthetics of the entrance corridor and developing precise specifications for the development that needs to be done in terms of landscaping, lighting, fencing, and signage. As well, part of my task was to design and develop a policy document that will be easily comprehended by the council members for them to go along with the policy.



I conducted research on the following: East Gateway Structure Plan, Government of Alberta Corridor Development, Intermunicipal Development Plan, West End Corridor Urban Design Guidelines for the City of Edmonton Planning and Development, Yellowhead Corridor East Design Guidelines, The Engineering Departments’ in-house research for Entrance Corridors, and some other relevant municipal design guidelines.

Learning Outcomes:
• The five key aspects of urban design and some design elements for entrance corridor designs which includes, but not limited to, edge, nodes, pathways, landmarks, districts, signage, lighting, fencing, theming, landscaping, access and eggres, conservation natural areas.

• The importance of always communicating in a clear, concise, and easy to understand manner irrespective of the target audience you are communicating with. Communication is important because most of the councillors come from different backgrounds and experience. The key here is to sell your policy which entails the councillors understanding the policy and for them to make the right decisions to approve the policy.

• City of Camrose is a winter city. What this means is every design project has to incorporate provisions for the winter weather.

• The need for branding. What is easily identifiable with Camrose as a city and ensuring there is consistency in the image that is portrayed to visitors when they come through the Highway 13 entrance corridors.

Bibliography
Government of Alberta: Corridor Development
http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/604.htm

East Gateway Structurre Plan
http://www.camrose.ca/index.aspx?nid=220

Engineering Services:

Intermunicipal Development Plan
http://www.projectupdate.ca/camroseidp.html

East Gateway Area Structure Plan
http://www.camrose.ca/index.aspx?NID=220

West End Corridor Urban Design Guidleines for the City of Edmonton Planning and Development
http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/documents/InfraPlan/West%20End%20Corridor%20Urban%20Design%20Guidlines.pdf

Yellowhead Corridor East Design Guidelines
http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/planning_development/entrance-features-national-des.aspx

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Ninth Week

A picturesque view of Highway 13/48 Ave Entrance Corridor:



A collage of how a future entrance corridor for Highway 13/48 Ave could look like as per enhancements for signage, boulevard, and landscaping: