A non-profit landowner is looking to add something to Vernon's East Hill neighbourhood, and residents were invited to have their say on what that something should be.
Kelowna-based consultants Reframe Concepts held a public engagement session at the Vernon library March 13 to allow residents to share their hopes and dreams for an as yet unknown piece of land in East Hill, owned by an unknown landowner.
The secrecy around the exact location of the piece of land and its owner is for good reason, said Laurence East, founder and enterprise strategist for Reframe Concepts.
East said people always want to know who is behind a potential project and where the project will be, and his team has found that taking those two questions out of the equation at the outset allows for the most unbiased responses.
"When they become obsessed with who the owner is they start to question what is the motivation, what's behind this, why are they doing this? That doesn't help our process at all," he said. "The other question is what is the actual piece of land? And as soon as they start to know that, they start to design it in their heads."
Roughly 100 people showed up to the public engagement session. Brian McKenzie, with Reframe, said it was the best attended open house the company has held.
And the responses are encouraging.
"People have been overwhelmingly positive about it, and there's not been a single NIMBY (not in my back yard) voice that's shown up," East said.
That's partly because there is nothing to be NIMBY about. To date, "nothing has been designed, there's not a single sketch on a piece of paper or a napkin. It's a blank slate," he said.
Reframe set up a number of boards in the library conference room. Each board had a header describing a potential community need 香蕉视频直播� examples are social justice and education, multi-generational resources, food security, community safety, music and creative arts and housing resources. Residents attending the session were invited to write a suggestion on a sticky note and stick it to the most fitting board.
Asked what some of the prevailing trends were in the suggestions from residents, East said housing was a common thread with different types of housing suggested. Many also suggested a community space, "whether it's an outdoor space for music or performance, whether it's a recreational space for youth, and a real commitment to greening (such as adding trees)."
The multi-generational board was full of suggestions for facilities or housing that could bring people of different generations together.
Some responses touched upon communities that stretch beyond the borders of East Hill to the City of Vernon as a whole.
"We typically ask people not to do that but they can't help themselves," East said with a laugh while looking at the boards. "There could be stuff here that is super important for East Hill but also super important for other parts of the city and the valley ... and that's everything from infrastructure, concerns about water availability, concerns around access to transit, and safety 香蕉视频直播� especially for the elderly at night."
East said residents were interested more broadly in ideas that preserve the environment, bring people together and emphasize a healthy and balanced life.
"I think where I've been most pleasantly surprised is the overwhelming desire not to create individual wealth. There's very little here has anything to do with 'we need more access to building our own big houses on our own lots,'" East said.
Creating safe indoor or outdoor spaces for kids was a common theme among East Hill residents, who have the Peanut Pool close by but not much else, and the pool is only open for part of the year and during limited hours.
It's unclear when a development will begin at the unknown East Hill lands, of if there will even be a development at all. It depends on what the community wants, and Reframe will create a report based on feedback at the engagement session before any plans are drawn up.