Kelowna grants itself special powers because of COVID-19

Kelowna City Council gave itself special powers earlier this week in the wake of social-distancing requirements.

At its regular Monday afternoon public meeting on March 23, council agreed to waive public hearings in certain cases before deciding if land may be rezoned.

Such applications can’t violate the Official Community Plan, have to be supported by staff and “are not expected to generate significant public input based on correspondence received at the time of the report to Council.”

The city will also opt out of providing input on liquor licence applications and has suspended meetings of the agricultural, airport and heritage advisory committees, along with some other changes to bylaws, such as developers not needing to, where possible, have face-to-face discussions with neighbours over their projects.

The new rules stay in place until May 31 or until the province removes its ban on public gatherings, whichever is later.

Council will meet behind closed doors on Monday morning at City Hall but there is no regular Monday afternoon council meeting. The April 7 public hearing has already been cancelled.

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