Edmontons top 40 under 40

Interesting to note that Salima's bio did not mention her years with the City Planning Department. Or Stantec for that matter.

Changes to blog

looks like there was some interest in my previus posts so ........

October 25, 1978

This is the date that I first started full time in the Planning Department, 35 years ago. I did work in summer temporary jobs in 1976 and 77 but this is the first day of permanent work with the city. I started as a planning assistant under Dave Morris and Terry Loat and worked with people like Dianne Nash, Tandy McGibbon, Leslie ? and Dennis Nowicki on the 7 th floor of City Hall, ( the 1953 version). Paul Scott started about the same time as I did. I worked for two planners, Bob Marshall and Kathy Cantle who later married Terry Loat and then divorced him. Willard worked with Mike Chan and Wes Candler on the 6 th floor at the zoning office. More on my history with Planning to follow.

Vue Weekly article about Molson redevelopment in Edmonton.

http://vueweekly.com/front/story/strange_brew/ I quote Leading up to the hearing, Campbell and Ward 6 Councillor Jane Batty had countless conversations. "There was never a time when she said she wouldn't support the community," he says. So he was stunned when the general business rezoning passed, 10 – 3. Not only did Batty vote in its favour, but she seemingly led First Capital with questions about its good reputation and willingness to hear out the community that painted it in a very positive light. Did you p[\eople think that an outgoing councilor would support a developer or the community? Give your head a shake! I quote Don Iveson is the only councillor running for mayor who voted against it. First he tried combining two zoning laws that wouldn't force the developers to get constant approval but assure a certain quality. A similar bylaw is in place in the Warehouse District. However, his mayoral opponent Councillor Karen Leibovici called it "blackmail." No wonder Karen lost and Don won handily. I quote Dismayed, insiders from the administration have opened up to Campbell and me over the past month to explain how something that contradicts sustainability, density and walkability—virtues espoused in the city's long-term vision documents—could pass through planning in the first place. By the time the internal-review file made it back to the 13th floor and landed on Current Planning manager Mackie's desk, it had several letters of nonsupport. The files are not available to the public, however a memo from Mary Ann McConnell-Boehm, Director of the Planning Initiatives section, which oversees transit-oriented development, was leaked to me through Campbell. Erik Backstrom (senior planner of Transit Oriented Development) and Travis Pawlyk (senior planner on the Molson-Crosstown file), declined to comment. McConnell-Boehm was on vacation. However, Peter Ohm, manager of Urban Planning and Environment Branch, explains that it's rare for these comments to make it into council's report. Affable as he is, Mackie has upset many within the administration. He has a reputation for pushing development through and critics also take issue with the fact that someone who's not a fully accredited planner is in such a senior position. Mackie, who was hired from Calgary's planning department in 2009, has an MBA, though he's done eight years of planning course work and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners. You think! With Don Iveson as the new mayor, Lets watch and see if Molson gets built right a way

Staff engagement Fall 2013

Mackei spoke first and discussed the fact that on line permit application will finally arrive in spring 2014. Also noted that fees will go up 4% for rezonings etc.

Election for Mayor 2013

Roxanne Carr is the winner and Fiona Beland Quest will represent my ward. I voted for these two and they were successful. After Jason G sherades, I glad he is out. Also . Iveson got in as mayor of Edmonton and Leibivici did not win so she is out. No more calls to Tim about this and that and why are we doing what we are doing. If she actually read the report, then most of her questions were answered. You know that councilors do not read our reports. The reporta are generally a waste of time but that is what I get paid to do, over and over and over. The same logic the same report just different properties. BTW thanks for that pay every 2 weeks.

Pictometry

After 5 years they have finally added this to our system in Test mode only. Good on those involved. It was not Sustainable Development that did it. Of course Bing maps gave this ability 2 years ago using the birds eye view.

Serving the citizens of Edmonton.

For all of my 30 plus years I have served the citizens of Edmonton to make a better city to live in. All my direction came from a long time group of planners at the high end of Planning. With the advent of new management 2 years ago and the fact that we became a business unit, all has changed. As a business unit, the manager has indicated that we are fully supported by the fees we receive from our customers. As another planner said, in business, not government, who is the person that you work for? The answer is the customer. Ipso facto, it is not the citizens but the guys who pay the fees. This list includes the land developers, from the developer of 250 lot subdivisions to the guy who rezones his property to allow for re use and redevelopment with a new list of uses. Thus I no longer serve the citizens but now I serve the developers. It leaves me in an interesting quandry.

Arena Development August 2013

The new Rexall arena has started construction outside my window. Although I can see most of the site, the Bell tower hides the eastern portion where the casino will be removed. I will update this post regularly as construction occurs and I will post piks.

End of my career

Since many of you were not even born when I started here. A little history I first started as a summer student in Planning in the old city hall in 1976. I copied info from building permits onto coding sheets to be run through to create punch cards and then into a computer at the U of A. It turned out that the info was incorrectly set in to a database and was later dumped. I started full time as a planning assistant in 1978. I left the city and went to work for Alberta Transportation for 2 years and returned the City Transportation department in 1982 . In that year we got a 15% increase and another 10% increase for all planners and in the next year we got a 14% raise. Of course mortgage rates were between 10 and 18 % ( in 1984). In 1985, I moved to Edmonton Transit and that is where I got to use a pc computer, I started using Visicalc on a main frame and moved to Lotus 123 on the PC. The PC cost $14,000. In 1989 I moved in to Planning in the Boardwalk building. AND I am still here until today. Therefore I have worked for Planning in whole or part of 5 decades. I also have been working for 35 plus years. Obviously many of you who read this will not appreciate the time and the commitment to this job and the city of Edmonton. Many have heard me say that I love working here. And I do and did. Great people who ensured that the crap that was submitted by the development industry turned in the great neighbourhoods that we have today. I have processed more bylaws than anyone else in the Administration . When I started CastleDowns did not exist, the city southern border was 51 Ave, there was nothing west of 184 Street. There was no AHD Clareview, Lake District, Whitemud or Yellowhead. I have worked with many planners who have shaped molded a well organized urban environment. Many are still alive but many past away in the middle of their careers Howard Holfeld, Wayne Cameron, Lorne McMaster, Jim Guthrie, George DuCLuox and Andrew Day, to name a few. More to come !!!!!!!!!! Thousands of excellent people have worked for Planning making sure that the city you live into today is what it is today. The river valley was preserved from Transportation developing freeways, The transit system is effective and efficient. Many people have started here and gone on to improve and develop beautiful cities across Canada and across the world including all the aussies that worked here and returned home.

Jobs/duties performed for Don Read 2012

I have not had a performance review since 2001 and thus, I prepared this document to outline what I am employed to do and what I do do. Duties With 30 plus years of work in the city administration in various jobs, my skill levels in a variety of planning areas is unsurpassed my many coworkers. Thus I am called upon to perform a variety of task and jobs related directly to my position and many that are not in any way part of my current job description. As part of my job description they include:  Processing rezoning subdivision and plan amendment applications in a timely and efficient manner with the end result of approval by CC or SA as required.  Assist with counter inquiries  Answer phone calls related to planning inquires for issue in the west end of Edmonton  Participate with input only to various committees such as Current Planning IT, future state, Diversity and inclusion ( now defunct), web page ( only one meeting ever held)  Provide input to industrial development related issues such a the Ind. land strategy, project to service various industrial lands  The following is a list of jobs that are not within the scope or description of my job and are thus unidentified as part of any job performance measure  POSSE support ( a certain level of super user)  Web site support corporate and department  Workflow description  Training in POSSE SLIM maps and Yeloow pencil for the web  SLIM POSSE integration  Investigator of SLIM POSSE errors and mapping issues relate to the POSSE database  Software support  Transit planning  Transportation planning  Operational support for all the computers and projectors etc in the various boardrooms.  History of planning, zoning bylaws etc. in Edmonton. Under the category of expanding my professionalism, I have recently engaged in new frontiers of planning with research and writings that related to new aspects of LID (low impact development) LEED, GHG reduction (cool planning) and sustainable development. Professional engagements  Speaker at CIP, URISA and APA conferences  Presenter at the Computronix conferences 4 years in a row.  Printed in the Planning magazine, a publication of the APA.

Movie links

Cypher the movie