Bay Roberts streamlines its permitting system
By Olivia Bradbury / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Bay Roberts council has adopted a new policy it hopes will make the processing of permits and applications faster for the town’s residents.
The Town’s director of protective services, Greg Squires, explained the policy’s purpose and benefits at council’s May 20 meeting.
The policy will give staff, including the chief administrative officer, directors, and town clerk, the authority to approve applications without having to wait for an official sign-off by council.
“The delegation of planning authority policy is just mainly going to help residents because they won’t have to wait a month for an application to go to a council meeting to open a business, which is pretty rubber stamp generic,” said Squires.
Unless there are factors that require the discretionary powers of council for approval, staff will be able to approve many types of routine permits and applications.
Councillor Silas Badcock made the motion to adopt the policy. It was seconded by Councillor Perry Bowering. All voted in favour.
Squires went on to present a list of the most recent business applications that were received at the Town Hall under the old system that required council’s approval.
“Your worship, just for the benefit of the public, all these motions that we’re putting through now, based on the delegation of authority that we just spoke of, these people wouldn’t have had to wait a month, so these are good examples of just making business a lot better for people that work in Bay Roberts,” noted chief administrative officer Dave Tibbo.
“So, the policy we adopted earlier will speed all this process up,” concluded Mayor Geoff Seymour.
Councillor Dean Franey asked whether discretionary use applications will still be brought before council under the new delegation of planning authority policy. Tibbo said if discretionary use applications receive no objections from the public following the advertising of them, staff can approve them as well.
“Anything that’s sensitive will go back to council,” Tibbo added.