looms large over this project.
(Photo © J. Maus)
At their meeting earlier this week, the Stakeholder Advisory Committee for the North Williams Traffic Safety Operations Project spent several hours hashing out new language to guide their decision making process and to add two key elements to the project’s “purpose and objectives.”
As we’ve reported, the make-up of the SAC changed considerably back in July when concerns over racial bias and a lack of engagement with the African American community were brought up. Since then, PBOT added nine new people to the committee and they’ve re-started the entire public process.
One of the results of the restart is taking a fresh look at how the committee makes decisions as well as the scope of the discussion itself. On that note, two small but key additions have been added to the “Project Purpose and Objectives.”
“To honor the history of North Williams Avenue through elements of the transportation project.”
— New line in the project’s Purposes and Objectives
The item that initially read, “To explore innovative solutions and strategies,” has been amended to read, “To explore innovative solutions and strategies in the North Vancouver/Williams corridor.”
This change came about after a robust discussion on Tuesday. One committee member, Alan Rudwick, didn’t want to limit the discussion to only Williams. He put forth a motion to consider improvements to Vancouver (Williams’ couplet) as well. “Let’s not handcuff ourselves by limiting ourselves just to talking about Williams,” Rudwick said.
Rudwick’s motion failed to get a second, as most members of the committee felt like opening up discussion about Vancouver was beyond their scope. However, in the ensuing debate, project consultant Michelle Poyourow pointed out that, “If scope is limited to Williams, than you can’t talk about Rodney.”
Poyourow was pointing out that discussion of making N. Rodney into a neighborhood greenway had gotten a lot of attention at committee meetings. The amended purpose and objectives makes it clear that the committee is not limited to only discussing solutions on Williams.
The other key addition to the purpose and objectives is the following item:
“To honor the history of North Williams Avenue through elements of the transportation project.”
This idea was one of the main themes at the recent community forum on the project (and I also advocated for it back in July).
On a more wonky note, the committee also revised its official charter. The key change to the charter is an agreement that, “A decision will be made when 2/3 of the Committee members in attendance support a proposal.” The committee also agreed to accept written dissenting opinions from members who don’t support a proposal.
How decisions get made is at the heart of the Williams project story. It’s one of the key concerns raised by some people around the table. This new super-majority rule is a step closer toward consensus and finding solutions that have broad support among stakeholders.
The other addition to the charter is that the committee has formally agreed they will make a recommendation to PBOT by March 2012 (that’s the latest date PBOT says they can hold the budget set aside for this project). That gives them just three more meetings — and given all the issues around this project, that’s a tall order.
One SAC member commented on Tuesday that, “We’re word-smithing the heck out of this and it’s not accomplishing anything.”
But then again, with a foundation of a more equitable decision-making process and a strong sense of purpose, they could be poised for serious progress.
Read more about the Williams project in our archives.