Parksville council will need to decide if it will remove several projects from the yearly work plan because staff is overcapacity for projects.
Chief administrative office Keeva Kehler told council the plan has 43 projects, estimated at 4,800 hours, higher than the assumed 4,200 hours of staff time across the departments.
Putting extra pressure on city staff time are "extensive" legislative changes mandated by the province, in terms of housing policy and short-term rentals, Kehler added.
Kehler asked council to consider delaying projects that include an updated lacrosse box in the community park, the Pioneer Playground and a year round downtown lighting project, in partnership with the Parksville Downtown Business Association.
“Partly why I’m asking council to think about deferring this one is because the PDBA is doing an Imagine Parksville project that I think could inform what the folks want to see for that,” Kehler said during a financial planning committee of the whole meeting on Oct. 28.
The PDBA initiative is designed to engage the community in shaping its economic future as well as foster a renewed sense of ownership and pride, according to a Septmember news release by the PDBA.
Deferring the Pioneer playground project also makes sense, Kehler said, because that will line it up on the timeline with the related Parksville Pathway, which will connect Parksville Community Park to the north end of Shelly Road and the trailhead to property owned by The Nature Trust of BC.
Council will have a chance to decide which, if any, items are deferred from the work plan during its Nov. 4 meeting.
City staff hours are directed not just to council initiatives, but to day to day operations, such as the recent boardwalk replacement project, which was not part of the work plan but was completed to remove safety concerns.
Kehler reported that 29 of 46 projects from last year's work plan were completed, which took approximately 3,400 hours of staff time. Several more are close to completion, but will extend into 2025.
Staff will have their hands full in 2025, with major projects that include a fire hall renovation, supporting affordable housing projects and the Rathtrevor Pathway, construction on the latter is expected to start in late 2025.
