City council could be opting to turn some of its duties over to city staff next year.

City manager Dennis Shewfelt said today management is considering bringing forward a recommendation that city staff take on some of the minor subdivision decisions council currently makes.

Those would include smaller subdivisions where one lot is divided into two or more.

The move would help streamline applications that are going through more of a formality in getting subdivision approval, Shewfelt explained.

While council has the authority to turn down such subdivisions, usually they are approved when all the zoning and other regulations are met.

As Shewfelt noted, often by the time a proposal gets to the subdivision phase, it may have already been to council four or five times in the form of Official Community Plan (OCP) and zoning amendments.

Smaller subdivisions often take up unnecessary time in a meeting's agenda, with councillors at some points commenting that the city should "just get on with it," Shewfelt said.

Already this year, 84 small subdivisions have gone to council for approval.

At Monday evening's meeting, Coun. Dave Stockdale wondered about that same issue when council received a proposal for a lot consolidation in Hillcrest.

The same matter had come up twice earlier this year in the form of rezoning of the land that is expected to be consolidated with the property next door and the subdivision of the vacant Commissioner's land.

If administration ends up taking on the subdivision approval, Shewfelt stressed, major decisions such as the OCP and zoning amendments would still go through the public process with council.

"Council cannot delegate these authorities," he said.

It also wouldn't be the first time council has turned certain duties over to administration.

Condo developments of any sort used to go through a council process for approval, even where apartment buildings or townhouses that were rented out were approved as principal uses under the zoning.

That was changed a few years ago when the city recognized that condos are simply a form of ownership for a particular type of housing such as multi-residential.

Where the multi-residential use is already approved under the zoning bylaw, whether it's an apartment owned by one person or a condo where individual units are owned, the development no longer has to come to council.

If a zoning amendment is required though, it still comes to council for approval, Shewfelt said.

The city manager noted it would likely be after the new year before administration brings forward the proposal on taking over some of the minor decisions from council.

Mayor Bev Buckway said this morning discussions around city staff taking on the smaller subdivision decisions have been in the works for some time.

Not only do the subdivisions add length to the planning issues discussed and voted on at council meetings, as Shewfelt noted, but it also means staff time spent writing the reports presented to council each week, Buckway said.

Staff time could likely open up to deal with bigger issues than writing up such reports, she noted.

Like Shewfelt, the mayor said that normally, once the zoning is dealt with in the proposals, everything else falls into place.

There have been cases in the past where council has turned down such a subdivision only to have the decision challenged and ruled against by the Municipal Review Board.

"If it's zoned appropriately, we really can't turn it down," she said, noting other jurisdictions also leave such subdivisions in the hands of city staff.