Yellowknife (Sep 03/04) - City councillor Kevin O'Reilly says he is growing impatient with delays in getting an arms-length zoning review committee off the ground.

The deadline for applications to the committee is today but that deadline has been extended twice already since the city began advertising to fill the five available positions in July.

O'Reilly said the committee should've been up and running several months ago.

"This has taken over a year now to get this thing appointed," said O'Reilly. "I don't for the life of me understand why it has taken this long."

Council passed a motion last fall ordering a review of the zoning bylaw after hearing complaints from the public about the city's development process. In March, council approved the creation of a zoning bylaw review committee.

It was decided that the committee would be made up of two members from the property management or development industry, one representative from an environmental organization and two members of the public-at-large.

The hope was to have members of the committee selected by May or June to work in concert with council's own review.

Now into September, the committee has still not been selected nor has council conducted its review of the zoning bylaw.

"We know from the citizens' survey that was released in March that 55 per cent were not satisfied or very unsatisfied with planning and development," said O'Reilly.

"That's the worst rating of any program or service at City Hall that I can recall.

"We better do something about it. I've said this many, many times but it's like water off a duck's back."

Mayor Gord Van Tighem said the city has had trouble attracting candidates to sit on the review committee, and that is why it has taken so long to get it moving.

He said they now have enough names and the committee will be ready for approval by council on Sept. 13.

The review of the zoning bylaw will probably come before Christmas once council gives final approval to the 2004 General Plan, said Van Tighem.

"The original intention was to have the general plan passed this spring, too," said Van Tighem.

He said the delays are the result of the city's attempts to be "thorough and encourage more public input."