Every round, on the record.

What it does.

Round four, and nobody remembers why the setback moved

"By the third round of staff comments, the drawings, the renderings and the design rationale were in three different folders. At the hearing a councillor asked why the tower got shorter, and our planner had to dig for the answer." That's the developer's version. The planner's version: "The applicant resubmits, and I have to work out what changed by comparing PDFs side by side." The neighbour's version: "I sent a letter. I never heard if anyone read it."

A rezoning is a series of rounds, and the record of each round is what gets lost. CityLink keeps each round, what changed and why, and presents it to council from one link.

What CityLink does today, and what's next

Everyone at the table, on one record

The developer owns the application and needs the story to hold together across rounds. The architect and landscape architect revise the design and need their changes shown accurately. Planning and heritage consultants shape the argument and need the evidence in one place. City planners need to see what changed since last time. Council needs a clear presentation that works on the day. Neighbours need to see the building from their street and know their input was heard.

Each of them looks at the same record. That's the point: when the question comes at the hearing, the answer is already written down.

The rounds, in general terms

In British Columbia, a typical rezoning moves through pre-application talks with planning staff, a formal application, staff review with comments back to the applicant, often an advisory design panel, then readings of the bylaw at council. Many municipalities also expect a community meeting run by the applicant.

Recent provincial housing legislation changed the public hearing step. For many residential rezonings that are consistent with an official community plan, local governments may no longer hold a public hearing, and in some cases are prohibited from doing so. That shifts more weight onto earlier engagement and the written record. The details vary, so check with your municipality.

What doesn't change: council, staff and neighbours need to see the building from where they stand. Street-level views, photo-matched context and shadow studies from our rezoning and council work are built from the true 3D model, so the view presented is the building proposed. Our guide to rezoning visuals in BC goes further.

Assemble the submission

Drawings, rationale and visuals sit on one project record, reviewed by the architect and consultants before they go in.

Log each round

When staff comments come back, the revisions and the reasons are recorded against that round.

Update the visuals once

Revised views are reviewed and approved in Order & review, and the approved set replaces the old one.

Present from one link

On the day, the presentation theatre runs in the chamber or on a laptop.