This Official Community Plan provides a long-term vision for the District and policy guidance to achieve this vision. For it to be effective, it is important that municipal decision-making and policy implementation are consistent with the objectives and commitments laid out in this plan.

This approach provides direction and assurance to our stakeholders, partners and residents alike.

At the same time, due to the long-term horizon of a plan that looks out 20 years to 2030, it is also important for the OCP to be considered a 'living document'. As such, it is recognized that the OCP will be amended from time to time as the community evolves, our needs change, and new opportunities to achieve a bright and sustainable future emerge. The key will be for plan amendments to reflect genuine worth and value to the community.

Plan monitoring: Indicators and targets

As a living document that sets a path to the future, it is useful to establish targets to help identify what it is we are striving to achieve in the OCP. For this reason, each section of the OCP highlights refers to a headline target to reflect one significant element. In some cases these targets reflect official regional or provincial figures, and in many cases they represent “stretch” targets that may require further development with the community.

In addition to these headline targets, a series of community indicators have also been established. These indicators are intended to capture the broader scope of our community’s objectives and represent some of the indicators we need to monitor to assess our progress towards realizing our vision for the future.

Together, these targets and indicators measure a number of the OCP’s social, economic, and environmental goals and can be thought of as constituting a sustainability or 'triple bottom line' approach to evaluation.

<GRAPHIC: TABLE OF TARGETS AND INDICATORS>

Plan implementation strategies

This OCP addresses a broad range of issues affecting community life in the District. Achieving the different elements of its vision will require a broad range of implementation strategies.

Developed as an Integrated Sustainable Community Plan, the OCP is intended to work synergistically with a number of other municipal policy documents to ensure an integrated and holistic approach to realizing our social, economic and environmental goals.

Planning hierarchy 

This plan establishes four levels of planning in the District:

• The Official Community Plan — Provides community-wide goals and an overarching policy framework to guide progress towards these goals​
• Centres Implementation Plans — More detailed Centres Implementation Plans apply to identified centres or other significant geographical sub-areas of the District.​
• Neighbourhood Infill Plans —  Undertaken for smaller geographical areas within neighbourhoods, to assess their suitability for sensitive intensification. 
• Strategic Action Plans —  Define detailed priority actions and strategies to achieve the goals and objectives of the OCP on a theme or sector basis

The preparation of plans at all levels of the planning hierarchy will involve meaningful public and stakeholder consultation.​

Importantly, the District OCP is adopted by bylaw while sub-area Centres Implementation Plans, Neighbourhood Infill Plans and Strategic Action Plans are approved as policy documents by Council resolution. Where further policy work identifies a need or benefit to change OCP directions expressed in this plan, including changes to the land use map, the OCP may be amended to ensure it remains a relevant and effective legislative tool to achieve the community’s sustainability goals.

Transitioning from Local Area Plans (LAPs)

After the last District-wide OCP was adopted in 1990, nine Local Area Plans (LAPs) were prepared as geographically based, sub-area plans to provide more detailed information regarding land use and density, transportation, servicing and parkland requirements, housing and amenity provisions. Some LAPs were also accompanied by specific design and environmental guidelines.

LAPs played an important role in setting the direction of various neighbourhoods and their development was accompanied by extensive public engagement. 

Prepared and adopted mostly in the 1990s, many LAPs are now outdated and do not consider a number of the issues facing the community today (such as our demographic challenges and economic conditions) or meet the current legislative requirements of OCPs (such as affordable housing and greenhouse gas reductions). In the absence of established and consistent guidelines for their development, the nine plans also exhibit different levels of detail and the lack of integration between plans has meant land use and growth management in the District has lacked a coordinated direction.

The policies and objectives provided in this District-wide OCP consolidate the general directions from existing LAPs to provide an integrated basis to ensure community planning addresses today’s needs and challenges in a coordinated manner.

Community amenity contributions (CACs)

This OCP provides a growth management strategy and urban structure that support and integrate our social, environmental, and economic goals. The controlled redevelopment this growth management strategy directs will provide an opportunity to improve livability and to address existing or future needs in the community.

New development in the District will typically be expected to provide benefits to the community beyond the development itself. If development requires a rezoning or plan amendment that involves an increase in density or a change from one land use to a higher land use, then that new development will, wherever possible, be required to provide a community amenity contribution (CAC) in the form of either a payment or a physical community amenity.

CACs will be implemented through the District’s Community Amenity Contribution Policy which establishes the framework for the provision and value of community amenity contributions. The Policy allows the development industry, the community, staff and Council to share clear expectations regarding CACs as early as possible in the development process. It facilitates the development industry to be responsive to community expectations associated with new development.​

Financial Statement

Achieving our vision for the future of the community requires that financial sustainability, including taxpayers’ ability to pay, be considered in all municipal decision-making.

An analysis of the financial implications of the key strategic directions accompanied the development of this plan. In addition to its environmental and social benefits, the urban structure or 'network of centres' concept proposed by this plan brings long-term financial efficiencies to the operations of the municipality. Concentrating population growth in specific centres allows for greater efficiency in service and infrastructure provision, resulting in reduced per capita costs. Enabling strategic residential and commercial growth in these centres and the more productive use of industrial and light industrial employment lands will provide greater net tax revenue for the District.

Under this growth management model, increases in revenue are anticipated to exceed increases in service costs. At the same time, this model of growth management also provides opportunities for increased municipal revenue in the form of community amenity contributions and development cost charges that the municipality can use for improved amenities on behalf of the community.

Implementation of the OCP’s network of centres concept is anticipated to result in an overall enhanced financial, social and environmental setting for District residents. Long-term financial planning and the allocation of District revenues and resources must be coordinated with the OCP towards the achievement of the community’s diverse goals and objectives expressed in this plan.

Long term financial plan

The District’s objective is to achieve long term financial resilience in pursuit of the vision, goals and associated services included in the OCP.

It recognizes these five elements as essential to developing its longterm financial plan and achieving this objective:

1. Long-term service vision - defined at the level of municipal programs, includes expected levels of service and intended outcomes for the community
2. Supporting financial policy - including clear statements on governance and efficiency, program costing and funding, growth related revenue, long-term funding for major capital requirements, and long-term fund balances required to achieve the goal of financial resilience
3. Analysis and forecasting - including the development of the necessary tools to model long-term policy impacts and changes in the fiscal environment
4. Collaborative and participatory process - including public and stakeholder engagement and a system for priority based budgeting guided by the long-term services vision
5. Connection to other plans - ensuring the long-term financial plan is inclusive of all approved plans, policies and interdependencies​