City of Vancouver launches process to create a new citywide plan

Downtown Vancouver skyline. (Shutterstock)

Planning Vancouver Together (PVT), a years-long process of creating a new physical citywide plan for Vancouver, officially kicked off this morning.

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City staff have an $18-million budget, including $7.5 million for extensive public consultation, to undertake the largest urban and socioeconomic planning exercise in the city’s history.

Approximately 30 staff have been assembled for the project, which will guide future priorities into 2050 and beyond, including a new framework for Vancouver’s housing supply, urban growth, land use, and transportation, while also addressing social, economic, environmental, and cultural aspects of life in the city.

“Over the next three years, the Planning Vancouver Together process will create a collective long-term vision for the future of our city, and identify priorities and key strategies to get there,” said Gil Kelley, general manager of Planning, Urban Design, and Sustainability, in a statement.

“This is much more than a land-use plan and will address vital areas such as reconciliation, equity, climate change, affordability, housing, the economy, jobs, transportation, cultural vibrancy and neighbourhood design.”

While planners will consult with the public on all aspects and areas of the city, PVT will not revisit area-specific plans approved over the past decade, but there could be some updates and enhancements to various policies and plans.

These area-specific plans include the Cambie Corridor Plan (2018), Northeast False Creek Plan (2018), Joyce Collingwood Station Area Precinct (2017), False Creek Flats Plan (2017), Grandview-Woodland Community Plan (2016), Marpole Community, Plan (2014), Downtown Eastside Plan (2014), and West End Community Plan (2013).

Running in parallel is the ongoing Broadway Corridor planning process, which is expected to reach completion in 2020 with a budget of $3 million.

City staff intend to “reach everyone” in Vancouver throughout the various stages of public consultation, including residents, workers, businesses, institutions, non-profits, and neighbourhood groups. A new website has also been set up specifically for this project.

The first stage of consultation between now and early 2020 has begun with an online survey that asks the public to submit feedback on their views on what matters and the current state of the city, providing a baseline for the planning work to come.

From Summer 2020 to Winter 2021, the “benefits and trade-offs and the range of possibilities” will be discussed. This will then be followed by work towards finalizing a draft plan from Winter 2021 to Summer 2022, when the plan is sent to city council for their approval.

As one of their first major decisions after the civic election, city council in November 2018 approved a motion to direct city staff to create a citywide planning process. In July 2019, city council approved city staff’s citywide planning and public consultation process.

The City of Vancouver, spanning a geographical area of 114 km², accounts for a significant proportion of the 840 km² of land in Metro Vancouver that is either developed or available for urban development.

Currently, Vancouver has a population of 630,000 people and is the location of 425,000 jobs. It accounts for a quarter of the region’s population and a third of the region’s jobs.

Metro Vancouver Regional District forecasts Vancouver will see an additional 150,000 residents and about 90,000 jobs by 2041.

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