What We Heard Report - Phase 2: Policy Review Engagement

Table of contents

Contents

Table of contents ......................................................................................................................... 2 Process ....................................................................................................................................... 3 OCP Engagement Touchpoints ..................................................................................................... 4 OVERALL OCP ENGAGEMENT OBJECTIVES ............................................................................... 4 AUDIENCE ............................................................................................................................... 4 ENGAGEMENT APPROACH ....................................................................................................... 5 PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND COMMITMENT ......................................................................... 5 WHAT WE DID: ENGAGEMENT TOUCHPOINT 5 ............................................................................. 6 Engagement Touchpoint 5 Objectives ....................................................................................... 6 How We Spread The Word ........................................................................................................ 7 PROJECT PAGE ON ENGAGE VIEW ROYAL ............................................................................. 7 TOWN’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE .................................................................................................. 7 SOCIAL MEDIA ...................................................................................................................... 8 INSIDE VIEW ROYAL E-NEWSLETTER ..................................................................................... 8 NEWSPAPER AD ................................................................................................................... 8 NEWS RELEASES .................................................................................................................. 8 POLICY REVIEW SURVEY .......................................................................................................... 9 OVERALL THEMES ................................................................................................................ 9 WHO PARTICIPATED ........................................................................................................... 11 SURVEY RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 11 Demographic Questions ..................................................................................................... 67 OPEN HOUSES ....................................................................................................................... 72 INTERACTIVE BOARD INPUT: November 8 & 13 (COMBINED) ................................................ 73 WHAT WE HEARD: .............................................................................................................. 73 Next Steps .......................................................................................................................... 83 Appendix A: Open House Feedback ........................................................................................ 84

ABOUT THE VIEW ROYAL 2050 OFFICIAL COMMUNITY PLAN

The Official Community Plan (OCP) is a blueprint and will help define what we envision for View Royal over the next 20 years. As a key municipal document, it reflects community values and guides decisions on land use, housing, transportation, parks, environmental stewardship, economic development, and more.

The OCP is a living document, updated periodically to stay relevant as the community evolves and grows. View Royal’s last comprehensive OCP update was adopted in 2011. While the current OCP has served our community well, there are opportunities to review what policies, objectives, goals, and guidelines within the Plan are working, what isn’t and what we need to do to prepare for our future needs and wants.

Process

View Royal 2050 is a multi-year process with three phases. The review and update of the OCP began in January of 2025 and is expected to conclude in 2027/2028. In each of the three phases, there will be a focus on key topics and content that will be reviewed to update the OCP. During each phase there will be consultation that includes both in-person events and online tools. This approach balances technical analysis with community feedback to shape a long-term vision and policies that reflect residents’ needs for the OCP.

We are now in Phase 2, focusing on the general policy review and writing the first draft of the Official Community Plan.

OCP Engagement Touchpoints

Through the View Royal 2050 process, the Town has completed five rounds of engagement. The first engagement touchpoint, Visioning and Guiding Principles, ran from January 24 to February 18, 2025, and the feedback collected is summarized in the Phase 1: Visioning and Guiding Principles Survey What We Heard report. The second round of engagement, Phase 1: How We Grow, took place from March 7 to April 4, 2025, with results captured in the Phase 1: How We Grow Engagement What We Heard report. The third touchpoint, Vision and Goals, ran from July 18 to September 7, 2025. The fourth round of engagement, Western Gateway Community Corridor, took place from October 10 to November 7, 2025.

The fifth engagement touchpoint (Policy Review) took place from November 8 to 30, 2025. What we heard during this engagement is summarized in this report and will be used by the Town to update and refine draft objectives and policies in the survey, as well as other policies that are not shown.

The following section provides a summary of the Town’s Communications and Engagement Strategy for the OCP review and update.

OVERALL OCP ENGAGEMENT OBJECTIVES

The guiding objectives and principles of the OCP review and update include the following:

• Inclusive: offer multiple methods or platforms for engagement, including online and in-person;
• Educate: provide and share information to educate and inform the community to help them understand how their involvement shapes their future community;
• Engage: identify, engage, consult, and listen to a range of stakeholders;
• Establish: objectives, guidelines, and policies that are measurable and actionable;
• Demonstrate: active listening by staff and Council, by incorporating feedback;
• Transparency and accountability: open dialogue between stakeholders and decision makers;
• Address: challenges that pose risk to our community and opportunities that pose a reward;
• Communicate: clear, concise, communication which avoids the use of jargon to ensure all those involved understand and participate in the process; and
• Adaptability, learning, and improvement: openness to learn and improve with the understanding that stakeholder and community interests and needs and wants change.

AUDIENCE

• View Royal residents
• View Royal business owners
• View Royal community organizations
• View Royal staff
• View Royal Mayor and Council

The project team also encouraged people that may not live in View Royal but work and play in View Royal to participate in the process. This approach recognizes that View Royal is located between many neighbouring municipalities and serves as both a corridor and destination for those that live outside our municipal borders.

ENGAGEMENT APPROACH

The consultation process was designed in alignment with the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) spectrum and core values. For more information on IAP2 visit: www.iap2.org

The engagement process for View Royal 2050 aims to engage at the “consult” level on the IAP2 spectrum of engagement. Council has previously endorsed the use of IAP2 principles, which will guide public engagement through the OCP review and update.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND COMMITMENT

The project’s communications and engagement strategy identifies the need to engage with the community across three levels of public participation, including “inform”, “consult”, and “involve”, which follows the IAP2 spectrum of public participation. The project team is committed to ensuring that participants in this process are informed and are heard, and that concerns raised, and feedback received will help inform the review and update process moving forward.

WHAT WE DID: ENGAGEMENT TOUCHPOINT 5

The fifth engagement touchpoint focused on the general policy review and asked for early feedback on draft objective summaries and the most impactful new policies being considered for the OCP Review and Update.

The Plan includes nine policy chapters, each with objectives and policies that guide how land is used, what amenities and services are provided, and how community needs are supported.

Through an online survey and in-person open houses, community members were invited to comment on the policy chapters that interested them most. This feedback will be used to refine the draft objectives and policies shared in the survey, along with additional policies that were not shown.

Engagement Touchpoint 5 Objectives

The objectives of this engagement touchpoint included:

• providing information that is relevant and easy to understand, particularly about what an OCP is and how it will be used in the future;
• raising awareness of the project and opportunities to provide input;
• sharing the new draft objective summaries and policies, and gathering public feedback;
• inspiring dialogue and participation using digital and in-person methods of communication; and
• demonstrating that the project team has listened and incorporated community input gathered during the engagement period.

How We Spread The Word

Multiple methods, both digital and print, were used to inform the community of the OCP update during this engagement touchpoint. A list of all methods are included below:

• View Royal 2050 webpage (engage.viewroyal.ca/view-royal-2050);
• Town’s official website (viewroyal.ca);
• Social media (Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky);
• Inside View Royal e-newsletter;
• Engage View Royal subscriber campaigns;

1. Project ‘business cards’;
2. Newspaper ads; and

• Stakeholder e-mails.

The following section provides a summary of the outcomes from the tools used to promote this engagement touchpoint.

PROJECT PAGE ON ENGAGE VIEW ROYAL

The View Royal 2050 project webpage was updated on October 31, 2025, to announce the launch of the Policy Review engagement period and highlight opportunities to participate. On the same day, an email was sent to project subscribers to share these opportunities and invite them to take part. A follow-up reminder email was sent on November 12, 2025, to encourage participation from those who had not yet shared their feedback.

Between October 31 and November 30, 2025, the webpage was viewed 579 times by 304 visitors. Over the same period, 12 people subscribed to follow the project page, bringing the total number of subscribers to 152.

Since the project launch on January 24, 2025, and the close of the fifth round of engagement on November 30, the project webpage has received 4,840 views by 2,618 visitors.

The webpage can be found at: engage.viewroyal.ca/view-royal-2050

TOWN’S OFFICIAL WEBSITE

During this engagement period, the OCP update was featured on the Town’s website, viewroyal.ca, homepage. In addition, three “What’s Happening” notices were sent to subscribers to support ongoing promotion and awareness:

• October 31, 2025: Announced the focus of the fifth engagement touchpoint and promoted upcoming opportunities to provide input.
• November 12, 2025: Announced the launch of the Western Gateway Community Corridor survey and highlighted upcoming in-person engagement events.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Between November 5 and 30, 2025 content was shared on the Town’s social media accounts to promote the project and encourage public participation.

INSIDE VIEW ROYAL E-NEWSLETTER

The November 2025 edition of Inside View Royal, the Town’s monthly e-newsletter, featured an article about the Policy Review engagement and highlighted opportunities to participate.

NEWSPAPER AD

Print ads were placed in the November 5 and 12, 2025, editions of the Goldstream Gazette. The ads raised awareness for the OCP update and encouraged participation in the Policy Review survey and open houses.

NEWS RELEASES

On November 10, 2025, a news release about the Policy Review engagement period was distributed to local media highlighting the purpose of the engagement and opportunities to participate. The news release led to earned media coverage, with Island Social Trends publishing an article the same day.

WHAT WE HEARD: ENGAGEMENT TOUCHPOINT 5

POLICY REVIEW SURVEY

The Policy Review survey was available online from November 8 to 30, 2025, with paper copies also offered at Town Hall and at both open houses. The survey invited participants to share early feedback on draft objective summaries for the nine policy chapters and the most impactful new policies being considered for the OCP Review and Update. To make participation flexible and accessible, respondents could choose to answer the full survey or focus only on the policy chapters most important to them.

In total, 43 survey responses were received.

OVERALL THEMES

• 79% of respondents wanted to review and provide feedback on all nine (9) policy chapters.
• Where respondents didn’t provide feedback on all sections, the most popular section (16%) that respondents wanted to provide feedback on was Park, Trails, and Recreation.
• Where respondents didn’t provide feedback on all sections, the least popular section (5%) that respondents wanted to provide feedback on was Economic Development.
• 42% of respondents support the draft Land Use & Urban Design objective summary, whereas 11% do not.
• 62% of respondents support the draft Transportation & Mobility objective summary, whereas 10% do not.
• 47% of respondents support the draft Climate Action & Sustainability objective summary, whereas 16% do not.
• 54% of respondents support the draft Community Wellbeing & Culture objective summary, whereas 3% do not.
• 57% of respondents support the draft Economic Development objective summary, and no respondents did not support it.
• 58% of respondents support the draft Housing objective summary, whereas 8% do not.
• 75% of respondents support the draft Parks, Trails, & Recreation objective summary, whereas 3% do not.
• 79% of respondents support the draft Natural Environment objective summary, whereas 3% do not.
• 73% of respondents support draft Infrastructure objective summary, whereas 3% do not.
• The majority of respondents indicate that they support the draft policies overall. However, there are some policies that respondents provided mixed feedback on, indicating that further review and revisions could be required if desired. The project team flagged any draft policy that received equal to or more than 20% “No Support”. A table is provided below.