RECOMMENDATION

THAT the report dated May 13, 2020 from the Community Planner titled “Town of View Royal Official Community Plan – Official Community Plan Primer and Review Background” be received for information.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS

I concur with the recommendation.

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT SERVICES’ COMMENTS

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE OF REPORT

The Town’s Official Community Plan (OCP) will be updated, beginning this year. This report provides a refresher for Council and a background on the legislative requirements of an OCP, the content in the existing 2011-adopted bylaw, and an overview of options for updates to the existing bylaw for consideration by Council.

BACKGROUND

The current OCP was adopted in September of 2011. Its development was a collaboration with Council, Development Services, a community committee, students from local schools, a ‘conversation and walkabout group’, broad public engagement and a consultant team. It is now almost 9 years old.

In light of the age of the plan, and because issues like housing security and climate change are gaining increased attention, Council determined that an update of the OCP was a high priority action item in the 2019-2022 Council Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan and the Financial Plan have had an OCP review slated for 2020-21.

LEGISLATIVE OVERVIEW

Division 4 within the Province of British Columbia’s Local Government Act (LGA) lays out the requirements for every municipal government when adopting an OCP. It first and foremost identifies the purpose of an OCP:

471.1 An official community plan is a statement of objectives and policies to guide decisions on planning and land use management, within the area covered by the plan, respecting the purposes of local government.

The LGA identifies:

• requirements of the bylaw which adopts the OCP;
• required content and process;
• policy statements that may be included;
• consultation requirements during the OCP development;
• consultation on planning of school facilities;
• adoption procedures; and
• the effect of the OCP

OCP INTRODUCTION

The OCP introduces the Town of View Royal with an overview of the physical and demographic details within View Royal, as well as a broad statement of goals for “shaping new growth and change” and identifying major issues:

…reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting compact development, conserving natural resources, providing jobs and amenities locally, supporting affordable housing, and creating healthy and vibrant social and cultural spaces. This represents a significant paradigm shift for a community historically characterized by detached, ground-oriented housing and a commuting work force.

This is supported by a Community Vision Statement that follows the overview, with nine goals which set the framework for the OCP:

1. Promote a strong sense of community in all areas and neighbourhoods of the Town, and create an enhanced sense of place and identity, which draws on the Town’s array of parks, trails and recreational activities, as well as its unique waterfront setting.
2. Create an inclusive community that provides housing, transportation and healthy living options, and services and facilities for families and individuals of diverse backgrounds, cultures, ages and economic means.
3. As the community grows, recognize the unique relationship between the highly valued natural and residential characteristics of View Royal, and maintain these values.
4. Confirm View Royal as an environmentally responsible community committed to becoming a more sustainable place and planning for global climate change.
5. Recognize, preserve and protect the substantial historic and cultural resources in View Royal.
6. Ensure that community services and amenities can be provided within the financial means of the municipality, and strengthen partnerships with regional service providers to increase local opportunities.
7. Identify suitable land areas and development incentives for commercial, institutional and mixed-use activities as a means of supplying local employment opportunities, broadening the municipal tax base, and promoting View Royal as a business-friendly community.
8. Recognize the regional role of the community as a link in major transportation and environmental systems, and cooperate with other municipalities and governments to address regional issues, while also protecting local values and promoting long-term sustainability.
9. Ensure that all citizens of View Royal have opportunities to be informed and meaningfully involved in planning and decision-making processes.

Then, a Regional Context Statement describing how the Town meets the goals, objectives and policies within the CRD Regional Growth Strategy (updated in 2019).

In short, the introduction to the OCP is: this is who we are, and this is where we want to go. The main part of the OCP fills the third part of that equation: This is how we get there.

OCP CORE STRUCTURE

The bulk of the OCP’s structure is broken very broadly into five areas of focus:

1. Physical Environment a. Land Use and Urban Design b. Transportation and Mobility c. Housing d. Natural Environment, Energy and Climate Change e. Community Infrastructure and Services
2. Social Environment a. Parks and Recreation b. Community Facilities and Social Well-Being
3. Economic Environment a. Economic Development
4. Development Permit Areas a. Form and Character of Development b. Environmental Protection and Natural Hazards
5. Implementation

Generally, the structure of the Official Community Plan has served the community well for close to ten years. Rather than completely re-work the OCP, refinements to the existing document will be staff’s focus with the coming review.

ISSUES AND ANALYSIS

Reviewing the OCP to update it for the present context necessarily requires revisiting many aspects of the OCP described in the Background section of this report. There are areas where the OCP is working very well for the Town, and there are aspects of it which will require review. In addition, there are many areas of the plan that need to be updated with more recent information from updated master plans such as the Parks Master Plan and the in-progress Housing Gaps and Needs study.

Staff sees potential changes required through operational experience, changing external factors (technology, provincial and federal legislation changes, growth pressure, environmental changes) and changing resident and Council priorities. These issues will be interrelated in some cases.

The Town’s Regional Context Statement and Community Vision Statement should be revisited to recognize that the Town is now no longer a small town, but rather a growth centre which has effectively run out of greenfield development space and must manage growth through the intensification of existing sites in a logical and planned manner.

Staff sees an opportunity to use the past 9 years of experience to refine the bylaw to meet the Town’s needs, challenges and opportunities in a more direct and efficient way.

Several issues central to the themes within the current OCP have come to sharper focus in the past several years within View Royal:

1. Rapid population growth
2. Housing security
3. The Town of View Royal’s declaration of a Climate Emergency
4. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People’s Act and the focus on First Nations Reconciliation
5. Disaster response and community resilience

The housing crisis and the declaration of a climate emergency has dominated municipal discourse in the past years. These two topics will need more focus than currently exists within the OCP.

The Town is increasingly focused on data science and analytics to better understand the Town’s demographics, housing needs, economic development needs and so forth. Additionally, the Town is currently engaged in a Housing Gaps and Needs Analysis, and a Land Economics Study which will help inform the updating process.

The Town is positioned to make use of the upcoming 2021 Statistics Canada census data; given the current pandemic delaying core federal government function, it is uncertain as to when that might be released.

USE OF THE OCP

To have a discussion on how the OCP should be updated necessitates a practical discussion and analysis of how it is currently used, and how it could be refocused to help manage View Royal’s growth in the coming years and decades.

It is a requirement of Section 478 of the Local Government Act that all bylaws enacted after the adoption of an OCP must be consistent with that OCP, and as such it carries a significant weight when dictating uses and densities in rezoning processes.

The most referenced aspects of the OCP are Land Use Designations and Development Permit Guidelines. In turn the policy sections assist with guidance for Council, staff, applicants and the public with rezoning, development permit and other applications in fitting with the vision, goals and objectives within the OCP.

WHAT’S WORKING WITH THE OCP?

The general structure of the OCP is solid and has served the Town well. It does not need significant overhaul. Staff primarily sees the need for some changes to the content within the existing structure to better address emerging issues.

General Discussion

The Zoning Bylaw and its zoning designations (illustrated in the Zoning Bylaw’s Schedule B Zoning Map) must be consistent with the Land Use Designations within the OCP. Should a rezoning application be considered, it needs to either conform to the use and density proposed in the OCP Land Use Designations or provide clear and reasonable rationale as to why Council should consider an OCP Land Use Designation amendment.

In the existing OCP, the main components of a Land Use Designation are use and density. Use and density are the only two requirements of a rezoning application which are required for there to be consistency. The Land Use Designations described within Schedule L of the Official Community Plan and are displayed in a full map form as a companion to the Town’s Zoning Map.

Land Use Designations

In the case of the Land Use Designations, they play a very large part in dictating the pattern of land development in the municipality. Land Use Designations have been drafted in the current OCP by both respecting existing land use patterns and identifying where growth is best to occur in the future. These ‘change areas’, as they are described within the Community Development Framework section, are located in areas of vacant or underdeveloped property (Mill Hill), along major transportation corridors (Helmcken, Island Highway, Admirals Rd), and around current (Hospital) and future (Fort Victoria) nodes of development.