Three-decade strategy plan for Metro Vancouver passes
Posted January 14, 2011 2:29 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A strategy plan that lays out how Greater Vancouver will grow over the next three decades has been passed, but critics are concerned the plan puts the region’s farmland in jeopardy.
Only one Metro Vancouver board member, Richmond city councillor Harold Steves, voted against the strategy because he fears it will lead to urban sprawl onto agricultural land.
Board chair Lois Jackson says before any land designated for farming can be developed, the Agriculture Land Commission has to sign off on it. “It’s a very long and exhausting process to do that, but that is one of the biggest checks that we have.”
Randy Helton is the co-chair of a citizen’s group that also opposes the plan. He says municipalities now have two months to give the document final approval and he’s hoping lots of concerned people speak out against it between now and then. “This 60-day ratification period, there should be a very big discussion about what this document really means for the next 30 years.”
Helten says the plan, which will seek to accommodate one million more people in the region by 2040, was rushed and he wants to see the vote put off for a couple of months.
High marks for the plan from an urban issues expert
Meanwhile, the director of the City Program at SFU gives the regional district’s plan a ‘B-plus’ or ‘A-minus’ grade.
Gord Price says he doesn’t see the loss of farmland as much of an issue. He says the updated plan appears to be consistent with earlier versions, calling for centralized development, transit, and lots of green space.
