New Westminster is going to be doing a lot of planning in the years ahead.
A Dec. 9 report to council about the city’s housing needs stated interim updates to New Westminster’s three official community plans must be completed by Dec. 31, 2025. The next update will then need to be completed by Dec. 31, 2028, followed by updates every five years.
“We have already launched that work to the OCP update,” Lynn Roxburgh, manager of housing and land use development.
At a Dec. 9 workshop, council considered a staff report about New Westminster’s interim housing needs. The report stated that the city previously updated its three official community plans (OCPs) consecutively – as resources allowed.
“We have historically updated them one after the other. Currently, they were adopted between seven and 14 years ago, so we certainly have not historically been updating them every five years. So, this is a significant change,” said Jackie Teed, the city’s director of planning and development. “It's a significant amount of work to update an OCP, even more so if it requires quite a large update, which at least two out of the three OCPs we have right now do require. So, this is some ongoing work.”
Because the province now requires OCP updates to be done in perpetuity, Teed said the city “will be needing to have staff resources who will be constantly working on OCP updates over the years” in order to be able to meet the provincial requirements.
In addition to the citywide official community plan, New Westminster has specific OCPs for the downtown and Queensborough neighbourhoods.
According to the province, an OCP describes the long-term vision of the community and guides the decisions of elected officials and local government staff. It can include land-use topics such as: residential, commercial, agricultural, or industrial uses; parks; schools; transportation; environment; and infrastructure and services; in addition to land use, it can also include policies on topics relevant to individual communities.
Under the new provincial legislation, municipalities are required to review and update their OCPs and zoning bylaws by Dec. 31, 2025, following the development of the Interim housing needs report. All local governments are also required to consider their most recent housing needs report, and the housing information on which it is based, when developing an OCP or amending an OCP in relation to housing statements, map designations or policies.
