The District of Highlands has finalized its South Highlands Local Area Plan, but much work and public consultation remains before the community will see its impacts.
Council approved the plan at a regular meeting June 19 and directed staff to produce a draft bylaw which will amend the official community plan to incorporate policies outlined in the local area plan.
B次元官网网址漌eB次元官网网址檝e finally got the language that everyone agrees on,B次元官网网址� said Mayor Ken Williams. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a positive step, and we are moving forward to the next step of the process. There has been a lot of hard work done and itB次元官网网址檚 been through an extensive public process.B次元官网网址�
Work on the plan started in summer 2019 and public consultation has featured heavily in every step of the process. Last year, council decided to delay advancing the project to allow additional time to review and reinforce survey data, for example.
The plan outlines detailed policies and recommended actions to guide future land use and private and public investments in the South Highlands area for the next two decades.
READ MORE: Highlands council taking deeper dive into survey data before local area plan moves forward
According to the final report published on the districtB次元官网网址檚 website, residents made it clear throughout the consultation process how much it values protecting the natural environment and finding innovative ways to approach the challenges posed by the climate emergency.
As a result, it aims to bridge the gap between the districtB次元官网网址檚 current land development and resource extraction model with B次元官网网址渁 future focused on protecting natural spaces and ecological recovery.B次元官网网址�
The plan outlines three main goals, which are considered high-level outcomes for the policies outlined within. Those goals are to build community and celebrate rural lifestyle, protect watersheds and aquifer health, and strengthen environmental health, integrity, and conservation efforts.
A series of general principals are also outlined which if followed, should help the district reach those goals. The principals include prioritizing environmental health, ensuring land uses and building design use the latest strategies to reduce impacts on ecosystems, seek land uses which are net zero, and adhere to a stewardship approach to land management.
In addition to the high-level goals and principles, the plan also provides more detailed guides for specific topics.
Its housing policies section, for example, encourages the district to give preference to certain types of development such as alternative housing like non-market and co-operative housing, a mix of housing types and zero emission housing.
In some parts, it gets as detailed as to encourage specific design features such as porous asphalt and curb cuts into landscape areas to help reduce run-off and stormwater issues.
Despite the thoroughness of the plan, and the years of work which has already gone into it, Williams said there is much work still to do.
B次元官网网址淭he plan itself has no real effect until it is incorporated into the OCP,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淭hat will be an OCP amendment, and then there would be a public hearing on that.B次元官网网址�
At this stage, Williams said there is no timeline available for the next public input opportunities, but district staff will share that information with residents through highlands.ca as soon as it is known.
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