POLICY REPORT

URBAN STRUCTURE

Date: July 21, 1998

Author/Local:A.McAfee/7451

CC File No. 5320

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	Director of City Plans
SUBJECT:	City of Richmond Official Community Plan

RECOMMENDATION

THAT the Mayor, on behalf of Council, thank the City of Richmond for forwarding their revised draft Official Community Plan (OCP) for comment and notify the City of Richmond that the main interest of the City of Vancouver in the City of Richmond’s Plans continues to be with respect to the impacts of commuting both by Richmond residents to Vancouver and Vancouver residents to Richmond.

Consequently, the City of Vancouver supports actions in the City of Richmond OCP which mitigate travel impacts by providing a variety of housing types and costs in Richmond for people to live near work and by locating jobs in Richmond near transit services.

GENERAL MANAGER’S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Community Services RECOMMENDS approval of the foregoing.

COUNCIL POLICY

Council policies which were used to review the Draft City of Richmond Official Community Plan include:

CITYPLAN: Adopted by Council on June 6, 1995, provides policy directions with respect to neighbourhoods, community services, transportation, economy, and the environment.

INDUSTRIAL LANDS STRATEGY: Adopted on March 14, 1995, provides for the retention of most of the City’s existing industrial lands for city-serving, city-oriented, and river related industry.

VANCOUVER TRANSPORTATION PLAN: Adopted by Council on May 27, 1997, includes mode split targets which emphasize the need for increased provision of and use of transit, limiting overall road capacity to the present level, and maintaining an efficient goods movement system.

PURPOSE

This report describes the City of Vancouver’s interests in the proposed City of Richmond Draft Official Community Plan.

BACKGROUND

The Municipal Act requires municipalities seeking to adopt or amend an official community plan (OCP) to submit the draft OCP to neighbouring municipalities for comment. On July 17, 1998, the City of Vancouver received a request for comments on the City of Richmond draft Official Community Plan. Comments are requested by August 14, 1998. A copy of the Draft OCP is on file in the Planning Department.

DISCUSSION

The City of Richmond has done a complete revision to their Official Community Plan. The revised OCP continues a commitment to:

·protect Richmond’s extensive agricultural lands;

·concentrate growth in the City Centre; and

·retain the single-family neighbourhoods.

The draft OCP emphasizes the need to balance urban and rural uses, development and the natural environment, and jobs and housing. Sections of the OCP cover jobs and business, neighbourhoods and housing, transportation, environment, community services, and infrastructure, governance, and development permit guidelines. For the most part, sections provide broad goals to guide detailed planning.

On March 3, 1998, Vancouver City Council considered a staff report on the City of Richmond’s Regional Context Statement. At that time, Council noted concerns about the transportation implications of Richmond’s housing and employment projections. The proposed projections where higher than those anticipated in regional transportation planning. It was noted that this could lead to increased commuting and costly infrastructure investments. Subsequent discussions at the GVRD resulted in Richmond reducing their OCP capacities to a population of 212,000 and employment of 150,000. Even so, by 2021, Richmond is projected to have 13.5% of the region’s jobs and 7% of the region’s population.

To service employment, the OCP promotes Rapid Bus/ Light Rail Transit between Richmond and Vancouver via Sea Island to link up the airport. Provisions in the OCP to locate employment concentrations near transit services continue to be significant to minimizing the impact of commuting on Vancouver neighbourhoods.

Other sections of the report with potential significance to Vancouver include:

·The OCP maintains existing business and industrial uses along much of the Fraser River waterfront, adjacent to Vancouver’s Fraser River industrial areas. This minimizes possible conflicts between uses.

·The OCP has an objective to expand the number of industrial sites where independent offices are permitted in order to accommodate office-based businesses such as software development, research, brokers, and contractors. They plan to achieve this by rezoning strategically located industrial areas. No mention is made of the criteria for "strategic" location which, one hopes, will be located near good transit.

·The OCP recognizes the employment generation opportunities of the airport. However, the OCP also stresses the importance of mitigating the impact of noise. This is also an issue for adjacent Vancouver residents.

SUMMARY

The main interest by the City of Vancouver in the City of Richmond’s Official Community Plan continues to be with respect to the impacts of commuting -- both by Richmond residents to jobs in Vancouver and Vancouver residents to jobs in Richmond.

Actions in the OCP to mitigate travel impacts include:

·provisions for a range of housing types and affordability to assist people who work in Richmond to live closer to work; and

·the location of jobs in Richmond near transit services to minimize car travel.

These initiatives are important to maintaining livability in both cities.

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(c) 1998 City of Vancouver