Texada Island’s draft official community plan (OCP) was recently unveiled to the qathet Regional District (qRD) planning committee, providing a summary of more than two years’ work to review and update the old Texada OCP.
Regional district manager of planning services Laura Roddan provided a review of the Texada Island OCP process and the document’s contents at the planning committee meeting on Wednesday, August 14.
Roddan said the report distributed to committee members focused on the process gone through to develop the new OCP. She said she wanted to make a presentation to the committee that hit some of the highlights of the plan.
The document’s opening statement states that Texada Island’s vision is to sustain an independent rural lifestyle with minimal regulations. It further states that islanders envision the economy fostering a diverse and balanced mix of resource industries, tourism, small business enterprises, agriculture and services for seniors. Texada Island will adapt to change carefully, while always preserving its freedoms, stewarding the natural beauty of the island, the coast and the island lifestyle, the statement concludes.
Roddan said between January 2017 and July 2019, qRD staff worked with the Electoral Area D OCP planning advisory committee to review and update the old Texada Island OCP. The new OCP was developed through an extensive community and stakeholder engagement process with residents, property owners and stakeholders, according to Roddan.
There were 27 advisory committee meetings with the 14 members and 45 people attended the introductory open house. A total of 206 people completed the community survey around the vision for Texada Island, the priorities and important issues.
There were 43 stakeholder interviews with governmental representatives and many organizations on the island. Youth on Texada were also engaged, with 23 elementary students participating in engagement exercises. 40 people attended community workshops and 51 public presentations were heard over the course of the OCP exercise.
“It was very extensive and under the Local Government Act, the requirements for consultation are very minimal,” said Roddan. “We have gone far beyond.”
Features of the OCP include being reader friendly with clear, concise language. A lot of graphics have been used to support understanding.
Roddan said the OCP represents a balance of community and stakeholder interests and provides a refreshed community vision and goals. It also incorporates sustainability principles from the regional district’s strategic plan.
“The plan provides a policy framework to achieve community vision and goals and it’s based on updated population analysis and projections to 2041,” said Roddan. “This provided us with what we needed to do a long-term plan. The structure conforms with the other regional district official community plans and best practices.”
Community goals emerged through the engagement process and are the key points people are concerned about, said Roddan. Community goals include: sustain community values, promote healthy community, grow local economy, adapt to change, encourage outdoor recreation, steward natural environment and improve connectivity.
Roddan said the committee’s volunteers committed an extraordinary amount of time and effort to the process over two and a half years.
Planning committee chair Clay Brander said the OCP was easy to read, informative and he was impressed with the amount of public engagement in the process.
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick said development of the OCP was a long and rewarding process in renewing and refreshing the OCP.
“We had a lot of people who came forward as delegations who had ideas and visions and there’s a thread of pretty much every delegation in the OCP of things they said,” said McCormick. “We had a huge response to the public engagement process. All in all, it was a really great process. At the end of it all I can truly say this plan reflects the views of the people of Texada Island.”
The planning committee carried a motion to forward the OCP to the qRD board for first and second reading.
