After two-and-a-half years and input from more than 2,300 city residents, council got its first report on the draft official community plan Monday - the master document that will guide the city through the next 50 years of growth and change.
The draft calls for more "high density" buildings higher than six storeys along the Lonsdale Avenue corridor between 13th Street and 17th Street and below Fourth Street, townhouses below Third Street around St. Davids Avenue and more mixeduse, medium-density development around Marine Drive to take advantage of frequent transit service.
Infill development also features heavily as all single-family homes would be allowed to contain both secondary suites and coach houses under the proposed OCP.
The draft also calls for three special study areas - properties that will require a more in-depth look before any future council can decide on a land use change at what is now the Lucas Centre and Cloverley school properties belonging to the North Vancouver school district and the Cypress Gardens and Westview Shopping Centre just north of Highway 1 at Westview Avenue.
The draft OCP projects the city's population to be at 68,000 by 2041. It was 48,000 in 2011.
The CityShaping OCP is a departure from past planning documents in that it put more emphasis on sustainability, health and climate change as key factors in planning.
While there wasn't any debate as to whether the draft OCP was ready for public vetting and revision, council members did sound off on some of the pros and cons they saw in the nascent planning document.
As presented, it doesn't go far enough in addressing the "social infrastructure" or demographics on those who are choosing to make the city home and had too much emphasis on which types of buildings ought to go where, Coun. Linda Buchanan said.
"We need to understand our social structure and infrastructure and then make some really good decisions around land use so we can be supporting that social infrastructure. Then I believe we will truly achieve the objectives and I think it will give us a lot more guidance in terms of the infrastructure we're looking at," she said.
Mayor Darrell Mussatto echoed the sentiment and called for supplementary plans, many of which are older than the outdated OCP itself, to be included "I do want to look at the bigger picture. It's important that we recognize the OCP isn't just about straight land use. It's about much, much more than that. It's about a lot of our plans and strategies and policies that we have, whether it's a social plan, or childcare plan or cultural diversity plan or economic development. The list goes on," he said.
Several council members called for a robust and meaningful new round of public consultation, especially for residents below Third Street, where quality of life has already been impacted by the Low Level Road and Port Metro Vancouver expansion projects.
For Coun. Rod Clark, it was infill density that he stressed needed to be highlighted in the next six months of public outreach.
"No longer will we have single-family homes. We'll have triplexes and I want that to be very well communicated. I hope the press is listening. That, for me, is a huge change," he said.
The city is planning to host a series of open houses and town-hall meetings on the draft OCP and solicit feedback from attendees, focus groups, advisory bodies and the general public starting in January.
Once the public suggestions are used to amend the plan, staff will present a final copy, which will then be subject to a public hearing.
If all goes smoothly, staff plan to have the new OCP bylaw before council by June 2014.
