Implementation of GVRD Sustainability Initiatives
The goals, objectives, and implementation
policies of the LRSP are implemented primarily through the land-use decisions
of member municipalities. There are no enforcement mechanisms for GVRD policies
contained in regional initiatives and plans. The LRSP merely provides a framework
for making regional growth management and transportation decisions that GVRD
member municipalities can use to draft individual Official Community Plans
(OCP’s) and prepare Regional Context Statements. Section 866(2) of the Local
Government Act states: “A regional context statement under subsection (1)
must specifically identify how the official community plan is to be made
consistent with the regional growth strategy over time” (Government of British
Columbia, 2003). The Local Government Act, under section 849 (2) entitled
“Purpose of Regional Growth Strategy”, outlines specific regional growth
objectives that include “avoiding urban sprawl”, “settlement patterns that
minimize the use of automobiles and encourage walking, bicycling and the
efficient use of public transit”, and “adequate, affordable and appropriate
housing”. These objectives that the “regional growth strategy should work
towards” (849(1)) are consistent with those adopted by and outlined in the
LRSP and the SRI. Evidently, at neither the local, regional, or provincial
levels does there exist any regulatory mechanisms enforcing the implementation
of those sustainability objectives outlined in documents at all three levels
of government.
Lacking enforcement
mechanisms, The Local Government Act is intended to “promote” consistency
between local plans and regional growth strategies through the preparation
of Regional Context Statements. “While the objectives and policies in the
Regional Context Statements are general in nature, they broadly demonstrate
how local municipalities will pursue the principles of the LRSP through official
community plans, zoning by-laws, and day-to-day decision-making.” (GVRD,
2001, 9). As stated in the Local Government Act under section 865 (1): “A
regional growth strategy does not commit or authorize [a municipality] to
proceed with any project that is specified in the regional growth strategy”
(Government of B.C., 2003). Planning decisions taken by member municipalities
are not legally bound in any way by regional initiatives or policies. Regional
initiatives provide an idealized framework for local decision-making rather
than a set of policy objectives and guidelines that are regulated. The GVRD
can decide to refuse water, sewerage, and other regional services to developments
that the board deems are not consistent with regional growth strategies (a
technique that has been used in at least one instance), and in this way may
be able to exert some leverage over municipal development decisions. However,
this rather limited and potentially divisive way of trying to enforce the
regional plan is seemingly the only way that the GVRD and other regional
boards can exert real influence over municipal decision making.
The regional context statements (by
necessity) essentially echo the objectives and guiding principles found in
the LRSP. Surrey’s regional context statement, for example, refers to various
policies contained within their OCP that “are consistent with the regional
vision for [sustainability]” and that “identify future directions for facilitating
the achievement of [it]” (GVRD, 2003). Municipal decision makers, namely
the mayor and council, are not bound by policies contained in their OCP’s.
Rather, as is the case with regional initiatives and plans, the OCP and the
goals and visions contained within it are merely “directions for facilitating
the achievement of [regional sustainability objectives]” (GVRD, 2003;
1) and have no mechanisms to ensure that they are achieved. The objectives
contained in the regional context statements are the ideal, and are clearly
vulnerable to undermining by the often-conflicting objectives of market forces,
developer interests, and consumer demand. Local land-use decisions,
which I’ve already shown to be one of the most significant factors affecting
the degree to which urban sustainability is achieved, are ultimately made
and approved by the individual municipalities in isolation from the rest
of the GVRD’s member municipalities. The most significant policy instrument
ensuring municipal consistency with regional sustainability initiatives is
the requirement under the Local Government Act for the preparation of a regional
context statement which, as the city of Surrey states in its Official Community
Plan, is merely a “memorandum of understanding” between Surrey and the GVRD
“explaining the relationship between their official community plan and the
LRSP” (GVRD, 2003; 12-3). In this context, the regional context statements
seem only to be idealized statements of good faith that lack any meaningful
regulatory mechanisms binding municipalities to regional and municipal sustainability
objectives and the achievement of them.
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