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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