I attended, with Councillor Pamela Copley, the Capital Regional District’s special Board meeting, to consider Oak Bay’s draft Official Community Plan document. This is part of the regular provincial and legislative approval processes, following Oak Bay Council’s first, second and third reading of the document on June 29, 2014. As you know, the OCP Public Hearing in Oak Bay is scheduled for September 9, 2914, 7:00 PM at Monterey Centre.
Here are the comments made by some of the CRD Directors, in the context of measuring the draft against the CRD’s current Regional Growth Strategy (RGS), noting that our draft reflects the following RGS objectives:
- Building a complete community.
- Keeping human settlement compact.
- Creating transportation diversity.
- Addressing climate change.
- Providing housing diversity (safe, affordable and inclusive).
- Addressing current infrastructure issues (old pipes in the ground).
Other comments described the document as “reads easily and well, flows and is visionary.”
A key question posed by one Director, which speaks to all municipalities and to implementation of a new OCP, is: “How much will this document direct Oak Bay’s vision and decision-making for the future?”
Relieved that the document has passed another hurdle.