What's an Official Community Plan?
An OCP is a statement of objectives and policies to guide municipal decisions on planning and land use management in a community. As set out in the Local Government Act, an OCP must include policies with respect to:
- Residential development required to meet anticipated housing needs
- Present and proposed commercial, industrial, institutional, agricultural, recreational and public utility land use
- Sand and gravel deposits suitable for extraction
- Hazardous or environmentally sensitive lands
- Phasing of road, sewer and water systems
- Present and proposed public facilities such as schools, parks and water treatment and disposal sites
- Affordable, rental and special needs housing
- Targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and policies and actions of the local government proposed with respect to achieving those targets
Because Bowen Island is within the Islands Trust Area, the OCP must be consistent with the Islands Trust Act and Islands Trust Policy Statement.
Why is the OCP important?
Council can’t make decisions that are inconsistent with the OCP, without formally amending it. This provides a degree of certainty to community members, landowners, developers and investors about how and where growth and change can occur.
Why update the OCP now?
The OCP is meant to be a living document -- one that is kept current so that the Municipality can effectively respond to emerging issues and priorities. Although the current OCP has been amended from time to time since its adoption in 1996, there has never been a comprehensive update.
History of Bowen's OCP
1970....GVRD imposes ten-acre freeze on Gulf Islands
1974....Islands Trust Act is passed
1977....Bowen’s first OCP is adopted
1982....Bowen's OCP is reviewed and new version adopted
1996....Bowen's OCP is reviewed and new version adopted
2009....The current OCP Update process begins
What's in the Current OCP
The current OCP contains both Broad Principles and Objectives in addition to specific objectives and policies for land use:
- residential
- home occupations
- agricultural
- forestry
- public facility
- institutional
- commercial
- industrial
- public recreational lands, parks and recreation
In addition the OCP contains, policies regarding services, resources, development permits, temporary commercial and industrial use permits, heritage alteration permits and development approval information. View the Unofficial Consolidated OCP Map.
