By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The Town of Oliver is hosting an open house around its planned update of the Official Community Plan (OCP) which will guide the town’s development vision over both the short term (the next five years) and longer term (10-20 year) period.
The OCP establishes a community’s vision on topics such as land use, housing, growth, and the environment and helps determine “where people live, work, and play, and how they move around,” the town said.
“The purpose of this OCP renewal is to construct a plan which better reflects the community’s needs and interests, while also aligning with updated provincial legislation and other Town of Oliver future plans and initiatives.”
With the Province’s sweeping changes to municipal zoning aimed at increasing housing density across BC through Bill 44 introduced in Dec. 2023 in order to address the ongoing housing crisis, municipalities have had to pivot their Official Community Plans to meet the new provincial requirements.
The process will be split into two phases: Phase 1 focuses on meeting new provincial requirements and must be completed by December 31, 2025 according to provincial requirements while Phase 2 will build on the first phase with a more comprehensive refresh of the OCP.
It will explore broader community priorities, such as climate resilience, transportation, and public spaces in greater depth and will commence in early 2026, the town said.
“Community input is vital to this plan renewal,” the town said adding there will be multiple opportunities for residents to be involved.
Those unable to make it to the open house next week can also give feedback through an online survey that will be available until September 5, 2025.
The webpage containing the survey will be regularly updated to include information such as upcoming engagement events, project milestones and successes and can be found at oliver.ca/communityplan.
The open house is on Tuesday, August 26 at the Oliver Community Centre 6359 Park Drive – Meeting Rooms 1 & 2, 4-7 p.m.
