METRO Vancouver's controversial new Regional Growth Strategy received final approval July 29, but a handful of amendments proposed by West Vancouver and North Vancouver district remain unresolved.
Coquitlam was the last holdout on the new plan, which will guide development in the Lower Mainland for the next 30 years, but the municipality's council approved the plan late last month.
West Vancouver council passed requests for amendments to a portion of the strategy that called for development above the community's cherished 1,200-foot urban containment boundary - the line along Hollyburn Ridge where the houses stop. Councillors asked for the plan to include full protection of the Old Growth Conservancy and to expand a "special study area" to land above the 1,200-foot line, giving the district two years to write a new lane-use strategy for the Upper Lands. That amendment requires only a vote at Metro Vancouver next month to pass.
The District of North Vancouver, meanwhile, has made requests that require a public consultation in the fall. The municipality's council asked Metro to add an additional town centre in the Lower Lynn area and to alter the amendment process for the plan to require a two-thirds vote to alter it instead of the existing simple majority requirement.
The town centre will go to public hearing in the fall, while the amendment wording change requires the support of all member municipalities, making it much more complicated.
All the amendments from municipalities across the region will go to the Metro Vancouver board Sept. 16.
tholloway@nsnews.com
