More will be added to this page soon. One piece of advice to readers of the official Regional Growth Strategy: Don’t look at the pictures. It is a legal document, with profound implications. Regardless of the explanations and justifications and interpretations you may hear from proponents of the RGS. The implications of any legal document are buried in the complexities of that text. And that’s where the people of Metro Vancouver are going to be discovering problems for the next human generation if the RGS enters into force. Read on…
For now, we encourage you to review this material:
- Metro Vancouver’s Regional Growth Strategy greenwashes unsustainable development (E. Murphy, Georgia Straight, 18 Nov 2010). Excerpt: Even though the RGS has been in development since the Gordon Campbell B.C. Liberals were elected in 2001, the general public is still unaware of this plan and what it means….” “The RGS may address regional, provincial, and TransLink objectives of transferring control of municipal land use policies to senior governments. In doing so, however, the plan jeopardizes environmental protection and undermines the interests of local governments and communities… Promoters of the RGS often say that if everyone is a bit unhappy then they have struck a good balance of interests. A common dissatisfaction may equally well mean that the many unanswered concerns reveal a generally bad deal overall. It appears that the RGS is the latter.” (Article includes maps and detailed analysis of many issues not resolved in the final version of the bylaw, adopted Jan. 14, 2011.)
- Download images of what the North Shore could look like if applied to the full extent permitted by the actual text and maps in the RGS. CityHallWatch, North Shore, RGS sprawl_compare_web. If someone tells you that this is NOT “urban sprawl,” stop them right there and ask for their definition of the term.
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