{"id":140,"date":"2023-01-28T18:26:08","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T23:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/landuseplanninginbc\/chapter\/__unknown__-7\/"},"modified":"2023-12-30T15:23:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-30T20:23:17","slug":"regional_planning","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/landuseplanninginbc\/chapter\/regional_planning\/","title":{"raw":"Regional Land Use Planning","rendered":"Regional Land Use Planning"},"content":{"raw":"
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Around the world, the practice of land use planning is most commonly associated with cities. In such urban settings, land use planning is grounded in statutory plans (e.g., Official Community Plan, as they are called in British Columbia) and zoning bylaws.\u00a0 The need for land use planning, however, extends far beyond cities and suburbs into the remote regions where provincial parks, forestry, and mining take place.\u00a0 These areas also overlap almost entirely with the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples.<\/p>\r\n

In British Columbia, 94% of the land base is public Crown land.\u00a0 Over 90% of these public lands are covered by land use plans.\u00a0 It is land use planning for this land base that we refer to as \u201cregional\u201d land use planning.<\/p>\r\n

In this learning module, we first address the use of the term \u201cregional\u201d to describe land use planning at a large geographic scale.\u00a0 We then describe how regional land use planning was carried out in BC, which was through Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMPs) and Sustainable Resource Management Plans (SRMPs).\u00a0 LRMPs and SRMPs remain relevant but all of them are now about 20 years old.\u00a0 Next, drawing from a special report by the Forest Practices Board, we highlight concerns raised about the legal status of regional land use planning in BC.\u00a0 In the final two sections, we cover shifts in policy direction for regional land use planning in BC.\u00a0 In 2006, the province initiated a \u201cnew direction\u201d for regional land use planning.\u00a0 Since 2006, policy shifts have been driven, in large part, by a concerted effort to reconcile regional land use planning and Indigenous rights and title.\u00a0 And today, the province aims to \u201cmodernise\u201d regional land use planning.\u00a0 This module also covers Access Management Plans and Crown Land Plans.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

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Use of terms: What is \u201cregional\u201d land use planning?<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

The use of terms to describe land use planning at different geographic scales can be confusing.\u00a0 Although we use \u201cregional\u201d land use planning in a specific way for our case materials, this term is not perfect.\u00a0 The following discussion attempts to sort through the geographic scales of land use planning.<\/p>\r\n

Urban land use planning is clearly associated with statutory plans and zoning.\u00a0 It is when we step outside of urban areas into the rural domain that we encounter problems due to a lack of consistent use of terms.\u00a0 The possible set of geographic terms include, among others, rural, remote, region, sub-region, hinterland, landscape, watershed, and Indigenous traditional territories.\u00a0 Each term can be used to characterise a geographic area or scale.<\/p>\r\n

The Province of British Columbia associates the term regional land use planning with Strategic Land Use Planning (SLUP), with the two terms often used interchangeably.\u00a0 The emphasis on \u201cstrategic\u201d is to distinguish a comprehensive approach to land use planning in remote areas as substantially different from \u201coperational\u201d land use plans that are prepared for a specific reason or purpose, such as an operational land use plan for a mining project or forest licence.\u00a0 As a general term, Strategic Land Use Plans include both Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMPs) and Sustainable Resource Management Plans (SRMPs).\u00a0 Thus, LRMPs and SRMPs are types of SLUPs.\u00a0 LRMPs are completed at a geographic scale that is larger than a SRMP.\u00a0 Several SRMPs are usually completed within and part of a LRMP.<\/p>\r\n

Further, LRMPs are often described as either regional or sub-regional plans.\u00a0 At these scales, the boundaries of a LRMP can be informed by a diverse set of features.\u00a0 SRMPs, because they are completed at a smaller geographic scale, are considered \u201clandscape\u201d plans that can be based on a single watershed.<\/p>\r\n

For our purposes, we use regional land use planning as a general term to encompass LRMPs and SRMPs.\u00a0 We charactertise LRMPs as regional plans and SRMPs as sub-regional or landscape plans.<\/p>\r\n

Finally, we must note one additional point of confusion. Regional Districts in British Columbia also complete land use plans.\u00a0 Logically, these efforts are also characterised as regional land use planning.\u00a0 For their urban areas, Regional Districts can adopt Official Community Plans and zoning bylaws. In co-operation with its member municipalities, a Regional District can also adopt a Regional Growth Strategy.\u00a0 Thus, we acknowledge overlapping concepts of what can be described as regional land use planning\u2014and apologise in advance for contributing to the confusion about the use of terms to describe land use planning at different geographic scales.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Strategic Land Use Planning\r\n<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

In this section, we describe the development and use of Strategic Land Use Planning (SLUP) in British Columbia.\u00a0 The text is from the following source (used with permission):<\/p>\r\n\r\n