How does the Official Community Plan deal with issues of sustainability and densification in Richmond?
The theme of the Official Community Plan is sustainability – it is called “My Sustainable Community”. The densification of our city is an important factor in this for us. Densification has been planned for long time and with the intro of rapid transit we are now able to get there. In the 1990s, the Social Credit under Bill Vanderzalm announced rapid transit to Richmond, but it was put on the shelf with the government change and eventually the funding became the Millennium Line to the North East. But in Richmond, we continued our plans to densify and develop in the City Centre area. These plans took on new meaning with the Canada Line commitment and construction. The City Centre area plan is one of the biggest components of the Official Community Plan and has already been approved. It calls for the densification of the City Centre area from the low 40,000 people today to triple that size in 80-100 years and all oriented around rapid transit.
