Strategies & Plans

Type: Community
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The Urban Forest Management Plan ties together years of studies, reports, and community feedback into a cohesive plan with specific goals and strategies to support the District’s guiding policies related to urban forest management in order to maintain the health and maximize the benefits of our urban forest over the long term.

Type: Other
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The purpose of the District of West Vancouver’s Draft Accessibility Plan is to provide actions that identify, remove, and prevent barriers to individuals in or interacting with the District. The draft will be presented to Council for endorsement at an upcoming meeting.

These actions outline how the District of West Vancouver, the West Vancouver Memorial Library, and the West Vancouver Police Department (the District) will further its efforts to make its workplaces, services, and built environment accessible and welcoming to people of all abilities.

This Accessibility Plan enables the District to meet the requirements of the Accessible British Columbia Act (ABCA), which came into force for British Columbia municipalities on September 1, 2022.

The Accessibility Plan provides awareness and education on accessibility. The actions provide a formal strategy to advance accessibility throughout West Vancouver proactively.

This is the District’s first Accessibility Plan covering the next three years (2023 – 2026). As a living document, it recognizes accessibility as ongoing and iterative. It requires continuous adaptation, and to be updated at least every three years to reflect progress, evolving community needs, and future legislative requirements (such as the pending release of provincial accessibility standards).

Type: Financial
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In the Five-Year Financial Plan, the District outlines how it has allocated its available resources to achieve Council’s priorities while continuing to deliver services at the high level expected by District residents.

This plan is often referred to as the budget for the year. 

Type: Community
Date:

The District of West Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, the District of North Vancouver, Squamish Nation, and Tsleil-Waututh Nation worked together to develop the Poverty Reduction Strategy for the North Shore. This important initiative builds from TogetherBC, British Columbia’s first Poverty Reduction Strategy.

Type: Community
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The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines for the use of funds in the Community Amenity Contribution Reserve.

Type: Working Group
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The Coastal Marine Management Plan (the “Plan”) was created by the Coastal Marine Management Plan Working Group over three years. The Plan provides a policy framework informed by past and recent initiatives to guide District Council and staff in the management of coastal areas and assets.

Type: Community
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The Child Care Action Plan will provide the District with evidence-based, concrete, and actionable recommendations to improve accessibility, affordability, and quality of child care for families. The Action Plan is informed by research and best practices in child care and is ultimately grounded in the unique needs and opportunities available to the residents and communities of the District of West Vancouver.

Type: Other
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The District contracted Cornerstone Planning Group to prepare a comprehensive plan for arts and culture facilities. The study was performed over a five-month period beginning in January 2019 and considered all of the District’s facilities used to provide arts and culture programming.

Type: Other
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The Arts & Culture Strategy is a high-level document that sets the stage for more detailed planning for facilities and programs that will be undertaken over five years (2018–2023).

The process of creating the West Vancouver Arts & Culture Strategy began in late 2016 with the formation of a steering committee. In May of 2017, the District embarked on an extensive community engagement process. A Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results (SOAR) analysis summarizes what was heard from the community, supplemented by background research and analysis.

Type: Other
Date:

The Official Community Plan is the District's number one planning tool for the future. In June 2018, Council adopted the current Official Community Plan for West Vancouver. 

An Official Community Plan lays out a high-level decision-making framework for the future. It is a general statement of objectives and policies to guide planning and land-use changes. As such, it will serve as a tool to guide Council decisions and municipal administration.

Development permit areas can be found in Schedule ii (Area Specific Policies & Guidelines) below.

Type: Community
Date:

The purpose of this document is to consolidate existing District policies and practices related to trails, and to provide high-level policy direction for the planning, management, and use of trails in the District of West Vancouver. 

Type: Other
Date:

The preparation of an Economic Development Plan for the District of West Vancouver was initiated in early 2016. Work included nearly two years of research, stakeholder engagement, academic and other working partnerships and strategy development.

This plan represents the first in-depth analysis of local economic conditions in West Vancouver—both the challenges and the opportunities and the relationship between local economic health and community resilience. It has also clarified the municipality’s role in economic development: to grow and diversify the local economy to support existing and future businesses, provide more local employment opportunities and broaden the municipal tax base. 

The plan shifts our thinking about West Vancouver’s economy from purely serving the needs of local residents to what it takes to build a more vibrant, thriving and sustainable local economy over the long-term.

It is founded on three strategies focused on visitors, commercial areas and emerging opportunities. Individually, these strategies will capitalize on business opportunities in key economic sectors—be they immediate or short-term opportunities or longer-term possibilities. Together, they provide the framework for a sustainable local economy.

Part A of this document speaks to the role of municipal economic development and the District’s economic partnership model. The plan’s three key strategies for economic diversification are presented in Parts B, C and D respectively.

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Prepared by the Community Grants/North Shore Social Services Working Group.

Type: Other
Date:

In 2014 the District appointed a citizen working group to develop a Community Energy and Emissions Plan (CEEP). The purpose of the CEEP is to address the twin challenges of climate change and energy security in a manner that maximizes opportunity for residents, businesses and institutions. Key science, resource and policy issues make climate change and energy security important to address today and protect future generations.

The process focused on the following areas:

Buildings and Transportation: The principal sectors from which the vast majority of energy is consumed and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are generated.

Land Use: Land use decisions (e.g. building types, sizes, uses and locations) strongly influence transportation and building energy use and supply opportunities. Land use is also the primary area of responsibility for municipalities.

Local Energy Supply: Energy supply opportunities are typically small in BC, however, with technological change and rising energy prices, there will be more renewable energy opportunities for neighbourhoods and individual buildings and lots.

Solid Waste: Waste management has GHG and energy dimensions and is strongly influenced by local government decision-making.

Type: Other
Date:

West Vancouver has taken a leadership role in reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within its own operations. This plan supports the District's goals and commitments with regards to climate action, community sustainability and asset management.

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This Forest Management Plan  for Whyte Lake Park is intended to lay out the types of management activities that will ensure the ecological and physical integrity of the park itself and its carbon stock. Specifically, this plan describes how and by whom the project lands are to be maintained to ensure the carbon benefit is retained and not released back into the atmosphere.

Type: Working Group
Date:

Invasive plants are non-native plants that have been introduced to British Columbia where we lack the insect predators and plant pathogens that help keep them in check in their native habitats. They are the second greatest threat to global biodiversity, after habitat destruction.

These plants out-compete native vegetation and spread quickly if left untreated. They destroy food sources and take over important habitats for native plants and animals. Some are even hazardous to human health.

Council created the Invasive Plants Working Group to develop a five-year strategy to manage and control invasive plants in West Vancouver.

The strategy was approved by Council June 16, 2014.

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The Rodgers Creek Area Development Plan, Overview Report (March 7, 2008)

Council adopted the three Rodgers Creek implementation bylaws on Monday, September 22, 2008. The  bylaws allow for the development of the Rodgers Creek Area consistent with Option B (maximum 1,875,600 sq. ft. of residential building area consisting of 736 dwelling units) of the Rodgers Creek Area Development Plan, and secure a variety of associated amenities and development features through the Phased Development Agreement mechanism of the Local Government Act, Section 905.1.

Official Community Plan (OCP) Bylaw No. 4360, 2004, Amendment Bylaw No. 4567, 2008 Zoning Bylaw No. 2200, 1968, Amendment Bylaw No. 4568, 2008

Visit the Rodgers Creek neighbourhood webpage for the full history.

Type: Other
Date:

The Parks Master Plan sets the direction for the management, protection, enhancement of and community engagement within West Vancouver’s parks and open spaces. Community engagement and consultation were key to the preparation of the plan, which was developed by a citizen-led Working Group in 2011. Maps are also available as attachments to the plan:




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Council adopted this plan on February 18, 2013. This document builds on the Official Community Plan (OCP) and the 2007-2008 Community Dialogue on Neighbourhood Character and Housing. It provides a framework to: continue the dialogue on housing issues and opportunities in the community; clarify West Vancouver’s goals for housing diversity and affordability; and, identify possible local government actions to address these goals and establish priorities for West Vancouver.