History of Planning in Greater Vancouver
by Judy Oberlander
Greater Vancouver “is unique both in regards to natural beauty and business prospects,” but “is suffering in a special degree from haphazard growth and speculation in real estate, notwithstanding the progress that has taken place in the last few years in regard to the control of sanitary matters and local improvements.” So wrote the eminent planner Thomas Adams in his 1915 essay “Report on the Planning of Greater Vancouver.” Adams called for a comprehensive plan for Vancouver and its neighboring municipalities and the establishment of a commission to guide this process to “save the taxpayers of the future the heavy expense of remedying evils which are allowed to accumulate as a result of undirected and misdirected growth.”
More than 80 years later the issues are similar and dialogue between local governments, community organizations, developers, elected officials and citizens throughout Greater Vancouver continues to focus on the rapid growth of Canada’s fastest growing metropolitan area. For the past five years the annual increase in population of more than 40,000 people equal to the population of Vancouver’s West End--means 1.8 million people now live and work in Greater Vancouver.
Adams advocated a comprehensive approach to planning--a “city-functional” approach--with a thorough analysis of social, economic and physical conditions in which each part of a city was designed to serve a particular purpose: residential neighborhoods with services, a civic centre as the focal point for public life, industrial areas well served by transportation, business areas and an overall layout that encouraged links between these functions. Land was to be used efficiently and facilities such as community centres and hospitals were to be easily accessible. These principles guided the planning of Canadian cities, largely reinforced by Thomas Adams’ writings. He traveled extensively across the country, was involved in many civic plans and established the Town Planning institute of Canada in 1919. Greater Vancouver did not escape his attention.
The City of Vancouver was incorporated April 6, 1886. As the largest municipality in the Lower Mainland its planning initiatives influenced the surrounding areas. Other municipalities tended to follow Vancouver’s lead as they grew and began to face similar urban issues. Vancouver has desirable features--its magnificent natural setting, its deep-sea port, extensive industrial activity, the terminus of the trans-continental railway, the climate--which have influenced its growth. Originally surveyed by the CPR the topography of Vancouver was largely disregarded and consequently a grid layout continues to dominate the urban landscape, with notable exceptions in areas like Shaughnessy and Champlain Heights. New Westminster was also laid out on a grid pattern (by the Royal Engineers in 1859) and this served as an inspiration for other municipalities.
As the largest municipality in the region Vancouver’s planning history provides an insight into local planning initiatives. During the early boom years of the 20th century the city focused its planning efforts on life-safety issues such as fire and sanitation. Little attention was given to overall planning of the city. The layout of new streets was combined with the installation of sewers in Vancouver and Burnaby in the first decade of the century. Building regulations and the development of civic amenities occupied local governments. Comprehensive building regulations in Vancouver came into effect in 1909; Point Grey (which along with South Vancouver amalgamated with Vancouver in 1929) passed a bylaw to regulate lot sizes in 1911; the Vancouver City Park Board and Stanley Park were created in 1888. As in other cities, citizens began to play an active role in the planning of their communities and through the Vancouver Board of Trade the City Planning and Beautifying Association was established. Thomas Adams visited Vancouver in his capacity as town planning adviser to the commission on conservation and through his lectures and writings encouraged the formal planning process. That began with his role as assessor of the Vancouver Civic Centre Competition in 1915. Lobbying for a provincial planning act began in 1917 and in 1925 the Town Planning Act of British Columbia initiated formal planning practices in the province.
The establishment in 1926 of the Vancouver Town Planning Commission marked the beginning of formal planning efforts in the city. Appointed by city council this voluntary commission had nine members--primarily businessmen--with five ex-afficio members: the mayor and chairmen of the four public authorities (park board, school board, harbor board and the district sewerage and drainage board). At the time the commission served as the city’s planning department and consequently its first task was to initiate a comprehensive plan for the city. Harland Bartholomew and Associates, town planning consultants from St. Louis, Missouri, were retained to provide planning services for Vancouver.
Over the next decade Bartholomew and his team were assisted by Horace Seymour, a Canadian town planner who served as the resident engineer for the planning commission. The team surveyed the city, prepared detailed reports on zoning regulations, street design, transportation and transit, public recreation and civic art and conducted meetings with the town planning commission in order to develop a comprehensive plan. It was published in 1928. The following year, when South Vancouver and Point Grey amalgamated with the City of Vancouver, Bartholomew was hired to plan these communities and amend his previous report. In 1944 he returned to Vancouver to assist with new planning initiatives; a 1946 Bartholomew plan for the Lower Fraser River Valley--stretching 4,600 square kilometres from the U.S. border to West Vancouver and Hope--emphasized his interest in regional planning and a “scheme for control of decentralization.”
Public education was an important part of the process and proved to be an important component of these early planning initiatives. Bartholomew’s report focused on topics which interested the consultants, and there were some notable omissions such as a discussion of the physical character of Vancouver, housing requirements, social trends and demographics. City council was slow to adopt his recommendations and only portions of Bartholomew’s vision became reality. Legacies of his vision, such as the boulevards along Cambie Street and King Edward Avenue and the city’s grid pattern, remain today as tangible, if fragmentary, evidence of this master plan.
In the 1928 report the planning commission was seen as the agency to monitor the city’s growth and to provide assistance to other civic departments as well as to create links with Burnaby, New Westminster and other municipalities. According to Bartholomew, “it is the duty of the Town Planning Commission as of no other agency to keep careful and accurate records of this growth, testing from time to time the adequacy of the present plan and making necessary readjustments.” The commission continued to play an active role in the 1930s and 1940s, and with assistance from various consultants worked with the civic administration to monitor Vancouver’s urban development. As the city grew rapidly following World War II there was a need to formalize planning initiatives and as a result a planning department was created in 1951.
The planning commission continued to play an important role in monitoring development but growth in the planning profession and the increased complexity of civic administration gradually changed its mandate. In 1977 it was asked to develop a set of goals for the city. Other municipalities within Greater Vancouver have advisory planning commissions comprised of community volunteers who review development proposals and advise city councils on local developments.
The emphasis on neighborhood planning began in the 1970s with the creation of citizens’ planning committees. Different approaches were needed in each neighborhood. Vancouver led the way with plans involving citizens and resulting in specific policies for a diversity of communities--Strathcona, the West End, Grandview and Shaughnessy, for example. The emphasis from the outset was on a two-way planning process with community participation. In the 1980s Vancouver examined how regional planning issues were applied at the neighborhood level and studied their impact on jobs and housing. With changing demographics social issues have assumed a new importance and today municipalities in Greater Vancouver have social planning departments which address matters such as affordable housing, neighborhood services and cultural issues.
The urbanization of the suburbs increased after World War II and in recognition of the need to plan at the regional level the Lower Mainland Regional Planning Board (LMRPB) was created in 1949. Its jurisdiction extended 160 kilometres up the Fraser Valley to Hope. Efficient regional government was gradual and during the 1950s Vancouver tended to dominate the other municipalities where regional planning issues were concerned. Surrounding communities were already linked through special-purpose districts such as the Greater Vancouver Water District or the sewerage and drainage board. These boards facilitated planning initiatives since member municipalities participated in their administration. This requirement continues today, membership on these boards being comprised of elected officials from member municipalities.
The LMRPB was disbanded in 1967 and replaced by regional districts which served a coordination and planning function for groups of municipalities. The provincial government had established the regional district concept in 1965 and the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) held its first board of directors meeting on July 12, 1967. Today the GVRD is a federation of 18 municipalities and two electoral areas whose membership includes the cities of Burnaby, Coquitlam, Langley, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Richmond, Vancouver, White Rock and Surrey. Districts include Delta, the Township of Langley, Maple Ridge, North Vancouver, Pitt Meadows and West Vancouver, as well as the villages of Anmore, Belcarra and Lions Bay. Electoral area A (University Endowment Lands) and Electoral Area C (Bowen Island).
For a detailed description of the GVRD’s many functions see the article on GVRD, also in the Government section.
Greater Vancouver has gained an international reputation for various innovative planning initiatives over the years. A healthy economy, employment opportunities, rapid population increases and the desirability of the West Coast lifestyle have contributed to the region’s urban design, the architectural character of its neighborhoods and general prosperity The limited land base of the region circumscribed by the mountains, the border and the sea has increased development pressure and created economic challenges for both the public and private sectors. Successful planning initiatives include the rejection of extensive freeway systems, the redevelopment of the south shore of False Creek and the transformation of former industrial lands into town houses and apartments in the mid-1970s, and the creation of eight regional town centres such as Metrotown in Burnaby, Lonsdale in North Vancouver and Haney Town Centre in Maple Ridge. These town centres provide a focal point for higher density residential neighborhoods combined with business and commercial opportunities easily accessible via the regional transit system. They serve as an alternative to the familiar suburban commute into downtown Vancouver and as an effective way to accommodate urban growth and decentralize employment opportunities within the region.
For a detailed look at Vancouver’s CityPlan initiative, see the article by Ann McAfee.
Generations of planning in Greater Vancouver have had a great impact on the area. Features include the concentration of major regional attractions like B.C. Place Stadium, GM Place, the new Vancouver Public Library and theatres near transportation nodes in downtown Vancouver, zoning and design guidelines which foster a distinctive character in neighborhoods within each municipality, policies which protect views of the mountains and the water, the retention of industrial lands providing employment opportunities, within Greater Vancouver and an extensive network of parks and open space with public access to water--the ocean, lakes, and rivers-- throughout the Lower Mainland.
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