Community plan ‘not a straitjacket,’ Nanaimo mayor says
Nanaimo has mapped out a vision for its future in a 300-plus-page new official community plan that the city’s mayor calls a “document of hope.”
The new plan, approved by council this month and intended to guide growth in the city for the next 25 years, updates the 2008 official community plan. It includes plans for parks, recreation, culture, wellness, transportation, mobility, climate action, accessibility and inclusion.
Mayor Leonard Krog said the wide-reaching document, called Nanaimo ReImagined, is “not a straitjacket.
“It is a document of hope for the kind of community that our strategic plan and goals want to see Nanaimo become.”
Thousands of area residents shared ideas on what they want to see for the fast-growing city. Nanaimo now has 100,000 residents, making it the secondlargest in terms of population on Vancouver Island, behind only Saanich.
The plan aims to see seven urban growth centres, or nodes, established, each with its own character, offering a range of housing types, jobs, community amenities and transportation routes. The plan includes a growth-containment boundary along the city’s borders and an urban-containment boundary within which jobs and housing would mainly be located.
The idea is to foster future growth within existing urban areas. Downtown would be the primary urban centre.
“Hopefully developers, contractors will be able to look at the city and say, ‘Oh yes, we can do that. We can fill this part of the beautiful jigsaw in.’ And they will and we’ll do it in a way that encourages nodes,” Krog said.
Over time, these nodes will encourage more people to live close to their workplaces, reduce reliance on vehicles and encourage alternate forms of transportation, such as walking, biking, cycling or transit, he said.
A new transit exchange downtown is under discussion, although nothing has been finalized.
Krog said investment in Nanaimo is growing, despite rising interest rates. “People have discovered us.”
The plan is backed by two city documents, both to be finalized by next spring. The integrated action plan will encompass short and longer-term projects and programs, while the city’s monitoring strategy will track progress, watching to see if policies are being achieved and if changes are required.
For more information, go to getinvolvednanaimo.ca/ reimagine-nanaimo.