OCP – what is it? – Official Community Plan – each municipality in BC must have one. It is designed as a visionary document but has a linkage to the Zoning Bylaw that determines land use.

History: Town of Oliver hired contract planners Eco-Plan Consulting earlier this year to complete a review of an old OCP – adopted in 2004

Several public input sessions were held, surveys conducted with a response considered reasonable and representative.

Priorities were established: Create Economic Development opportunities, concentrate effort on building the Town Core, Downtown, Business District and create a sense of place.

Council has reviewed all that input along with long discussions with consultants, staff and contracted planners.

The revised plan will be distributed to outside agencies like Interior Health, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, Osoyoos Indian Band, RDOS and the Agriculture Land Commission. Once that input is received Town Council will give the document a number of readings and bring it to the public in a Formal Hearing – that date most likely in late winter – possibly February.

The consultant were asked to clean up the old document, changing zones and designations to better reflect the reality on the ground or expected land use including more park and lake access at Tuc-el-Nuit Lake,  additional downtown park opportunities, more density where indicated, improved definitions of what is possible (policy changes) and concentrating the Downtown Area into an economic zone with incentives for development.

Council attempted to strike a balance on growth with no intent to seek a boundary expansion with lots of capacity for many forms of housing options within its borders.