In February 2019, the City of Pitt Meadows engaged CitySpaces Consulting, Vann Struth Consulting and Licker Geospatial Consulting Co. to complete a residential policy review to inform the Official Community Plan process.
Key steps included:
- Documenting current and projected housing trends.
- Updating the City’s population and housing unit projections, to inform residential scenario analysis.
- Preparing residential development scenarios that showcase potential futures, for consideration.
- Engagement with the broader public about the residential policy review, specifically in relation to potential future residential development scenarios.
- Outline recommendations for preferred scenario to be considered as part of the broader OCP review process.
The residential policy review demonstrated the City of Pitt Meadows is experiencing growth pressures which is constraining the housing supply and diminishing the availability and affordability of housing options for local residents. A key driver to growth is the increasing population:
- Over the next twenty years, the population is expected to increase significantly and, within the current land use framework, there is not enough residentially designated land and allocated density to accommodate the projected growth.
- The spatial analysis completed as part of the residential policy review provided a visual demonstration of the forecast shortfall in land capacity.
The residential policy review provided an opportunity for the City of Pitt Meadows to consider alternative land use planning approaches to manage growth, such as infill development and densification. Three scenarios were produced that explore different patterns of development.
The residential policy review culminated in a recommendation to consider further exploration of Scenarios One and Two in the upcoming OCP planning process by evaluating trade-offs of these potential residential frameworks in combination with other important community needs such as transportation, social and recreational amenities, and infrastructure.
