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> Issues > Urban Growth and
Development > Smart Bylaws Guide > Part
1 > Urban Containment Boundaries >
Saanich
Smart Bylaws Guide – Urban Containment Boundaries – Saanich
The District of Saanich established a UCB in 1964 to delineate
the catchment area that could be serviced by gravity into the
sanitary trunk sewer system. The municipality undertook a bi-annual
review of the sewer containment boundary to allow the orderly and
economic extension of the sewer infrastructure. In the 1980's,
Council hardened the UGB to protect rural areas and to encourage
more dense development in the municipality. The municipality
established a five acre minimum rural parcel size, and only two
sewer extensions have occurred since then. Both of these extensions
were for public health reasons for failing septic systems. In 1993
Council placed a moratorium on changes to the UCB until at least the
end of 2001, and required elector assent via referendum of any major
extensions after that.
Now totaling 11,100 hectares and 104,000 residents, Saanich's UCB
is entrenched in the Regional Growth Strategy and continues to
foster strong urban and rural areas in the same municipality.
Evident from the General Plan policies reproduced below, Saanich
takes an explicitly regional perspective in balancing growth and
other community needs.
3. GROWTH MANAGEMENT
A primary objective of growth policies is to
establish a balance between the local and the regional demand for
housing and urban services and the desire to protect the physical
and natural environment. The perceived impact of past development on
the essential elements of the community such as public safety and
health, urban services, the environment, agricultural land, and
liveability has resulted in the creation of broad support for growth
control within the concept of sustainable development. New policies
challenge the traditional view of outward growth as inevitable and
necessary and emphasize efficient urban management through a local
consultation process.
The Urban Containment Boundary is a conceptual line which
generally encompasses the sewered area of the municipality. It
identifies the division between urban and rural areas and continues
to be the main tool of the Saanich Growth Management Program. Growth
management also comprises other tools such as sewering capacity,
development cost charges, the Official Community Plan, and specific
neighbourhood constraints as specified in the local area plans.
Dwindling developable land supplies and a continuing demand for
new housing are issues of regional importance and will need to be
addressed in a coordinated manner by the regional municipalities.
In keeping with the healthy Saanich philosophy, strategies for
growth-management must balance the need to address community-wide
goals with the necessity to meet the diverse needs of it citizens.
This approach is consistent with support for the concept of
sustainable development. Managing growth should be based on the
capacity [of] the infrastructure, including schools, to handle the
needs of the community.
Recently adopted policies governing extensions to the Urban
Containment Boundary are clearly aimed at slowing down the pace of
development in Saanich in order to meet these goals. These policies
are part of a larger, coherent vision of growth which recognizes the
benefits of a vibrant community and the need to protect the
integrity of existing neighbourhoods through local area plans.
Saanich General Plan (1993), p.8
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GOAL
The efficient management of growth, infill and
redevelopment.
OBJECTIVES
- To accommodate change in a sensitive and
cost-effective manner.
- To manage population increases within the context of the local
area planning process.
- To maintain a variety of lifestyle, housing, economic, and
cultural opportunities.
- To maintain the rural areas outside the Urban Containment
Boundary.
- To support the concept of sustainable development.
POLICIES
- Maintain the urban containment concept.
- Limit
industrial, commercial, institutional, and residential growth
outside the Urban Containment Boundary.
- Use the local area
planning process, the urban containment concept, the sewer
enterprise process, transportation strategies, environmental
assessments, and special studies as the basis for managing growth.
- Adopt land use, density and development policies for local areas
and neighbourhood centres to encourage diversity of lifestyle,
housing, economic, and cultural opportunities.
- Do not adopt any
bylaw or resolution providing for a major expansion to the Urban
Containment Boundary before December 31, 2001.
- Do not adopt any
bylaw or resolution providing for a major expansion to the Urban
Containment Boundary after December 31, 2001, without first
obtaining the assent of the electors.
- Consider the capacity of
all types of infrastructure including municipal services, schools,
social services, and open space when reviewing growth options
Saanich General Plan (1993), p.9
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For More Information:
Ann Topp, Manager, Planning Services
(250) 475-5494 local 3406
toppa@gov.saanich.bc.ca
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