FAQs

No. This work is a first step in modernizing a plan that is 10 years old. The proposed updates largely represent current directions established in recently approved policies. The update recently approved by Council will be a more comprehensive consideration of how to update the OCP to better meet the needs of Victoria’s growing population and address the housing and climate crisis.

Victoria's Official Community Plan (OCP) provides a long-term vision for how the community will grow and change out to 2040. City Council, staff, and citizens refer to the plan for guidance on decisions such as where to locate housing and businesses, transportation priorities, and how the community will respond to climate change.

Regular review and update of a long-term plan is good planning practice. The OCP outlines both an Adaptive Management Framework and a Monitoring and Evaluation approach.  

The OCP is a bylaw adopted by Council and is given authority through the British Columbia Local Government Act. As a long-term plan, the City is not obligated to immediately align any related policies or bylaws with the OCP, but they should be made consistent over time. Annual reviews are completed and approximately every five years a comprehensive review is completed.

Victoria's Official Community Plan (OCP) was adopted by Council in 2012. Since then, several new plans, policies, and directions have been approved by Council. Additionally, the City has learned lessons through implementation and identified ways to improve policy interpretation. Many of these changes were identified in the 2019 OCP review.

The OCP guided the development of several city-wide plans and policies in recent years that provide more detailed objectives, policies, and targets. These include:

• Victoria Climate Leadership Plan (2018)
• Go Victoria – Our Mobility Future (2019)
• Transgender, Non-Binary and Two-Spirit + Inclusion Action Plan (2019)  
• Inclusionary Housing and Community Amenity Policy (2019)
• Accessibility Framework (2020)  
• Victoria 3.0 - Recovery Reinvention Resilience - 2020-2041 (2020)
• Endorsed guidelines and principles of the equity framework (2019)  

Many of the updates are the result of recent planning processes that included broad public engagement. This process will not revisit the details of those plans and policies as they have already been approved, but rather will ensure alignment between them and the high-level directions in the OCP.

Topic area updates are related to a few key sections of the OCP, listed below. Amendments to other sections may also be considered for consistency throughout the plan.

• OCP Chapter 6 – Land Management and Development
• OCP Chapter 7 – Transportation and Mobility and related sections  
• OCP Chapter 12 – Climate Change and Energy and related sections
• OCP Chapter 13 – Housing and Homelessness and related sections
• OCP Chapter 14 –  Economy and related sections 
• OCP Chapter 15 – Community Well-being and Equity and related sections
• Appendix A – Development Permit Areas and Heritage Conservation Areas and related sections  

You can learn more about the updates to these sections and why they are being made by downloading the OCP Update Summaries in the document section. 

You can ask questions or provide input related to specific updates, or the project as a whole, on the project page at engage.victoria.ca. 

We will be reaching out to stakeholders and community organizations over the course of the project to collect input and answer any questions the community may have.

If you live in an area that may be affected by changes to development permit areas, you will receive a direct mail notification and your local Community Association Land Use Committee (CALUC) will be notified.

These updates are being guided in part by plans, policies, and directions that were created through previous public engagement. This process is not intended to explore or reassess details in these approved plans and directions, but rather consider how they will be integrated into the OCP, ensuring they are clear, readable, and aligned with the established vision and goals in the OCP. 

Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities and injuries. You can find more information here, as well as in the goals, strategies and targets outlined in GoVictoria, the CRD Board’s direction confirming Vision Zero as a regional priority, and the B.C. Road Safety toolkit.