The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George and the University of Northern British Columbia have come together to provide students with an opportunity for hands on learning in the Regional District’s land use planning processes. A new course Rural Futures in BC’s Provincial North is being offered this semester through UNBC’s School of Planning and Sustainability.
The Regional District is undertaking a review of the Official Community Plan for Electoral Area A, which includes Salmon Valley, Nukko Lake, Chief Lake and Ness Lake. Official community plans (OCP) describe the long-term vision of communities. They are a statement of objectives and policies that guide decisions on planning and land use management. The current OCP for Electoral Area A was adopted in 1997.
Through the course, students will partner with the Regional District to make a meaningful contribution to help shape the Official Community Plan of Electoral Area A (Salmon River-Lakes). They will lead two related streams of work as part of the course: a policy analysis and a community engagement process with youth from the region. They will learn how factors such as agricultural protection, housing diversification, wildfire risk mitigation, youth retention and infrastructure sustainability all need to be balanced and considered as part of the Official Community Plan.
The Regional District will incorporate the students’ work, along with feedback from other community consultation into a revised draft Official Community Plan for Electoral Area A to be considered by the Regional District Board later this year.
“We wanted to find ways to engage youth in our OCP review. Decisions about land use planning today can impact a community for years so to have youth involved in setting the vision and priorities only makes sense as they will be the ones living with those decisions,” says Lara Beckett, chair of the Regional District.
Victor Mobley, Regional District director for Electoral Area A says, “Our planning staff reached out to UNBC with the idea to partner on this initiative. We are grateful that UNBC came on board in such an innovative way to help provide a hands-on learning opportunity for students, while providing the Regional District with some invaluable input.”
“Students in UNBC’s Bachelor of Planning program are studying to become the next generation of leaders who will help to build capacity for the advancement of healthy, productive and thriving northern communities,” says UNBC School of Planning and Sustainability Assistant Professor Dr. Rylan Graham. “By working directly with the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, students will be able to apply their classroom learnings to a real-world project and explore how local governments solicit and interpret feedback from the community.”
