Project Profile
Williams Lake Sustainability Plan and OCP Revision
Imagining Our Future
PROJECT SNAPSHOT
Client: The City of Williams Lake
Key Deliverable: An integrated community sustainability plan (ICSP) and revised Official Community Plan (OCP).
Our Role: The WCS is providing project management, sustainability strategy, community engagement support, and integration of sustainability strategies into the revised OCP. Williams Lake was interested in having the WCS lead the project because of our expertise in integrated community sustainability planning through Whistler2020, and our experience in sustainability implementation on a community-wide level. They are also interested in integrating tourism planning into their OCP, as they are a community diversifying from a resource economy to one that includes tourism.
Timeline: April 2009 – October 2010
PROJECT DETAILS
Working with City of Williams Lake staff, The Natural Step Canada, Ear to the Ground Planning and former Smart Growth BC staff, the project team is leading a fun and intensive community engagement process involving social media, video, world café meetings, community events, kitchen table meetings and surveys to solicit community views on a vision, strategies and action plan. The process defined on the Imagine the Future website demonstrates how we’re using a lighter, more engaging tone for community planning processes:
Step 1: Find out exactly where the heck we're at right now? How many people live here? What do we love? What do we want to change? Why do we want to change it? How much money do we spend on treating the water flushed down the toilet? Where does that go anyways? What is our favourite colour? What's your kids' favourite TV show? What would your kids do if you threw the TV out your front (or back) window?
Step 2: Get Creative about solutions for building a better Williams Lake. We can't sit around and let things happen to us, we have to figure out how the world is changing and beat it to the punch! Come up with solutions that work, solutions that position our community at the forefront of BC. Generate a list of the things that we need to do to make Williams Lake sustainable.
Step 3: Figure out what the word 'sustainable' means, because we've heard it a lot...
Step 4: Really, really - and we mean really, start Imagining Our Future.
Step 5: Draw some lines on maps to make sure Williams Lake changes in ways we want it to change. For example, the spaceship landing pad should not go downtown - we need room for more small businesses there.
Step 6: Make a plan that reflects what YOU want. How do we figure that out? Go to the Get Involved page.
To date, there have been numerous engagement opportunities, as well as capacity-building sessions for senior staff and Council, youth-focused sessions, and the development of an ISCP framework created by and for the people of Williams Lake. Currently the project team is undertaking the background work required for the OCP revision, including a suitability analysis and a housing needs assessment. Williams Lake City Council also recently signed their Sustainability Declaration, which includes smart growth and sustainability principles.
For more information, please visit http://www.imagineourfuture.ca
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