City of Grand Forks

A NEXT GENERATION OFFICIAL COMMUNITY PLAN

Initiative

Official Community Plans (in BC but having various names across Canada) are the most powerful document communities have in their translation of vision to geography. Too many Official Community Plans (OCPs) waste the opportunity. Lack of compelling vision, boilerplate copies of standard fare planning in other communities, lack of strategic focus on differentiating opportunity spaces, and dry communication style, hamper community development aspirations.

What if we could re-imagine housing, quality of place, the vibrancy of downtown, feel nature more deeply in our midst, find our soul five minutes away in our community within community? We can, but it takes some audacity to challenge convention and step into the souls of what people want when they lay their head down at night hoping their community steps into its highest form of ambition and aspiration…for sake of a positive legacy for our children and grandchildren we carry in our hearts.

COVID-19 has stirred a deeper soul searching among people and their purpose in life. This dynamic has been around for years as creators, professionals, digital nomads, and independent entrepreneurs, enabled by key infrastructure like advanced broadband, seek their soulful inspiration in relocation away from Dilbertesque cubicle-life existence in large urban centres. But now the work and lifestyle dynamic is on new ground. The genie is out of the bottle and rural BC – long on the short end of a stick that said we had to go to “the city” to make it – is all the rage with self realization that people can live where they want and be productive.

Places like Grand Forks, with their great bones and building blocks, have a transformative opportunity to attract a new generation of young (and young at-heart) people and families seeking affordable and inspired lifestyle-living.

The City of Grand Forks, BC has been challenged many times over its history. Gold and copper have come and gone. A downtown has been levelled twice by fire. A forestry industry has ebbed and flowed amidst structural industry challenges. A flood in 2018…devastating. And yet, Grand Forks dusts itself off and rises as a place of tenacity. A place of resilience.

An OCP developed by MVH Planning and Design in 2020/2021 with the assistance of significant community engagement is fresh, energetic, and aligned with the future of work and living. The OCP is designed to take the reins of the community’s future and realize aggressive ambition for great community pride, jobs and prosperity, and quality of life.

A focused vision: Grand Forks is a thriving, future-looking city with unique neighbourhoods and a distinctive downtown. As a community, we strive to be inclusive and diverse, provide necessary housing and jobs, support the development of trails and well-connected green infrastructure, and protect our natural assets and the Grand Forks community through sound climate change planning

….is connected to four key building blocks that will step into an aspirational, ambitious and realistic future for the community:

• Integration of natural systems into a sustainable ecosystem, and care and attention to environmental considerations and climate change planning (incl. carefully crafted Development Permit Areas) and associated policy in development decision making.

• Nurturing of “communities within community” in pursuit of distinctive, walkable, mixed-use neighbourhood nodes and identity, and elevated placemaking that will attract digital nomads, a younger generation, and entrepreneurs. This includes significant housing innovation policy focused on affordability and attainability options, and careful attention to downtown enhancement as a focal point of community life via a set of investment-enabling policies, and a new “Market District” downtown brand.

• Pursuit of a thriving economy via employment lands identification and protection, and investment-enabling policies. Economic development enhancement is a central prism through which all policy in the OCP is seen through.

• Connectivity via mobility corridors, parks and infrastructure – featuring design of an integrated pathway network.

A lightness of being – dare we say “interesting to read” in communication of vision and strategic direction is under-appreciated as a mechanism to connect existing residents, potential future residents, investment, and visitors with the power of vision and possibilities. The Grand Forks OCP is visually effective and easy to read, with beautiful hand sketches, graphic design, maps, and plain language.

Two additional concurrent projects completed by MVH Planning – North Ruckle Park Design, and Wayfinding Signage program – weave the fabric of an OCP together more tightly as an expression of tangible implementation. “Out-do” rather than “out-talk.” Mantra for any success in plan-making.

Rynic has been an economic development partner on OCP projects across the BC Kootenays in the last four years, including Canal Flats, Nakusp, and Slocan. Rynic has colaborated with MVH Planning & Design on OCP projects in Valemount, Grand Forks, and Castlegar (ongoing), and is currently collaborating with MVH on a Downtown Revitalization Strategy for the District of Hope, BC.