City in the Country Plan Enhancing Agriculture Preserving Community Sustainability FINAL REPORT CITY OF ABBOTSFORD MAY 2004 City in the Country Plan TABLE OF CONTENTS Changes from the Draft Plan................................................................................................................. iv Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... v City in the Country Plan Highlights ...................................................................................................... vii Royal LePage Advisors’ Commentary ................................................................................................. ix Acknowledgements................................................................................................................................ xiii Milestones and Plan Development Process ........................................................................................ xiv Section 1 Introduction................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Goals and Objectives of the Plan ...................................................................... 1 1.2 Relationship of the Plan to the FVRD Regional Growth Strategy ..................... 2 1.3 Relationship of the Plan to the City of Abbotsford OCP.................................... 2 1.4 Relationship to the Agricultural Land Commission Act ..................................... 4 Section 2 Sustainable Development............................................................................................ 5 Section 3 A City Defined by Agriculture...................................................................................... 7 3.1 Rural Urban Economy ...................................................................................... 7 3.2 Agricultural Employment ................................................................................... 8 3.3 City Support of Agriculture ................................................................................ 9 3.4 Infrastructure .................................................................................................... 11 3.4.1 Drainage and Dyking Infrastructure...................................................... 11 3.4.2 Water Infrastructure.............................................................................. 12 3.4.3 Road Infrastructure............................................................................... 12 Section 4 Regional Context ......................................................................................................... 13 4.1 Lower Mainland ................................................................................................. 13 4.1.1 Population and Employment Trends in the Lower Mainland ............... 13 4.1.2 Industrial Location ............................................................................... 14 4.1.3 Changing Nature of Industry ............................................................... 14 4.1.4 Industrial Floor Space .......................................................................... 15 4.1.5 Industrial Density.................................................................................. 15 4.1.6 Abbotsford International Airport............................................................ 16 4.2 Fraser Valley Regional District .......................................................................... 17 Section 5 Local Context................................................................................................................ 19 5.1 Land Use ........................................................................................................... 19 5.1.1 Residential............................................................................................ 20 5.1.2 Commercial .......................................................................................... 20 5.1.3 Industrial ............................................................................................... 21 5.1.4 Abbotsford International Airport............................................................ 21 5.1.5 Agriculture ............................................................................................ 21 5.1.6 Hillside Development............................................................................ 22 5.2 Agricultural Land Reserve ................................................................................. 23 5.3 Sand and Gravel Extraction .............................................................................. 24 5.4 Industrial Development in Abbotsford ............................................................... 25 Section 6 Facing the Challenge ................................................................................................... 27 6.1 The Challenge for Agriculture............................................................................ 27 6.2 Challenges for the City ...................................................................................... 27 i City in the Country Plan 6.3 Industrial Land Supply....................................................................................... 28 6.3.1 Existing Land Supply............................................................................ 28 6.3.2 Lot Configuration .................................................................................. 29 6.3.3 Land Ownership ................................................................................... 31 Section 7 Community Land Requirements ................................................................................. 32 7.1 Influencing Factors ............................................................................................ 32 7.2 Consistency with GVRD estimates ................................................................... 33 7.3 Community Requirements Based on Employment Demand............................. 33 7.3.1 Population Growth................................................................................ 34 7.3.2 Employment Forecast .......................................................................... 35 7.3.3 Employment’s Relationship to Floor Space ......................................... 41 7.3.4 Floor Space ratio .................................................................................. 43 7.4 Requirements Based on Floor Space Demand................................................. 43 7.5 Independent Review of City in the Country Plan Demand Analysis ................. 45 7.6 Twenty Year Land Requirement........................................................................ 46 7.7 Requirements Based on Economic Sustainability............................................. 46 7.8 Looking Beyond the Twenty-Year Horizon........................................................ 48 Section 8 Meeting the Community Need..................................................................................... 49 8.1 Intensification of Existing Designated Lands..................................................... 49 8.2 Existing Industrial Land Supply ......................................................................... 50 8.3 ALR Exclusion as a Last Resort........................................................................ 53 Section 9 Agriculture Land Reserve Exclusion Proposal ......................................................... 54 9.1 Assessment Criteria .......................................................................................... 54 9.2 Decision Matrix .................................................................................................. 56 9.3 Sites of Interest.................................................................................................. 57 9.3.1 Mount Lehman...................................................................................... 57 9.3.2 Airport Reserve A and B....................................................................... 58 9.3.3 Cascade ............................................................................................... 58 9.3.4 Townline ............................................................................................... 58 9.3.5 Clearbrook ............................................................................................ 59 9.3.6 Neufeld ................................................................................................. 59 9.3.7 Mount Lehman South ........................................................................... 59 9.3.8 Clearbrook Interchange........................................................................ 60 9.4 Other Candidate Areas Identified During the Public Consultation Process and Ultimately Eliminated.................................................................... 60 9.4.1 Gravel Pits Located in the ALR ............................................................ 61 9.4.2 Fraser Highway .................................................................................... 62 9.4.3 The Reimer Property ............................................................................ 62 9.4.4 Downes Road....................................................................................... 63 9.4.5 McCallum Industrial Area North ........................................................... 63 9.4.6 East Gloucester...................................................................................