As I’ve mentioned in the past, Metro Vancouver is currently renewing the Livable Region Strategic Plan (which developed the concept of town centres in a “sea of green”). This new Regional Growth Strategy is to focus on five main goals:

  1. A sustainable compact metropolitan structure
  2. Diverse and affordable housing choices
  3. A strong diverse regional economy
  4. Protect and enhance the region’s natural assets
  5. A sustainable transportation system

Metro has embraced the web as a powerful communications platform by not only creating an online discussion forum, and posting the draft plan’s survey on it’s site, but has also allowed the results of said survey to be viewed in real time. Which is pretty cool stuff for a governmental organization. This “real time” view gives us a pretty good idea of what the public wants, and as of now, it’s clear they want some big change.

Metro’s problem has also been a lack of control over the region. In the survey, there was generally three to four options, ranging on a scale of Metro retaining it’s current powers, to giving it the abilities to override a municipality in certain cases.

For example, with “Strategy 10 - Advance a regional network of roads and highways that prioritizes goods movement, transit operations and high-occupancy vehicles”, there’s three options, progressively giving Metro more power:

  • A) State the general Strategy to prioritize the movement of goods, transit and HOVs in the regional network of roads and highways
  • B) Identify regional roads and highways network on a regional map and state general principles for prioritizing
  • C) Identify a regional roads and highways network on a regional map as well as provide guidelines for prioritizing use

Surprisingly enough, each and every strategy is overwhelmingly choosing the “C” option, or the one with the most added power for Metro. It’s not clear how many people have taken the survey, but judging by the many written comments viewable on the site, it’s quite evident there’s a good sampling source. Does the public’s approval of more power mean big changes coming forth for Metro Vancouver?

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