GRAND FORKS OFFICIAL COMMUNITY PLAN

Grand Forks, BC is a community looking for new strategies for its community, following the significant flooding that buried neighbourhoods in 2018. Selkirk, along with a strong team, was hired to help develop an Official Community Plan with a unique approach. The OCP leads with an environmental lens, requiring planning activities to first consider the land, and the constraints to building, that the land requires. The plan then flows through to land use, identifying neighbourhood and community nodes that build upond existing infrastructure to establish a walkable mixed use node in each neighbourhood. Broad community goals, help illustrate how the City will establish bike lanes, infrastructure needs, social services, and climate change goals.

Selkirk’s work started with in-depth mapping to establish critical environmental areas that were the basis for Development Permit Areas. Natural assets were mapped as a part of the infrastructure, and environmentally sensitive areas were protected. The land use policy focussed on removing barriers to infill, allowing up to 3 units per lot, and adding more small scale mixed use areas throughout Grand Forks.

The OCP was part of 3 other concurrent projects Selkirk was helping to create in Grand Forks: A floodplain bylaw, Signage and Wayfinding Plan, and Floodway Park Concept Plan. All of the plans were adopted by Council in 2022.