The City of Abbotsford embarked on a ground-breaking OCP process to shape future growth in this city of 140,000 residents. In this highly participatory process, residents made informed decisions and trade-offs about future growth based on scenarios that were created, modelled, and evaluated against community-based performance measures. This allowed Council, staff, and community members to connect the dots between land use and a myriad of other goals relating to greenhouse gas emissions, walkability, transit access, land conservation, community well-being, infrastructure costs, and more. 

 Engagement was both far-reaching and deep, and included: sessions with City Council, as well as senior and technical staff from diverse departments; photos contest; stakeholder workshops; DIY “Citizen Circle” handbooks; online surveys; open houses that ranged from drop-in events at vacant downtown storefronts to interactive pop up parks in parking lots; active social media; and an ongoing “Abbotsforward” Road Show that traveled from gurdwaras and downtown festivals, to suburban malls and agricultural fairs. Engagement also included consistent work with a community advisory committee, which was structured to represent the city’s demographic profile in terms of gender, age, and ethnicity. The process culminated in almost 8000 distinct engagements, the largest in the city’s history.

Client | City of Abbotsford

Agency | DIALOG with TODERIAN UrbanWORKS, Bunt Transportation, Colliers, and Kerr Wood Leidel

Project Consultant Lead | Jennifer Fix while at DIALOG

3D Rendering | Esteban Matheus, DIALOG

Awards | Planning Excellence in City and Regional Planning, Canadian Institute of Planners, 2017 | Gold, Excellence in Policy Planning (City and Urban Areas), Planning Institute of British Columbia, 2017 | Excellent Award, Community Connections, Union of BC Municipalities, 2016