Burnaby 2050: Planning our city together
We’re creating a new Burnaby’s Official Community Plan (OCP) to set the long-term vision for managing the city’s growth. Burnaby 2050 is a multi-year process that involves engaging community members in dialogue about the future of Burnaby.
About this project
The Burnaby 2050 project will help us develop a new Official Community Plan that will guide and manage Burnaby’s growth over the next 25 years in a way that reflects our community’s aspirations and values. The renewed OCP will be contemporary and considerate of emerging trends, issues, challenges and opportunities—particularly in areas of housing affordability, climate change and resilience. It will set out the priorities, goals and policies for the City to work towards over the short, medium and long term.
The Burnaby OCP Project is a multi-year, multi-phased project. The process will be:
- accessible, inclusive and engaging—inviting people of all ages, abilities and diverse backgrounds to help shape the city
- inclusive of Indigenous perspectives—inviting and supporting local First Nations partners and urban Indigenous Peoples to help shape the city
- visionary, creative and fun—inspiring community members and visitors
- evidence-based and data-driven—ensuring priorities, policies and decisions are informed by evidence, science, lived-experience and traditional knowledge bases
- a “systems-thinking” approach—recognizing that the city is a whole urban system, within a broader regional context, in which the built, natural, and human environments are all highly connected
- climate-focused—recognizing that priorities, policies and decisions need to account for climate change and adaptation
- innovative and forward-thinking—demonstrating leadership
Insights reports
Project phases
Completed
This phase involved the project initiation and background work being undertaken by staff to prepare for the project.
Planning and Development Committee Reports
This phase focused on raising awareness about the project and inviting the community to learn more about the project and become engaged. Initial engagement involved educating the community on the purpose of an OCP and providing information on how the city has grown along with a series of insights reports on topics of interest related to the OCP.
Planning and Development Committee Reports
Events
Thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat with us at one of our summer 2022 pop-up events! We reached over 3,500 people, and learned about your thoughts on a variety of topics, including what you love most about Burnaby:
- community inclusion (sense of community and diversity)
- parks, nature and green spaces
- social infrastructure (community centres, schools, social and public events)
Display boards
Planning our city together contest (closed)
Thank you to everyone who entered our contest!
The winner was determined by random draw on Friday, September 23, 2022.
Winner: Matthew Mandrusiak aged 6 yrs.
In progress
Phase 2 of the Burnaby 2050 Official Community Plan engagement focuses on developing a long-term vision for our city’s growth.
Throughout the summer and early fall, community members had the opportunity to participate in a survey, speak to us at pop-up events throughout the city, and attend our Visioning Dialogue events. We heard what people love and value about Burnaby, and what their priorities are for the future of the city. We are now analyzing the feedback and will compile this information into a report. More engagement opportunities will be available in 2024.
We have also invited the host First Nations, on whose traditional territory the City of Burnaby is located, to participate and share their vision for the future for urban Indigenous peoples living, learning, working and playing in Burnaby.
In the latter part of Phase 2, we’ll report on what we heard, develop a working vision and complete related technical work on growth scenarios and land use.
City Council received the OCP Policy Development Approach – Policy Reviews and Growth Modelling Report at the November 20, 2023 Council meeting. The report outlines the policy review work that is being done by cross-disciplinary staff teams from across the organization over the next six months.
City Council received the What We Learned Report at the November 20, 2023 Council meeting. The report summarizes the engagement work, the participants and the key findings. Emerging themes from the engagement data include the importance of protecting nature and greenspace, the need to provide more affordable housing choices, the public’s safety concerns, the need for infrastructure and services to keep pace with population growth, and the need to expand public transit and active transportation across the City. Engagement findings will help inform the vision statement, guiding principles, values, and policy directions in Burnaby 2050.
Future phases
This phase involves setting the priorities, strategic direction and policies that will support Burnaby in achieving its draft vision, goals and objectives. We'll use an inclusive participation process to help us set priorities and develop policies.
This phase involves engaging with the community to confirm that the draft OCP reflects their values and priorities for the future.