The City of Vancouver is embarking on a process to create a long-term plan.

The project launches in the fall following city council’s approval of the initiative in a meeting Tuesday (July 16).

In that meeting, council considered a report prepared by Gil Kelley, general manager of planning, urban design and sustainability.

“Currently, Vancouver does not have an overarching City-wide Plan that sets a broad, integrated vision for the future that addresses key issues holistically and strategically,” Kelley wrote in the report. “The only city-wide physical growth plan for Vancouver was created by Harland Bartholomew in the 1920s, almost a hundred years ago under the guidance of the Vancouver Planning Commission at the time.”

Kelley also recalled that city council adopted City Plan Directions in 1995, which “outlined broad policy directions for the central area, neighbourhood centres, community services, the economy and the environment, after a thorough and highly regarded public engagement process undertaken between 1992 and 1995”.

In his report, Kelley also told council that the city-wide plan program is expected to take about three years.

A media release by the city Wednesday (July 17) notes that the process will ask a key question: What kind of city do we want to become over the coming decades, and why?

“This is the first time in over 20 years that the City of Vancouver has undertaken a city-wide planning process, and it will be far more than planning future land use and transportation connections,” Kelley said in the release.

According to Kelley, the planning process will “consider social well-being, economic health, environmental sustainability and cultural vibrancy while ensuring that all communities can be a part of collectively guiding our future”.