Community Planning Matters! Brian Palmquist -3 Steps to a better Vancouver

Issue

Vancouver’s historic neighbourhood planning tradition is being eclipsed by citywide growth frameworks that prioritize development scale and financial yield over community-based planning principles. As the city approaches the 2026 civic election, there is a timely need to re-centre public understanding of neighbourhood planning, local knowledge, and place-based decision-making.

Background

Vancouver has a long legacy of neighbourhood-led planning that emphasized livability, social cohesion, and context-sensitive urban design. Recent planning approaches have shifted toward broad, top-down growth strategies, often experienced by residents as disconnected from local needs and neighbourhood character.

There is strong public interest in revisiting how neighbourhood planning can:

• Support housing affordability without eroding livability
• Balance growth with infrastructure, services, and social capacity
• Strengthen democratic participation at the local level

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Local Focus Civic Network