The way Halfmoon Bay develops or does not develop and basically all land use planning for the area is coming under the lens over the next two years with the Halfmoon Bay Official Community Plan (OCP) review.
The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) adopted terms of reference for the Community Plan advisory group, which will be overseeing the OCP review, at last Thursday's planning and development committee meeting. The committee is now considering 18 different community members to sit on the advisory group.
The OCP review will lay out a long-term vision of Halfmoon Bay along with objectives and policies to guide decisions on planning and land use management until 2031.
Halfmoon Bay director Garry Nohr said he has already been getting encouraging responses from his constituents on updating the current plan, which is now 20 years old.
"They feel strongly about the OCP going forward," he said. "I think it's a very exciting move, because there are some people living on the last OCP, and some have no idea what an OCP is. This is a good opportunity to bring some excitement in the area."
After going over 279 responses from a survey of Area B residents about the OCP review, Nohr said some common priorities for residents are starting to appear.
"Most of the feelings I get from people are that they don't want it to become another section of suburbia. They want it to stay with its rural flavour, and they're not against development in many cases, but if there is development, [the review] will look at density and how it's arranged so the rural concept isn't lost," he said.
Gregory Gebka, the SCRD planner working on the review, said throughout the two-year review process, there will be many chances for the public to help the advisory group feel out the public's priorities and integrate them into the new plan.
"We'll be establishing a public participation program, which will entail a number of public meetings and open houses and will provide the public an opportunity to engage in some visioning for their community and give some review of draft plans," he said.
New to this year's OCP review is an expansion of the OCP area to reach all the way out to Sechelt Inlet. Nohr said this will help prevent "wild building" from going on without any direction.
