Coastal Planning
The B.C. Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, Coast & Marine
Planning Branch is responsible, together with the federal department of
Fisheries and Oceans, for managing the province’s 29,500 km coastal zone. The Ministry is primarily responsible
for the foreshore area and provincially owned seabed.
Where there are significant
public concerns about existing tenures (example: Baynes Sound Shellfish Action
Plan) or where other planning processes have identified concerns about the use
of the coastal zone the Ministry may work with federal and local governments to
develop Coastal Plans. Coastal
planning does not occur automatically and requests from the public alone will not
usually be enough to initiate them.
Coastal planning occurs both at
the strategic (LRMP and LUP)
and the local level. Local levels plans do one of the following:
·
Identify a range of land tenure opportunities to guide
decision makers.
·
Resolve specific conflicts or issues.
·
Detailed direction for special management plans.
Barkley
Sound, Nootka Sound, and the Sooke
Harbour all have local scale plans
in place. This level of
coastal planning will be incorporated within the Sustainable
Resource Management (SRM) planning process.
Coastal plans themselves are
considered policy direction and are not legally binding. However, the
ministers responsible for MSRM, LWBC
and MAFF administer a number of pieces of legislation
that can be used to implement the policy direction. Currently the province
is considering a Sustainable Resource Management Act, which may result in
these types of plans becoming more enforceable.
Coastal plans employ a
consultative rather than a multi-stakeholder consensus model. Ministry
staff receive public and stakeholder input through open houses, via the web,
through public advisory committees established to provide a local voice and
through consultation with NGOs, local government, provincial agencies, federal
departments and industry. The plans are intended to be reviewed on an
annual basis, providing regular opportunity to modify direction based on
additional input or related initiatives.
Related Guide Pages:
For more information about Coastal
Planning:
·
Coastal Planning page on
the Ministry of
Sustainable Resource Management website. See also the page for the Coast Information
Team.
