Official Community Plan (OCP)

An Official Community Plan (OCP) outlines the long-term vision for how a community will grow and change. It guides decisions about land use, transportation, housing, the environment, infrastructure, parks, and community services. While an OCP does not regulate development on its own, it provides the policy framework that zoning, subdivision, and other bylaws must follow.

An OCP is a high-level guiding document. It does not:

• Set detailed zoning regulations (heights, densities, etc.).
• Approve or deny specific development applications.
• Determine municipal budgets or tax rates.
• Replace other bylaws, plans, or provincial legislation.

Instead, it sets the overall direction that more detailed regulations must align with.

Updating the OCP ensures that community planning reflects current conditions, local priorities, and provincial requirements. Growth patterns, housing needs, transportation systems, and climate considerations all change over time. A modern OCP helps ensure that Sooke is prepared for future needs while protecting community character and the environment.

Provincial legislation also requires municipalities to revisit and update their OCP every five years to ensure growth is aligned with expectations and that housing needs can be met.

The OCP is shaped through community input, technical studies, and provincial requirements. Creating or updating an OCP usually includes:

• Listening to residents, businesses, community groups, and First Nations.
• Researching trends, such as population, housing needs, climate impacts, and transportation patterns.
• Drafting policies and action, mapping land uses, and identifying priorities.
• Reviewing and revising, based on public feedback. Council consideration and adoption, following statutory processes.

Community voices help ensure the plan reflects local values. 

Understand more about the process to updating the OCP Bylaw No. 800 here:

• letstalk.sooke.ca/ocp

As part of the update for Sooke’s OCP we follow regulations set by the Government of British Columbia under the Local Government Act (and related policy). Some key points include:

• Municipalities are required to adopt an OCP by bylaw.
• Once an OCP is adopted, all bylaws and works undertaken must be consistent with it.
• The OCP must include certain required statements and map designations such as:
  • Residential development required to meet anticipated housing needs over a 20-year period.
  • Present and proposed commercial, industrial, institutional, agricultural, recreational and public utility land-uses.
  • Present and proposed public facilities (schools, parks, waste treatment sites).
  • Any areas subject to hazardous conditions or environmentally sensitive land that should be restricted from development.
• The OCP must consider the most-recent housing needs report when developing or amending housing policies, map designations, or statements.
• Local governments may include optional policy statements, such as social development, environmental protection, farmland preservation, etc.
• Local governments can designate “development permit areas” in the OCP for special treatment of things like hazard protection, climate adaptation, energy conservation, or form and character of development.
• Under recent legislative changes, municipalities are required to update their OCPs every five years, align them with housing needs reports, designate land to meet housing needs, and conduct public engagement accordingly.

Learn more:

• Official community plans for local governments - Province of British Columbia