Rural by nature, industrial by trade : creating a new industrial zoning regulation for Salt Spring Island

Salt Spring Island may have a reputation as an idyllic and unique community, but it faces several key challenges: rural poverty, unaffordable real estate, growing wealth disparity, and declining economic opportunity for its shrinking working-age population. Recognizing the importance of increasing socio-economic diversity through land use planning, the relevant local organization responsible for controlling development – the Islands Trust – has spent the past decade working with the community to determine what the Island’s future industrial land use regime should look like. Acknowledging the importance of zoning as the Islands Trust’s primary land use planning instrument, the paper provides recommendations on how the Trust could improve the flexibility and coherence of its current industrial zoning regulation. Specifically, this research project strongly advocates for (i) the radical simplification of all existing heavy commercial and industrial zoning districts into a traditional three-tiered industrial zoning district regime, (ii) the use of a new dedicated marine-related zone to complement existing Shoreline zones, (iii) the incorporation of intent statements for the new zoning districts, (iv) the adoption of flexible industrial use categories, defined by certain performance standards and scale limitations, (v) the restriction of non-industrial uses in industrial zones, (vi) the reduction of setbacks between adjacent industrially-zoned properties, (vii) the inclusion of a Zoning User’s Guide in the existing zoning bylaw, (viii) the need to directly confront the political nature of zoning, and (ix) the potential consideration of a Development Approval Information Bylaw for impact assessment during rezoning.Applied Science, Faculty ofCommunity and Regional Planning (SCARP), School ofUnreviewedGraduat