Urban Design, Transportation and Physical Planning

Canadian municipalities have become increasingly concerned with growth management, including the designation of areas for new housing, new transportation infrastructure, and increased density along transit corridors. Municipal and regional growth policies often combine housing and transportation growth into specifi c areas or initiatives, such as transit-oriented development. As immigration is a major component of population growth in our cities, immigrants’ housing and transportation patterns are of particular importance in the development of growth management policy. Does immigration impact growth management policy? How might these policies affect immigrants’ housing and transportation choices in terms of affordability and transit-accessibility? This paper focuses on six British Columbia cities: Vancouver, Surrrey, Richmond, Kelowna, Kamloops, and Victoria. It reviews their Official Community Plan documents and supporting housing policy and transportation plan documents. The goal was to compare and discuss growth management policies, with a particular emphasis on the links between housing and transportation policy. The implications for immigrants in these six cities are then be discussed.