4.1 Growth Management
One of the key challenges evident in both SEQ and the Metro Vancouver Region is growth management, and ensuring that both regions can cater to their rapidly expanding populations. Both regions have had a tendency towards a low-density, dispersed settlement pattern, causing a number of urban sprawl related challenges (SEQRP, 2009-2031; MVRGS, 2011). The key theme established across both regions and their regional planning strategies highlight an aim to work towards compact urban development and the creation of well-planned communities that can be supported by a number of convenient centers and transit corridors (see Appendix 4 & 5)
In the Metro Vancouver Region, the issue of growth management is the primary concept behind the regional planning objectives. The MVRGS establishes the first goal of creating a compact urban area (see Appendix 4).This goal is achieved through reducing sprawl, expanding infrastructure smartly, creating urban areas well serviced by multi-modes of transport and by focusing development to a higher density that optimizes a constrained urban land base (MVRGS, 2011). In order to establish a constrained urban land base, the MVRGS details the
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Similar to the MVRGS Urban Containment Boundary, this direction of growth is evident in the SEQRP through the establishment of Identified Growth Areas (IGAs). These IGAs see existing community infrastructure being utilised to establish higher density with strong transport linkages. These IGAs are not necessarily required to accommodate projected growth to 2031, but they assist in considering future urban development (SEQRP,