PLANNING CONTEXT

The South Okanagan RGS was initiated in 2004 and is the product of several years of wide ranging consultation and development, drawing heavily from the knowledge and expertise of south Okanagan residents, professionals and elected officials.

Adoption of the RGS involved several rounds of revisions and modification. It was developed over three phases and had First and Second Readings on June 21, 2007. The Draft RGS Bylaw was then re-read on January 10, 2008, October 16, 2008 and on October 22, 2009. The final Bylaw was adopted on April 1, 2010 and adopted again on September 15, 2011 with a minor amendment that included a section on greenhouse gas reductions as mandated by new Provincial legislation.  Archive Link:  Bylaw 2421, 2011 Schedule A

Regional Context Statements for RDOS member governments were developed and adopted beginning with the Town of Osoyoos in July 2011, the Town of Oliver in October 2011, and both the City of Penticton and the District of Summerland in July 2012.  Town of Oliver updated their Regional Context Statement in January 2017.

The Local Government Act requires local governments to review their regional growth strategies for possible amendment at least once every five years. As 2015 marked five years since the RGS was adopted, the RDOS conducted a review of the RGS to determine whether the RGS required updating, and should it require updating, whether a “minor” or “major” update of the RGS was required.

A consultant team was engaged to conduct the preliminary review with senior planning staff from RDOS, the City of Penticton, the District of Summerland, and the Town of Osoyoos, who functioned as a project Steering Committee for the project. Based on the review, it was determined that there were significant opportunities to reorganize and improve the organization and structure of the RGS and to revise and edit policies to improve clarity and reduce redundancy.

The study findings were brought forward to the RDOS Board for their consideration with the understanding that the revisions would be accommodated through a “minor amendment” revision process, as outlined in the Local Government Act. The Board made the recommendation to proceed with the minor amendment in December 2015 and the project to carry out the work was launched in June 2016 and completed in October 2016.  The Board adopted the updated RGS, Bylaw No. 2770, 2017, at its January 19, 2017 meeting.

Link to Bylaw 2770,2017