| Abstract/Description or Keywords |
The Valemount area is a region of beautiful scenery, significant natural resources, and recreational amenities. It is also an area on the brink of significant potential growth and expansion. Two major resort proposals are currently in the planning stages. If built to full capacity these would nearly double the population of the area. The land area surrounding Valemount already supports significant winter recreational use. As the area becomes increasingly recognized and developed as a four-season resort area, the recreational and commercial use of mid and backcountry areas will also increase. Given the probable growth of the Valemount area and all the resulting subsequent pressures of increased land demand and settlement infrastructure on the valley floor, and the increased public and commercial use of mid and backcountry areas, there is an urgent need to examine probable growth-related impacts and to develop appropriate planning responses. As the Village of Valemount has attempted to diversify its economic base, it has become clear that the Village’s economy is directly tied to the use and management of the Crown lands surrounding the Village. Likewise, the demands and use of Crown land and resources in the region are directly impacted by the growth and development activities of the Village and its residents. Recognizing this interdependency and the need for a strategic and integrative approach to land and resource management in the region, the Village, Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management (MSRM), and Land and Water British Columbia (LWBC), agreed to undertake a Valemount and Area Integrated Land Use Development Plan (VILUDP) for the area. These four agencies, representing the three levels of government in British Columbia, are the major agencies responsible for determining, managing, and regulating land use in the area. The major objectives of the VILUDP are to examine and determine the most appropriate actions to undertake in order to manage growth-related impacts, and to ensure that land and resource use in the area reflects the Village’s development aspirations. In order to effectively implement the final VILUDP; the four partner agencies will incorporate the recommendations of the final VILUDP into their own separate formal land and resource planning processes. This paper has been prepared to help inform the preparation and completion of the VILUDP. It will also be used by MSRM and LWBC respectively in their Sustainable Resource Management Planning and Crown Land Plan planning processes. Planning for the integration of many different resource values is important in order to establish a balance for all concerned. Maintaining the integrity of the landscape and protecting those values that attracted users in the first place is part of that balance. Therefore the first step of any such planning process should be to identify the unique and important resource values that exist on the landscape, and then to identify, establish, and rationalize any conservation and management strategies that should be put in place to maintain those values through time. This, then, is the purpose of this document. |
