Terrace 2050: Corporate and Community Sustainability Plan

The City of Terrace used the scheduled 2009 review of its Official Plan to incorporate sustainability principles into its plans and policies by producing a corporate and community sustainability strategy, Terrace 2050. The city desired a longer-term vision to replace short-term, fragmented, and often reactive planning. As a resource-dependent community increasingly vulnerable to global market fluctuations, the city knew it needed to develop proactive approaches to energy, food security, transportation, housing, waste management and recycling, economic development, urban community design and heritage. All of those aspects were considered for Terrace 2050, with the final priorities determined through community input and engagement. In the first phase — a multi-day community visioning kickoff, complemented by corporate visioning and internal target-setting — the focus was narrowed to priority problems. In phase two, key staff conducted in-depth consultations with stakeholder groups specific to each of the identified priority areas. A series of open houses were set up to present the resulting draft vision, targets and strategies. These provided the opportunity for community feedback both in person and online. Terrace had already shown its commitment to the initiative by creating a full-time Sustainability Coordinator position and then forming partnerships with the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine, the Terrace Make Children First Network and the Terrace Economic Development Authority.