City staff is preparing a plan on how to manage development of the Woodgrove area as its own 'complete community.'
Under the Nanaimo ReImagined city plan, six secondary urban centres have been identified, each to be designed as a complete hub within the city with housing, employment, services and amenities intended to meet day-to-day requirements for residents to help avoid the need to travel outside the urban centre.
The City of Nanaimo and the Regional District of Nanaimo started studying the Woodgrove urban hub’s potential as a secondary urban centre in 2023, and again when the B.C. government’s housing density legislation, enacted later that year as part of provincial Bill 47, identified transit-oriented areas – a concept similar to secondary urban centres.
At a council meeting Monday, Jan. 20, staff presented its report on how the area plan for the Woodgrove secondary urban centre was coming along.
“The plan will build off the high-level vision the community already identified … What they envisioned is for the area to become a mixed-use centre with an integrated mix of commercial, residential, recreation and culture components,” said Kasia Biegun, community planner. “What we planners like to call ‘complete communities.’ What everybody else calls a really great place to live and enjoy.”
The plan, when completed, is intended to provide direction on how to best integrate land use, transportation, infrastructure and amenity needs for the area and provide guidance for transportation and infrastructure upgrades that could be needed due to future development.
The plan will come together in four phases starting with a baseline assessment of the area’s supply of housing, office space and employment capacity; transportation network and transit capacity; sewer and water infrastructure; and access to parks, recreation, culture and wellness facilities. Data gathered from the studies and public consultation for the baseline assessment will help inform the projected demands for those criteria.
The second and third phases will develop a best-case scenario with supporting policies, design guidelines, actions, and monitoring framework – also with rounds of public consultation – that will help formulate a Woodgrove urban centre assessment report.
Preparing the Woodgrove area plan from the data gleaned from the earlier phases will be the fourth phase of the project, which will include policies around land use, transportation, infrastructure and access to day-to-day needs, area mapping, and form and character guidelines.
“A broad engagement strategy is proposed that includes residents, employees, businesses and land owners of the scope area, as well as participants from the broader community,” Biegun said.
The project launched in January and is scheduled to be completed in the first three months of 2026.
