2)Regulation of Land Use
THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Please offer suggestions and critiques but do not rely on the accuracy of its content yet.
The use of land in British Columbia is regulated by laws that allow and/or require certain plans, rules and permits.
There are different requirements for private versus Crown (public) land and for different types of use. The general framework consists of:
- government’s strategic plans and sub-plans or bylaws
- proponent’s plan or application for certain activities
- government-issued permit
Regulation of Private Land
Generally, private land owners do not require government authorization to use their land. However, there are circumstances that require local government approval:
- Building permit (and/or development permit) from a municipality or a regional district
- Subdivision approval from a municipality or from the Ministry of Transportation.
Applications for building/development permits and subdivision approvals must be consistent with the municipality’s or regional district’s zoning bylaws. Zoning bylaws are legal rules based on the local government’s official community plan.
Resource use
- Cutting and remove trees from private land requires a timber mark from a forest district of the Ministry of Forest and Range. In rare cases, the Crown retains ownership of the trees (the timber mark process will establish tree ownership) and a licence to cut timber would then be required.
- Most private land ownership excludes minerals, oil and gas. Those are Crown resources requiring a mining or oil and gas tenure from the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources
Regulation of Crown Land
Use of public land other than recreational uses requires some form of government authorization. Authorization takes the form of a permit and/or licence which is issued under various forms of legislation. Proponents of certain large scale land uses are required by law to prepare and seek government approval of a plan that is consistent with government strategic plan(s).
Strategic plans = LRMP & SRMP
Proponent plans = Forest Stewardship Plan, Ski Area Master Plan …
Permits/licences = Forest Licence & cutting permit, Licence of Occupation …
Posted by Bob Mitchell, 11 March 2011, 10:21
The way it reads now is that all recreation does not require authorization. Which is not true. Also; It would be useful for Valley Vision to have maps or links to maps of the recreational areas that have legal recreation authorization and management agreements.