The City of North Vancouver Council will review a staff report at its upcoming March 30, 2026, meeting that asks members to direct staff to respond to Metro Vancouver’s request for feedback on proposed changes to the region’s long-standing urban growth boundaries.
A report from the City of North Vancouver staff dated March 23, 2026, recommends that Council direct staff to request more information before the city takes any formal position on four proposed amendments to the Metro 2050 Regional Growth Strategy.
The consultation stems from a June 2025 letter in which the mayors of Surrey, the Township of Langley, and Delta argued that Metro 2050’s current framework is blocking their ability to plan for housing, employment land, and services in rapidly growing South of the Fraser communities. Metro Vancouver developed four amendment options in response and is now seeking feedback from member municipalities.
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What the South of the Fraser Mayors Are Asking For
The mayors of Surrey, the Township of Langley, and Delta made three specific requests in their June 2025 letter, according to the staff report. They asked Metro Vancouver to redefine and modernize the Urban Containment Boundary to allow contiguous extensions, to reclassify qualifying boundary expansions as less restrictive Type 3 amendments, and to introduce a streamlined process for minor boundary realignments.
The Urban Containment Boundary has been a cornerstone of regional land use planning since 1996. Staff noted the boundary was established under the Livable Region Strategic Plan, reaffirmed in Metro 2040 in 2011, and maintained again when Metro 2050 was adopted in 2023.
Any changes to how the boundary can be amended would require a Type 1 amendment to Metro 2050 — the most significant category, which requires a weighted majority vote of the Metro Vancouver Regional District Board and unanimous endorsement from all affected local governments, the staff report noted.
North Vancouver Wants More Answers First
According to the staff report, they will be recommending that the city tell Metro Vancouver it does not yet have enough information to assess the implications, particularly around regional servicing costs and how those costs would be shared across member municipalities.
Staff noted it remains unclear how much land the South of the Fraser mayors want brought inside the boundary or what land use changes would follow. Without that detail, the city cannot assess the potential impact on regional development cost charges for services not currently planned in those areas.
If council approves the recommendation, staff will send a response stating that North Vancouver supports Metro 2050’s goals of compact, complete communities — but that changes to the Urban Containment Boundary should be considered during a future regional growth strategy process.
According to the staff report, that approach would allow the full range of impacts, including effects on housing, transportation, natural systems, climate action, and infrastructure costs, to be properly studied before any decisions are made.
