‘Community’ and Land-Use Planning Debate: An Example from Rural British Columbia

Abstract

The expansion of urban areas both changes and displaces rural communities along the urban fringe. This is not a new phenomenon and geographic research has paid considerable attention to understanding these urbanization pressures. Previous research, however, has paid less attention to the implications of these pressures and changes on the preexisting rural community and almost no attention to the opposition which local residents may raise in efforts to protect their community from the disruption of change. This paper is about resistance. The example of Columbia Valley, a small rural agricultural area about one hour's drive east of Vancouver, British Columbia, is utilized to explore the opposition this community has mounted against two recent large-scale development proposals. Both proposals would have significantly changed the nature of the area and the local community. In both cases, the resistance mounted by this community played a key role in preventing the proposals from proceeding. Also, in both cases, the resistance was founded to a considerable degree upon residents' desire to protect the lifestyles and livelihoods currently existing within their local community. This rural activism suggests that residents are concerned about urbanization pressures and that local ideas of community and lifestyle may have some force in operationalizing public opposition to radical change.