Public hearings are an integral part of land-use planning and regulation. As the Local Government Act puts it, before a municipality or regional district adopts an official community plan, a zoning bylaw, or a bylaw providing for the early termination of land-use contracts, it must (subject to a handful of exceptions) hold “a public hearing on the bylaw for the purpose of allowing the public to make representations to the local government respecting matters contained in the proposed bylaw.”

BCLI has just started a project to research (1) the origins of this requirement in the Local Government Act and of the use of public hearings in land-use planning and regulation; (2) how this legislation has been interpreted and developed in the case law; and (3) the goals and purposes, and advantages and disadvantages, of this legislation. The project’s objective is to produce a study paper, which will be used to support a broader project called the Renovate the Public Hearing Project, which is being carried out by the Strengthening Canadian Democracy Initiative, Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University. The Public Hearings Project was made possible by funding from the Law Foundation of British Columbia.