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However, in a recent formal joint letter sent to the regional district’s board of directors, on behalf of their respective municipal governments, Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke, Delta Mayor George Harvie, and Langley Township Mayor Eric Woodward are requesting that the regional district begin the process to relax some of the tighter UCB restrictions outlined in the 2023-approved Metro 2050 plan.

They state that due to the way the Metro 2050 plan was written, it is “obstructing our collective ability to plan for and deliver the housing, employment land and critical services our rapidly growing South-of-the-Fraser communities require.”

First, the three mayors suggest modernizing the UCB so that it can be extended into areas that are not part of the provincial government’s protected Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) or environmentally sensitive zones, can be served by existing or already planned infrastructure, and will support compact, transit-oriented, and complete communities.

Second, it recommends making the approval process for certain expansions faster and simpler. Currently, changing the UCB can be slow, confusing, and requires a two-thirds majority vote on the regional district’s board of directors, which is comprised of the region’s mayors and select city councillors. Under their proposed policy revisions, UCB expansions that meet the new criteria — or are located in a designated “Special Study Area” — would be processed as a Type 3 amendment, needing only a simple majority vote of just over 50 per cent to pass.

Finally, the proposal calls for giving municipal governments more flexibility to make minor adjustments to the UCB without going through the full amendment process. Small, site-specific changes that align with a municipality’s Official Community Plan (OCP) and regional objectives could be made simply by notifying the regional district, avoiding unnecessary delays and bureaucracy.

But under Metro 2050, which was previously approved by all municipal governments and the regional district’s board of directors, the strategy for accommodating the region’s growth needs is to achieve 98 per cent of future urban growth within the existing UCB area.

For decades, Surrey and Langley Township have seen immense urban growth within the UCB, accounting for a much higher proportion of Metro Vancouver’s overall population now and likely well into the future. For this reason, the three mayors state they need more land to accommodate continued growth.

“South-of-the-Fraser municipalities will accommodate the largest share of the region’s future population and job growth — yet only a fraction of developable lands lie within the existing UCB. The status quo is untenable; persisting with it will deepen the region’s housing shortage, constrain industrial expansion, and undermine transportation investments,” reads their letter.

“We recognize the importance of a coordinated regional approach and remain committed to working with Metro Vancouver and our regional partners. However, this commitment must be balanced with a system that is adaptive, equitable, and supports the practical realities of fast-growing communities.”

All three cities account for a significant share of the region’s remaining available industrial land, much of which is constrained from expanding by the ALR. As Metro Vancouver faces a worsening shortage of industrial land — a challenge that threatens the region’s economy and has already driven some businesses to relocate to Calgary in search of more available and affordable space — there is mounting pressure to convert portions of the ALR adjacent to industrial zones for new industrial uses, particularly in areas where traditional agricultural/farm uses are not viable.

In recent years, this has been the subject of much contention, especially with South Campbell Heights — a 2.2 sq. km. (552 acres) southward expansion of the Campbell Heights industrial area, which was initiated by the City of Surrey and required the regional district to expand the UCB.

All three cities account for a combined total land area of about 803 sq. km., including 180 sq. km. for the City of Delta, 316 sq. km. for the City of Surrey, and 307 sq. km. for the Township of Langley.

By purely total land area, all three jurisdictions are among the largest municipalities in Metro Vancouver, but they also have some of the highest proportions of land where urban growth is not possible — areas within the UCB.

For instance, with 316 sq. km. within Langley Township’s jurisdiction, just 19 per cent of this land is within the UCB, and the remaining 81 per cent is deemed rural, with highly protected ALR uses. Furthermore, these areas where urban growth can occur in Langley Township largely hug the Surrey and City of Langley borders, with two main UCB areas and a handful of smaller pockets elsewhere in the jurisdiction.

The Metro 2050 plan has been a sticking point for the City of Surrey. In early 2025, Surrey City Council unanimously voted to remove their jurisdiction from the new regional growth strategy, taking issue with how it does not align with the rapidly growing municipality’s needs and priorities.

Linda Hepner, the BC Conservative Party’s MLA for Surrey-Serpentine River and Opposition Housing Critic, and the former Surrey mayor, is also supporting a relaxation of the UCB in these jurisdictions and elsewhere in the province.

She is urging the BC NDP-led provincial government to review the “outdated” UCB, invest in new infrastructure to unlock development on these new lands, and prioritize the development of affordable, ground-oriented housing sized for families.

“The NDP’s plan is not working for working families. We need to open up new land to build new towns with ground-oriented, family-friendly housing that young British Columbians can afford. That means reviewing urban containment boundaries and investing in infrastructure to make it happen,” said Hepner in a statement last week.

“We cannot fix this crisis by jamming more high-rises into existing neighbourhoods. We need to build new communities for the next generation with affordable ground-oriented housing — or we will lose our young, working people to Alberta and Ontario.”

The former mayor of Surrey cited a recent study by Chapman University in California that analyzed the housing markets in 95 urban regions in eight countries — including Metro Vancouver — and found that “urban containment” policies such as greenbelts, urban growth boundaries, and densification initiatives often result in severe land shortages and skyrocketing prices.” Furthermore, the study asserted that restrictive zoning and planning regulations limit housing supply, inflating land values and pricing many households out of the market.

Hepner suggests the BC NDP-led provincial government’s housing policies that catalyze small residential units in condominium and apartment buildings are not suitable for 30 and 40-year-olds looking to raise children and establish their families.

Urban containments were also recently the subject of much contention in southern Ontario, when Premier Doug Ford proposed removing 30 sq. km. (7,400 acres) — equivalent to an area 2.6 times larger than the size of the entire land base of the Metro Vancouver region — out of the UCB-like Greenbelt reserve, while also adding 38 sq. km. (9,400 acres) of other land into this protected area where urban development is not permitted. But Ford later backed off on the plan due to a political controversy.

It is often under-appreciated just how significantly small Metro Vancouver is in terms of its land area, especially in the context of North America’s major metropolitan areas. This is, of course, due to the region being framed by the Strait of Georgia, the mountains, the Canada-U.S. border, and the Fraser Valley Regional District.

Metro Vancouver, encompassing 21 municipal governments, has a total land area of only about 2,880 sq. km., which is just 40 per cent the size of Greater Toronto (7,125 sq. km.), 68 per cent of Greater Montreal (4,258 sq. km.), 19 per cent of Greater Seattle (15,200 sq. km.), 56 per cent of Greater Calgary (5,100 sq. km.), 31 per cent of Greater Edmonton (9,415 sq. km.), and 36 per cent of Greater Ottawa (8,050 sq. km.). All the while, Metro Vancouver is Canada’s third most populated metropolitan region.

When factoring in the UCB, Metro Vancouver’s size is even smaller, limited to the designated urban growth areas where people can live and work.

As of 2016, with relatively very limited changes since then, such as the creation of South Campbell Heights, Metro Vancouver had 554 sq. km. of protected ALR under provincial policy, 1,347 sq. km. safeguarded for conservation and recreational uses (including the reservoir watersheds in the North Shore mountains, regional parks, floodplains, marshlands, and other ecologically sensitive areas, 114 sq. km. as rural areas, and 136 sq. km. for industrial and mixed-use employment uses, and 701 sq. km. for other urban uses, including where people live.

The combined urban, industrial, and mixed-use employment areas of Metro Vancouver total 837 sq. km. — areas that are inside the UCB. This is not much bigger than the entire City of Toronto’s land area of 631 sq. km.

But the broader Lower Mainland area — Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley combined — is substantially larger. Fraser Valley Regional District has a land area of 13,360 sq. km. — over 4.6 times larger than the size of Metro Vancouver Regional District. However, the overwhelming majority of its land base is protected ALR, mountains, and naturalized and other areas deemed to be environmentally sensitive.

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