Chilliwack is growing, and with that growth comes important conversations about housing, land use, transportation, infrastructure, and the future of our community.
At our May Chamber Connections, hosted at the Chilliwack Curling Club, City of Chilliwack staff from the Planning and Development departments shared an overview of where Chilliwack has been, where it is today, and where it is headed through the new Chilliwack 2050 Official Community Plan.
The presentation gave attendees a closer look at how the City is planning for growth, responding to development pressures, and working to create a thoughtful framework for Chilliwack’s future.
Planning for a Growing Community
The City’s Planning Department plays a key role in guiding how Chilliwack grows. This includes decisions around land use, housing density, development permits, transportation, utilities, and the overall look and feel of new projects.
At the centre of this work is the Official Community Plan, often called the OCP. This document acts as a roadmap for Chilliwack’s future, helping guide long-term decisions about where people will live, work, travel, and gather.
Chilliwack’s geography also plays a major role in how growth can happen. A significant portion of the city’s land is within the Agricultural Land Reserve, and there are also flood hazard areas, seismic risk zones, and First Nations reserves within and around the city. These realities shape where development can take place and how carefully it must be planned.
Who Is Moving to Chilliwack?
Chilliwack has now surpassed 110,000 residents, and the way the city is growing has changed over time.
In the past, much of Chilliwack’s growth came from young families already living here. Today, growth is increasingly driven by people moving to Chilliwack from other parts of British Columbia and beyond.
Many of these newcomers are in the family-building stage of life, which is reflected in the city’s changing demographics. Chilliwack is seeing growth among residents aged 30 to 45, as well as children and youth between 5 and 19.
This shift has a direct impact on housing, schools, childcare, recreation, transportation, and community services.
Introducing Chilliwack 2050
The City’s updated Official Community Plan, known as Chilliwack 2050, was designed to simplify and modernize how growth is managed.
The update was community-driven and included surveys, one-on-one conversations, pop-up engagement events, and even a creative “pizza party” format where residents could host policy conversations at home.
One of the major goals of Chilliwack 2050 was to make planning easier to understand and more consistent. The City consolidated multiple neighbourhood plans into one document, reduced hundreds of policy statements, and streamlined land use categories.
The plan also introduces a broader “development area” concept that includes hillside neighbourhoods, employment lands, and First Nations communities. This reflects the reality that growth is not happening only within traditional municipal boundaries.
What Is Being Built?
Most new development in Chilliwack is happening along the Yale Road and South Yale Road corridor. This area holds a large share of the city’s population on a relatively small portion of land.
Housing is also changing. While single-detached homes are still part of the housing mix, more multi-family homes, apartments, townhouses, and mixed-use developments are being built.
A growing share of new housing is also being developed on First Nations land, which is becoming an increasingly important part of the region’s overall housing supply.
Recent and upcoming projects include seniors housing, nonprofit housing, mixed-use buildings, downtown commercial development, recreation facilities, industrial projects, and large-scale residential developments.
Together, these projects show how Chilliwack is becoming more diverse in the types of housing and services available to residents.
Streamlining Development
City staff also shared how Chilliwack is responding to new provincial housing requirements and development pressures.
This includes updates related to small-scale housing, short-term rentals, housing targets, development permit approvals, and incentives for more three-bedroom units, which have been identified as a gap in the local housing market.
The City is also looking ahead at future updates related to childcare, agri-tourism, small housing implementation, and the overall development approval process.
The goal is to make the process more efficient while still ensuring development is thoughtful and aligned with the needs of the community.
Looking Ahead
Chilliwack’s growth story is about more than new buildings. It is about how a community manages change.
As more people choose to call Chilliwack home, the City is working to balance the needs of long-time residents, newcomers, rural landowners, urban developers, municipal government, and First Nations partners.
The Chilliwack 2050 Official Community Plan provides the framework for that balance and will help guide the city’s decisions for decades to come.
As Chilliwack continues to grow, these conversations will remain important for residents, businesses, community leaders, and everyone invested in the future of our city.