Land use planning in British Columbia: An evaluation of the Lillooet Land and Resource Management Plan

Planners increasingly rely on collaborative planning models that engage stakeholders to develop plans through consensus-based negotiations. While support for using collaborative planning models is growing, evaluation of their effectiveness is in its infancy. This paper reports on a case study evaluation of an innovative collaborative planning process to prepare a strategic land use plan for a region in British Columbia, Canada using a multiple criteria evaluation method. The study reveals that the collaborative planning process generated important benefits including improved relationships and understanding even though it did not result in consensus agreement on a plan. The outcome also shows that that the plan did not result in consensus because there was a lack of trust and commitment to the process that was reinforced by development of separate coalitions that developed their own competing plans. In addition, an unrealistic timeline was imposed that led to a final offer selection process that reinforced the differences among stakeholders.