Regional Land Use Designation (RLUD)

Regional land use designations are an important tool to achieving the five goals set out in the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy, Metro 2050. They establish a long-term regional land use framework and provide the basis for defining land use matters of regional significance. It strikes a balance between setting out the regional land use interest and providing municipalities the flexibility to meet local land use objectives. The six regional land use designations are general urban, industrial, employment, agricultural, rural, and conservation and recreation.

The six regional land use designations are general urban, industrial, employment, agricultural, rural, and conservation and recreation.

General Urban lands are intended for residential neighbourhoods and centres that are supported by shopping, services, institutions, recreational facilities, and parks. Within General Urban lands, commercial, employment, and residential developed should be focused in Urban Centres and Frequent Transit Development Areas.

Industrial lands are intended for heavy and light industrial activities, including such uses as: distribution, warehousing, repair, construction yards, infrastructure, outdoor storage, wholesale, manufacturing, trade, e-commerce, emerging technology-driven forms of industry, and appropriately related and scaled accessory uses. Limited industrial-serving commercial uses that support the pr​imary industrial functions are appropriate. Residential uses are not intended.

​​​Employment lands are intended for light industrial, commercial, and other employment-related uses to help meet the needs of local and regional economic activities.

​Rural lands are intended to protect the existing character, landscapes, and environmental qualities of rural communities outside the Urban Containment Boundary. Land uses in these areas include low-density forms of residential, agricultural, and small-scale commercial, industrial, or institutional uses, that do not require the provision of urban services such as regional sewerage services or transit. Rural lands are not intended as future urban development areas.

​Agricultural lands are intended for agricultural production and agriculture-related uses that are compatible with farming operations and that directly support the local agricultural industry. Agricultural lands reinforce the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve and local land use plans that protect the region's agricultural land base.

​​Conservation and Recreation lands, are intended to protect significant ecological and recreation assets including such uses as: drinking water supply areas, environmental conservation areas, wildlife management areas and ecological reserves, forests, wetlands, riparian areas, major parks and outdoor recreation areas, and other ecosystems that may be vulnerable to climate change and natural hazard impacts.​​

Metro Vancouver, Last updated August 2025

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Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated March 24, 2026, 22:48 (UTC)
Created March 24, 2026, 22:48 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title
Title for the Dataset.
Regional Land Use Designation (RLUD)
Description
A description of the dataset.

Regional land use designations are an important tool to achieving the five goals set out in the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy, Metro 2050. They establish a long-term regional land use framework and provide the basis for defining land use matters of regional significance. It strikes a balance between setting out the regional land use interest and providing municipalities the flexibility to meet local land use objectives. The six regional land use designations are general urban, industrial, employment, agricultural, rural, and conservation and recreation.

The six regional land use designations are general urban, industrial, employment, agricultural, rural, and conservation and recreation.

General Urban lands are intended for residential neighbourhoods and centres that are supported by shopping, services, institutions, recreational facilities, and parks. Within General Urban lands, commercial, employment, and residential developed should be focused in Urban Centres and Frequent Transit Development Areas.

Industrial lands are intended for heavy and light industrial activities, including such uses as: distribution, warehousing, repair, construction yards, infrastructure, outdoor storage, wholesale, manufacturing, trade, e-commerce, emerging technology-driven forms of industry, and appropriately related and scaled accessory uses. Limited industrial-serving commercial uses that support the pr​imary industrial functions are appropriate. Residential uses are not intended.

​​​Employment lands are intended for light industrial, commercial, and other employment-related uses to help meet the needs of local and regional economic activities.

​Rural lands are intended to protect the existing character, landscapes, and environmental qualities of rural communities outside the Urban Containment Boundary. Land uses in these areas include low-density forms of residential, agricultural, and small-scale commercial, industrial, or institutional uses, that do not require the provision of urban services such as regional sewerage services or transit. Rural lands are not intended as future urban development areas.

​Agricultural lands are intended for agricultural production and agriculture-related uses that are compatible with farming operations and that directly support the local agricultural industry. Agricultural lands reinforce the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve and local land use plans that protect the region's agricultural land base.

​​Conservation and Recreation lands, are intended to protect significant ecological and recreation assets including such uses as: drinking water supply areas, environmental conservation areas, wildlife management areas and ecological reserves, forests, wetlands, riparian areas, major parks and outdoor recreation areas, and other ecosystems that may be vulnerable to climate change and natural hazard impacts.​​

Metro Vancouver, Last updated August 2025
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
6872.0
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2024-10-07
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
public
License
License used to access the dataset.
Open Government License
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://open-data-portal-metrovancouver.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/metrovancouver::regional-land-use-designation-rlud
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
mvagoladmin
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Metro Vancouver
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
[email protected]
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Metro Vancouver
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
Author
Author of the dataset.
mvagoladmin
Author Email
Email of the author.
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
2025-09-19
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
e9b6186de5ed4cc3ac74902d7ce96297
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
English
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
https://open-data-portal-metrovancouver.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/metrovancouver::regional-land-use-designation-rlud
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
Field Value
Version
Version of the datatset
None
Source
Source of the dataset.
None
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Metro Vancouver
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
1766
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
10
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
17660
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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