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513 Requirement To Provide Land For New Highway Or Widening Existing Highway

In This Volume

513 (1) An approving officer may require that the owner of the land being subdivided provide, without compensation, a portion of that land for highway use as referred to in subsection (2).

  • (2) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), the land required under this section must not be greater than the following:
  • (a) for a highway within the subdivision, 20 metres in depth;
  • (b) for widening an existing local highway that borders or is within the subdivision, the lesser of
    • (i) 10 metres in depth, and
    • (ii) the difference between the current width of a local highway and 20 metres.
  • (3) If the approving officer considers that, due to terrain and soil conditions, a roadway of a width of 8 metres cannot, within the 20-metre limit referred to in subsection (2), be adequately supported, protected or drained, the approving officer may determine that the owner provide, without compensation, land of a greater width than that referred to in subsection (2)(a) or (b) that, in the approving officer’s opinion, would permit the local highway to be supported, protected or drained.
  • (4) The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations specifying a different amount of land under subsection (2) or (3) for different local governments and different classes of local governments.

1985-79-8; 1987-14-51; RSBC 2015-1-513, effective January 1, 2016 (B.C. Reg. 257/2015); 2024-11-18.

CASE LAW

Section 945 (now s. 513) of the Local Government Act does not provide an independent, alternative basis for requiring dedication of land within a subdivision for highway purposes. Rather, it limits the ability of the approving officer to require dedication of land without compensation. Section 945 interacts with ss. 75(1) and 85(3) of the Land Title Act, which require that the approving officer consider whether a highway is required to provide necessary and reasonable access and whether dedication is in the public interest (Kaim Developments Ltd. v. Mott, 2009 BCSC 250, affirmed 2010 BCCA 240). See also the annotation for this decision under s. 75 of the Land Title Act in chapter 7 (Land Title Act Part 7 (ss. 58 to 120)—Descriptions and Plans)).