Now comes the challenge for Metro Vancouver to make its many regional plans a reality, says its former chair.

Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, who announced last fall she would be stepping down as chair of the regional district, said she's pleased a plethora of new long-term goals and strategies are complete, but it's going to take a lot of hard work to see them through over the next few years.

"We accomplished so much. We did all those huge studies, but now it will be up to others to take a turn. It can be very gruelling, but I was happy to be a part of the challenge," said Jackson.

Last month, Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore was acclaimed as the new chair of Metro Vancouver's board of directors, which consists of elected officials representing 24 local governments, including Delta and the Tsawwassen First Nation.

Jackson, who has been mayor of Delta since 1999, was named chair of the regional district (when it was still called the Greater Vancouver Regional District) in 2005. Unlike provincial or municipal elections, she had to win the job annually. Sometimes she was acclaimed but other times she had to fend off challengers.

"I found it very gratifying to know that during my time as chair the directors worked very, very hard for the benefit of people who live in the region," she said. "Anytime I asked anyone to help or to take on chair or a position of trust, I was happy to see all the mayors come forward and help wherever they could. It was a wonderful experience to work with people like that.

"It takes a lot of patience to move forward with that many municipalities, who all have councils, so it takes a good amount of effort to ensure we are building consensus and working toward a common goal."

She was the first woman to hold the top post in the organization, which started in 1967 when less than one million people lived in the Lower Mainland. There are now 2.3 million in the region's boundaries, a number expected to grow sharply in the coming decades.

When she was first elected chair, Jackson said it was a critical time in terms of planning. It's why she oversaw several new or restructured committees focusing on environmental, agricultural and transportation issues.

Even before she became chair, the board, in 2001, decided to base its land use and air quality planning on sustainability principles. The following year, it expanded that to make sustainability the central tenet of all its activities.

Over the years a number of regional plans were updated: Affordable Housing Strategy, Drinking Water Management Plan, Ecological Health Action Plan, Integrated Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Management Plan, Integrated Liquid Waste and Resource Management Plan, Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan, Regional Food System Strategy, Regional Growth Strategy and a new Regional Parks Plan.

Jackson sometimes expressed frustration at the slow rate of how some of the plans - solid waste and regional growth, in particular - were being updated, but now all the key documents to help shape the growth of the region are completed.

Jackson said she was pleased that directors, for the most part, put aside their differences and agendas.

"It's not been lost on me that when we see 'Best City in the World' stories and Vancouver has come up time and time again. But it's not just the City of Vancouver, it is the Lower Mainland and many people who fly into this area think the region is Vancouver city, but it's quite small compared to the whole region.

"It has happened, I think, through the diligence of not only in the past six years but prior to that, to ensure that we have good green space, space for industry and ensuring that we hang on to the agricultural land, as opposed to individual councils simply bulldozing ahead with whatever they want."

sgyarmati@delta-optimist.com