As 2025 nears its end, it’s time for us to look back on our most memorable highlights of this year.
We began 2025 with a sense of excitement, as January marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the City of Abbotsford following the 1995 amalgamation of the Districts of Matsqui and Abbotsford. This major milestone for our community caused us to reflect upon how far we’ve come and where we see ourselves going in the next 30 years.
Over the past year we’ve been proud to continue building on the work we started in 2022 to fulfill our vision of Abbotsford as the cultural and economic Hub of the Fraser Valley.
One of the most important projects for this year was updating our Official Community Plan, through the Abbotsforward 2050 project. The Official Community Plan, or OCP, is our principal land planning document that will guide our city’s growth and development over the next 25 years. And our community is certainly growing. This year we approved development applications for 1,257 housing units and permitted building permits for a further 1,452 units.
This year we also opened a new park, adopted the Master Plan for Mill Lake Park and hosted the provincial launch event for BC Culture Days. We made key upgrades to Abbotsford International Airport and the Barrowtown Pump Station and put in place new initiatives like curbside glass recycling, arts and culture grants, a commercial truck parking strategy and a community accessibility plan. We’ve compiled these achievements and more into our year-end list of the Top 25 of ’25.
While we got a lot of work done in 2025, we can’t take all the credit. It’s important that we acknowledge the work of our community members and our partners in the local business and nonprofit sectors for their collaboration and support over the past year. The decisions we make at the Council table affect all Abbotsford residents, and we are proud of all we have accomplished by working together. But there is still more to be done.
Looking ahead to 2026, we are in our final year of our four-year Council mandate. It’s been an honour for us to serve as your City Council for the past three years, and we are looking forward to capping off our term with another productive year dedicated to improving the quality of life in our community and making Abbotsford a destination for people looking to build a life, start a business and raise a family.
Abbotsford’s first 30 years as a city are now behind us. As your Council, we’re excited to do our part to make sure the City’s next 30 years get off to the right start. In the meantime, check out the Top 25 of ’25 at abbotsford.ca/top25.
Abbotsford City Council