How Do We Practice Smart Growth?
Resources Funded by the Real Estate Foundation
The Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia funds non-profit research, public and professional education, and law reform activities that demonstrate responsible real estate and land use practices.

Recent Highlights

Coriolis Consulting Corp.; West Coast Environmental Law. Do Development Cost Charges Encourage Smart Growth and High Performance Building Design? Vancouver, 2003. www.wcel.org/resources/publications/
Includes a review of the legislative framework for calculating DCC's in British Columbia, an evaluation of the infrastructure cost savings that can be achieved by smart growth and high performance buildings, a review of current practices of municipalities, and conclusions on whether DCC's inadvertently subsidize certain forms or locations of urban development, plus recommendations on how to improve DCC practices.

Curran, Deborah; West Coast Environmental Law. A Case for Smart Growth. Vancouver, 2003. www.wcel.org/resources/publications/
Outlines what smart growth is and why it is of benefit to local governments. On the ground examples prove that lower infrastructure costs, increased housing and transportation choice, and safer streets are attainable. Part of the Smart Bylaws Guide, which is composed of seven interconnected tools.

Curran, Deborah; West Coast Environmental Law. Smart Bylaws - Summary. Vancouver, 2003. www.wcel.org/resources/publications/
Describes the basic elements of smart growth using case studies ranging from the regional and municipal scale to site and building scale. Provides an overview of the entire Smart Bylaws Guide and links from within the chapters take readers to more detailed online tools.

Maplewood Community Eco-Industrial Partnership/District of North Vancouver, British Columbia. The Maplewood Project: Sustainable Community Planning and Eco-Industrial Development Opportunities in a West Coast Community. www.maplewoodproject.org
Identifies practical ideas to integrate and enhance residential, commercial, and industrial land uses based on a Local Plan vision that embraces sustainability. Almost 30% of Maplewood is designated as Park or Open Space in the Local Plan. The centerpiece of the project was a design charrette that brought together design and planning experts, landowners, government agencies, and the District of North Vancouver. The final report will be available on the website by spring 2004.

Real Estate Institute of British Columbia. Input Magazine, Smart Growth on the Ground Special Edition, Summer 2003, Volume 24, Number 2.
Highlights the partnership activities of the UBC Sustainable Communities Program, Smart Growth BC, and REIBC. The partnership aims to assist three communities with the preparation and implementation of neighbourhood plans that are smarter and more sustainable. The intent is to broaden the program to include ten communities over ten years. (Project website: www.sgog.bc.ca)

This publication is available for purchase. The cost is $10 (including postage). To order, contact REIBC: www.reibc.org.

Von Hausen, Michael. Leading Edges: Alternative Development Standards in British Columbia Municipalities. Surrey, 2002.
Survey of 13 BC municipalities examines the progress of alternative development standards at the local level. The survey profiles the views of four different municipal departments: planning, engineering, parks, and risk management with respect to the existing barriers and solutions. The results illustrate ADS tool interrelationships, wide variations, and their added benefit when joined together.

This publication is available for purchase. The cost is $5 (pick up) or $8 (by mail). To order, contact the Land Centre: www.landcentre.ca.

 

Charrette Reports

City of Kelowna, Planning and Development Services. Highway 97/Springfield Town Centre Charrette. Kelowna, 1998.
www.landcentre.ca/docs/kelownacharrette/charrett.htm
The City of Kelowna adopted an Official Community Plan (OCP) in 1995 which sets out a growth strategy to direct future development and redevelopment in a way that will limit the expansion of urban sprawl, strengthen social and community life, and create an integrated and high quality urban environment.

The Highway 97/Springfield area of the city, however, has found it difficult to meet these desired objectives because its development has occurred at a relatively fast rate and in a fragmented manner. The purpose of the charrette was to visualize the creation of a sense of community where none now exists.

Condon, Patrick et al. Sustainable Urban Landscapes: The Surrey Design Charrette. Vancouver, 1996.
www.sustainable-communities.agsci.ubc.ca/projects/Surrey.html
Describes the results of the Surrey Design Charrette that was held in September of 1995 to demonstrate what neighborhoods and communities would look like if they were designed according to the requirements of sustainable development. Includes design options from four charrette teams.

 

Condon, Patrick et al. Sustainable Urban Landscapes: The Brentwood Design Charrette. Vancouver, 1999. www.sustainable-communities.agsci.ubc.ca/projects/Brentwood.html
Reports the results of a design charrette for a sustainable Brentwood Town Centre. Outlines the charrette's process and overviews the site's economic, social, and physical geography. Contains a detailed synopsis of the four team's options and subsequent recommendations, and a discussion of three issues that are central to sustainable community design in sites like the Brentwood Town Centre.

Harris Green Charrette Team and City of Victoria Planning Department. Harris Green Charrette. Victoria, 1997. www.landcentre.ca/docs/harris/harris.html
Describes the results of a charrette that examined the future development needs of Harris Green, an area found within the downtown core of Victoria. Features the ideas and preferences of local businesses, organizations and residents for a neighbourhood that is a complex blend of residential housing, commercial activity and green spaces.

 

Watershed Planning

Smailes, Angela. Millard/Piercy Watershed Management Plan 2001. Courtenay, 2001. www.landcentre.ca/foundation/community/millardpiercy/mpmain.html
Documents a community planning process that involved local and senior governments, local non-profit organizations, individual landowners, and other interested parties. Sets out short-term goals, strategies and action plans for implementing the management plan. Suitable for small cities surrounded by rural/agricultural land.

 

Workbooks

Architectural Institute of British Columbia, Architects in the Community. The Penticton Downtown Technical Charrette. Penticton, 1999. www.aibc.ca
The City of Penticton invited the AIBC to take visioning workshop concepts to the next level of resolution and to make specific recommendations to improve the viability and affordability of residential and mixed use developments in the Downtown. The charrette teams looked at zoning opportunities and urban design improvements to revitalize a more concentrated downtown core.

Fraser Valley Real Estate Board and the James Taylor Chair in Landscape and Liveable Environments. Alternative Development Standards for Sustainable Communities: Design Workbook. Surrey, 1998. www.sustainable-communities.agsci.ubc.ca/orderbody.html
The goal of the workshop was to propose and receive comment on detailed Alternative Development Standards that would be applicable to many rapidly growing Lower Mainland communities. The workbook illustrates cheaper, greener, smarter, alternative ways to design neighbourhoods.

 

Oldies but Goodies

Contact the Real Estate Foundation to obtain these publications.

Artibise, Alan F.J. et al. Complete Communities II: Pathways to Design and Implementation. Vancouver, 1996.
Provides an analysis of complete community planning in BC generally,and the Okanagan and Vancouver Island specifically. Six issues are identified as barriers to the implementation of new planning approaches and forms: community resistance, land availability, municipal standards and regulations, political will, development cost charges and fees, and the lack of financial incentives.

Hill, Jessie. Complete Communities: Achieving a New Way of Living Final Report. Vancouver, 1994.
Gives a brief overview of the concept of complete communities as discussed at three regional workshops: Lower Mainland, Okanagan, and Vancouver Island. Explores some of the practical and public policy implication and concludes with what may be some of the next steps in the discussion.

Urban Development Institute, Pacific Region. Back to the Future: Re-Designing our Landscapes With Form, Place & Density. Vancouver, 1993.
Looks at a broad number of integrated urban issues ranging from growth management and density to real estate economics and architecture. Includes a municipal survey documenting some of the trends that are shaping the metropolitan area. The critical trends include: excessive travel within the Lower Mainland region, no consensus on how to finance infrastructure fairly, lack of housing diversity, unwillingness to meet regional responsibilities.

 

Research

Hamilton, Stanley and Quayle, Moura. Corridors of GREEN & GOLD: Impact of Riparian Suburban Greenways on Property Values. Vancouver, 1999. www-heb.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/publications/pdf/241452.pdf
The research tests the general hypothesis that proximity to a greenway will have a positive impact on nearby property values. The economic focus is the application of multiple regression analysis to isolate the impact of greenways on property values. Property owners from four study areas in metropolitan Vancouver and Victoria areas were surveyed on their perceptions of the value of living next to a greenway.

 

Real Estate Development Projects

UBC James Taylor Chair in Landscape & Livable Environments. Headwaters Project: A Sustainable Community in Surrey, BC. Vancouver 2000.
www.sustainable-communities.agsci.ubc.ca/projects/Headwaters.html
Provides a summary of this multi-part project, which aims to demonstrate a more sustainable way to build communities. Contains the Neighbourhood Concept Plan (NCP) for the sustainable urban community of East Clayton. This plan for a sustainable community for 13,000 will be the region's first sustainable neighbourhood, where houses are affordable, transit is accessible, commercial services are available, and natural systems are preserved and enhanced.

Urban Aspects Consulting Group for the Victoria Cool Aid Society. Financial and Investment Analysis of Mike Gidora Place. Victoria 2001. www.landcentre.ca/foundation/community/coolaid/coolaidmain.html
Documents the financing, construction costs, and partnerships associated with building a small suite rental project in downtown Victoria. The building features 45 affordable residential units and ground floor office, retail, and community activity space.

Woodward, Jim. The Inlet Centre Residences: The Development of Affordable Housing on Municipal Land: An Initiative of the City of Port Moody. Port Moody, 2001. www.landcentre.ca/foundation/inletcentre/toc.cfm
Describes the development of an affordable housing project on a piece of municipal land in Port Moody, British Columbia. Development was a partnership between the municipality, provincial affordable housing programs, and non-profit housing providers. The case study provides an account of the development process from an initial analysis of the project until application of the building permit. Also describes amendments to the then Municipal Act (now the Local Government Act) designed to assist municipalities to provide affordable housing for their residents, the process that Port Moody took to assess its need for affordable housing; and lessons learned.