The Vancouver Sun has the scoop. First, the city of Vancouver just released a draft “eco-density” plan that sounds, at least to my ears, like exactly the right way deal with the city’s expected population increase:
Vancouver should put high-density housing next to its major parks and along every one of its major streets, suggests the first draft of Vancouver’s ecodensity charter, released today.
The city should also close down some roads to cars and require developers to include solar power, rainwater collection, and laundry drying facilities in any new project…
The over-arching idea [is that]Vancouver needs to redefine what it means to be livable city.
Progressive stuff—and likely to solidify the city’s first place status as the most energy-efficient, transit-oriented metropolis in the Northwest.
And then, on forests:
Victoria intends to remake the coastal forest industry with a new set of policies aimed at shifting harvesting away from old-growth forests to second-growth, Forests Minister Rich Coleman said Wednesday.
Forest management—particularly, the industry’s long-time policy of encouraging old-growth clearcuts—has been a bete noir of BC’s environmental policy. The new plan may have its flaws—but still, it seems to herald a shift away from logging pristine coastal forests. And that has to count as good news.
Nic S
This is another great post, this one explains quite nicely what I am referring to.A year and a half ago I heard the Sustainabiliy Director for the City of Vancouver describe how they were going to take a huge part of downtown Vancouver’s old railyards and some warehouse areas on False Creek (current Olympic Village)and develop it in a manner that exceeded the highest LEEDS standard. Alas, that Director has been let go amid controversy and we now have, voila, “Eco-Density”. The problem? Greenwashing! Downtown Vancouver and large parts of Vancouver do not need anymore density. There is something called limits to growth. Something most “high-density developers” (developer washing) are not interested in hearing.