VAN-TO
December 5th, 2004, 06:00 AM
Do you think the ALR is under threat of collapsing? Should municipalities be allowed to take so much land for alternative development?
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City Business
Gordon Price
GVRD's livable region plan in danger of succumbing to unlivable urban sprawl
From Queensland in Australia to the Queen City of Ontario (that's Toronto, folks), governments are doing a swift turnaround and deciding to tackle sprawl. Surprising, then, that the one region that has successfully managed urban expansion for three decades is in danger of succumbing to the forces that created the problem in the first place. And that, folks, is our region: the GVRD.
The southeast corner of Queensland, stretching 240 kilometres on either side of Brisbane, is Australia's fastest growing conurbation, famous for its laissez-faire attitude to development. Right now on the Gold Coast they're erecting what will be the world's tallest residential building, the Q1, at 80 storeys. But most people who move to the region come with an image of an upscale "Queenslander" in their heads: a low-slung, single-family house, with a wide verandah on a large lot, open to unspoiled nature. Problem: a lot less unspoiled nature remains as urban sprawl overtakes the bush.
The politicians began to pay attention when a state government fell after trying to run a road through a koala reserve.
And so, a few weeks ago, the state government released in record time a draft plan that will establish an urban footprint to maintain open spaces between cities, increase lot densities, shift growth away from the coast and accommodate half of the next million people through infill and redevelopment.
Two days later, on the other side of the world, the government of Ontario announced its greenbelt initiative: a 1.8-million-acre buffer where farms, small communities and open spaces will be protected from development. The consequence, of course, is that densities will have to increase, infrastructure will shape growth rather than just serve it, and greater emphasis will be put on redevelopment in existing centres rather than on greenfield sites. In other words, Queensland in the Queen City.
As reports noted, it's a similar strategy to the one that has shaped the growth of the Vancouver area. The Globe and Mail quoted ex-Premier Dave Barrett: "If it hadn't been for the Agricultural Land Reserve, Vancouver today would be a bloody mess."
The NDP's creation of the ALR in 1973 even helped inspire the most famous urban-growth boundary in America, the one that surrounds Portland, Oregon.
The ALR also became the basis of the "Green Zone" that currently constrains sprawl in the Lower Mainland - one of four pillars that make up the Livable Region Strategic Plan, passed under Gordon Campbell's leadership of the GVRD in 1996. Though Vancouverites don't generally appreciate its significance, the rest of the world does. Most recently the plan was chosen from more than 500 submissions as the one that demonstrated "Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment" at the prestigious 2002 Dubai International Awards.
So it's odd, if not depressing, to see the continued attempts to erode the basis of our achievement. Let us count the ways.
Currently, 3,000 acres of prime farmland are being proposed for removal from the ALR in the Lower Mainland. Land owners are repeatedly trying to get 900 acres out of Barnston Island adjacent to Surrey. Chilliwack has already got 200 acres out for industrial development and is now targeting at least 400 for residential. Abbotsford is looking to take out 900 acres for "industrial" purposes, even though there's a very low vacancy rate on agricultural lands, the foundation of its No. 1 industry. Langley and Mission are making rumblings about removals. Maple Ridge has 10 applications before the Agricultural Land Commission. Even Burnaby is trying to get ALR lands removed from its Big Bend for big box development.
Here's Peter Simpson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association, with some food for thought: "We don't have to build on treed land. Instead, we could build homes on the flat, treeless lands called the Agricultural Land Reserve."
Just kidding, he says - or maybe not.
Transport Minister Kevin Falcon, who says he's only trying to solve a congestion problem, wants to widen the Trans-Canada all the way to Langley, which will, in the words of the Livable Region Coalition, "likely transform the region for the foreseeable future into a sprawling, low-density, automobile-dependent urban agglomeration."
It has everywhere else.
Some good news, though. The Liberal convention in Whistler just rejected a motion that called for the land commission to be "modernized" so that local municipalities could more easily remove lands for other uses.
Maybe Gordon Campbell, who has been missing in action on some of the issues that he championed at the municipal level, finally made his opinion known.
Regardless, it would be close to tragic to see the Lower Mainland, which was a pioneer 30 years ago, reverse course just as the rest of the world is trying to catch up to us.
Gordon Price, an adjunct professor of community and regional planning at UBC, is a former Vancouver city councillor. His e-mail address is pricetags@shaw.ca. His column appears monthly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
City Business
Gordon Price
GVRD's livable region plan in danger of succumbing to unlivable urban sprawl
From Queensland in Australia to the Queen City of Ontario (that's Toronto, folks), governments are doing a swift turnaround and deciding to tackle sprawl. Surprising, then, that the one region that has successfully managed urban expansion for three decades is in danger of succumbing to the forces that created the problem in the first place. And that, folks, is our region: the GVRD.
The southeast corner of Queensland, stretching 240 kilometres on either side of Brisbane, is Australia's fastest growing conurbation, famous for its laissez-faire attitude to development. Right now on the Gold Coast they're erecting what will be the world's tallest residential building, the Q1, at 80 storeys. But most people who move to the region come with an image of an upscale "Queenslander" in their heads: a low-slung, single-family house, with a wide verandah on a large lot, open to unspoiled nature. Problem: a lot less unspoiled nature remains as urban sprawl overtakes the bush.
The politicians began to pay attention when a state government fell after trying to run a road through a koala reserve.
And so, a few weeks ago, the state government released in record time a draft plan that will establish an urban footprint to maintain open spaces between cities, increase lot densities, shift growth away from the coast and accommodate half of the next million people through infill and redevelopment.
Two days later, on the other side of the world, the government of Ontario announced its greenbelt initiative: a 1.8-million-acre buffer where farms, small communities and open spaces will be protected from development. The consequence, of course, is that densities will have to increase, infrastructure will shape growth rather than just serve it, and greater emphasis will be put on redevelopment in existing centres rather than on greenfield sites. In other words, Queensland in the Queen City.
As reports noted, it's a similar strategy to the one that has shaped the growth of the Vancouver area. The Globe and Mail quoted ex-Premier Dave Barrett: "If it hadn't been for the Agricultural Land Reserve, Vancouver today would be a bloody mess."
The NDP's creation of the ALR in 1973 even helped inspire the most famous urban-growth boundary in America, the one that surrounds Portland, Oregon.
The ALR also became the basis of the "Green Zone" that currently constrains sprawl in the Lower Mainland - one of four pillars that make up the Livable Region Strategic Plan, passed under Gordon Campbell's leadership of the GVRD in 1996. Though Vancouverites don't generally appreciate its significance, the rest of the world does. Most recently the plan was chosen from more than 500 submissions as the one that demonstrated "Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment" at the prestigious 2002 Dubai International Awards.
So it's odd, if not depressing, to see the continued attempts to erode the basis of our achievement. Let us count the ways.
Currently, 3,000 acres of prime farmland are being proposed for removal from the ALR in the Lower Mainland. Land owners are repeatedly trying to get 900 acres out of Barnston Island adjacent to Surrey. Chilliwack has already got 200 acres out for industrial development and is now targeting at least 400 for residential. Abbotsford is looking to take out 900 acres for "industrial" purposes, even though there's a very low vacancy rate on agricultural lands, the foundation of its No. 1 industry. Langley and Mission are making rumblings about removals. Maple Ridge has 10 applications before the Agricultural Land Commission. Even Burnaby is trying to get ALR lands removed from its Big Bend for big box development.
Here's Peter Simpson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association, with some food for thought: "We don't have to build on treed land. Instead, we could build homes on the flat, treeless lands called the Agricultural Land Reserve."
Just kidding, he says - or maybe not.
Transport Minister Kevin Falcon, who says he's only trying to solve a congestion problem, wants to widen the Trans-Canada all the way to Langley, which will, in the words of the Livable Region Coalition, "likely transform the region for the foreseeable future into a sprawling, low-density, automobile-dependent urban agglomeration."
It has everywhere else.
Some good news, though. The Liberal convention in Whistler just rejected a motion that called for the land commission to be "modernized" so that local municipalities could more easily remove lands for other uses.
Maybe Gordon Campbell, who has been missing in action on some of the issues that he championed at the municipal level, finally made his opinion known.
Regardless, it would be close to tragic to see the Lower Mainland, which was a pioneer 30 years ago, reverse course just as the rest of the world is trying to catch up to us.
Gordon Price, an adjunct professor of community and regional planning at UBC, is a former Vancouver city councillor. His e-mail address is pricetags@shaw.ca. His column appears monthly.