‘Green density,’ downtown jobs and better design are goals of new planning director
Frances Bula
Sun
VANCOUVER – The city’s future will be focused on “green” density, better design and the preservation of room for jobs downtown, the city’s new planning director said Thursday in his first state-of-the-city style speech.
“Sustainability, density and the [ecological] footprint are here to stay,” Brent Toderian said, speaking to a crowd of 300 developers, architects and planners at an Urban Development Institute lunch. “Protecting the job capacity that we have downtown now is our top priority. If you haven’t heard that message, we need to talk.”
Toderian also commented that, while Montreal “fosters a culture of great design, I am not sure I would put Vancouver in that category.” He added that this is something he would like to see changed.
But Toderian, who talked largely about big-picture ideas, spent most of his speech trying to explain to the crowd what the city wants to achieve with its EcoDensity initiative.
For a long time, Toderian said, Vancouver development has been focused first on livability, things like views, privacy and separation from neighbours. But under EcoDensity, sustainability — not livability — will become the priority.
“Sustainability is the No. 1 goal and density is the No. 1 tool.”
Toderian said his department is working with the University of B.C. to develop a tool kit, possibly a software program, to help analyse projects and neighbourhoods to figure out what their environmental impact is.
Toderian didn’t give the kinds of specifics developers would have liked to hear, like exactly what the new rules or requirements might be future projects.
He did say that developers might be able to get bonus building space, more than the usual zoning would allow, in return for using green building technology.
The EcoDensity initiative was launched by Mayor Sam Sullivan last June to coincide with the World Urban Forum being held in Vancouver.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
