Topic: Land use and Transportation

Smart Growth Online

Smart Growth Online is a website which supports economic growth, strong communities and environmental health. The website is a project of the Maryland Department of Planning and is funded by the U.S. EPA Office of Sustainable Communities and is the web presence of the Smart Growth Network. One of the unique elements of the website is that they host webinars frequently while discussing various aspects of land use and transportation planning, such as walkability, cycling, mixed-use development, the value of street trees, social equity and more. Smart Growth Online also provides a mailing list to keep updated on upcoming webinars and resources.  Although the subject matter of the site is configured for a U.S. audience, many elements are transferrable to a Canadian context. In addition, there are many overlapping concepts when comparing smart growth to complete, compact communities.

 

Towards a Collaborative Strategy for Municipal Natural Asset Management: Private Lands

The Municipal Natural Assets Initiative aims to equip local governments across Canada with the tools needed to identify and account for natural assets at the community level, as well as the best practice guidelines for working with community stakeholders to increase natural asset management. As part of series of guiding documents being developed in collaboration with the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative (MNAI), this report highlights how local governments can include private land and private landowners in a comprehensive municipal natural asset management framework.

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Electric Vehicles in Canada

This report compares the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of both Electric Vehicles and Gas Vehicles in the road transportation sector. Impact assessments are carried out at vehicle’s manufacturing (mining and assembly), use (driving) and end of life (recycling and disposal) phases. In this environmental life cycle assessment of electric vehicles in Canada, the GHG emissions and primary energy consumption are considered as the most significant impact category.

TransLink Transit Oriented Communities Guidelines

In order to further the development of more transit-oriented communities in Metro Vancouver, this document provides guidance for community planning and design – based on best practices – in the areas surrounding transit stations, exchanges, and stops.

The concepts of transit oriented communities are applicable in broad range of contexts. This guide may be of interest to communities outside of Metro Vancouver.

Active Transportation Design Guide

The British Columbia Active Transportation Design Guide (2019) is a comprehensive set of planning and engineering guidelines offering recommendations for the planning, selection, design, implementation, and maintenance of active transportation facilities across BC. The primary audience for the Design Guide is design professionals in the engineering, planning, landscape architecture, and architecture fields. It may also be a valuable resource for elected officials, community groups, and the general public.

The guide covers pedestrian, cycling, and multi-use facilities; amenities and supports; handling crossings and intersections; special cases; monitoring; and maintenance.

In 2021, a supplement was added to the design guide that provides design guidance on the integration of active transportation into transit-oriented development.

Planting our Future: A Tree Toolkit for Communities

Planting our Future: A Tree Toolkit for Communities was developed in conjunction with a tree planting program of the BC government to reduce greenhouse gases. While the funding program has been completed, the Guide provides information, including an overview of the tools and strategies to help communities enhance the value of their urban forests and to address challenges that they may be facing.
Planting our Future includes information on the community, residential, environmental and health benefits of trees. The guide also covers issues and challenges with strategies to address key areas. The key areas are: conserving existing treed environments, preparing and enhancing the urban forest for the future and increasing understanding and support for urban forests. The guide also provides twelve urban forestry goals.

Transit Supportive Communities Guidelines

This guide was prepared to help local governments create an environment that is supportive of transit and develop services and programs to increase transit ridership. This includes promoting development patterns that make transit less expensive, more efficient, less circuitous and more convenient. While the document was prepared by the Government of Ontario, key principles, tools, and guidelines are still useful and translatable to communities regardless of province. These include:

  • Development densities needed to support various types and levels of transit service
  • Community-wide and site specific guidelines on supporting local transit networks, such as urban form and site design
  • Bus stop and accessibility guidelines
  • Ways to work with and around other street users (sidewalks, bike lanes, parking strategies)

 

Summary Report on Local Government Climate Actions 2018

This report illustrates the continued progress by local governments to reduce carbon emissions through highlighting examples of the achievements and experiences of small, medium, and large communities in 2018. It includes:

  • Update on local government progress towards corporate carbon neutrality
  • Highlights of climate mitigation and adaptation actions taken by small, medium, and large communities across BC
  • Hyperlinked list of funding sources and programs used by local governments in support of climate action
MCI analysis

Model City Infrastructure

Model City Infrastructure (MCI) is a new analysis tool developed to assist Kelowna staff, Council and the public as they consider the long-term infrastructure implications of land use decisions. MCI enables the evaluation of the long-term financial performance of various types of neighbourhoods by comparing how much the City spends on long-term infrastructure in different neighbourhoods with the tax revenue and utility fees collected from them.

The MCI analysis focused on lifecycle costs, as opposed to up front capital costs, often associated with assuming infrastructure after development. It demonstrated that more complete and compact areas of Kelowna performed better financially than the areas that are characterized by auto-depend built form and low density and dispersed land uses.

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