Southlands in Transition

The following was posted on a regional land use listserve..........

"On any list of the most influential architect/planners alive today, Andrés Duany would be near the top, if not the lead name. From Seaside, Florida, to Vancouver's East Fraserlands, Duany, as one of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, continues to reinvent the character of planning and redefine the codes that shape our regions.
Andres Duany
His lectures are provocative and entertaining, and his insights are essential, whether one agrees or not, to understand where urbanism is going.

SCPT at the Mall
The SCP spent some time at the Town Centre Mall on Saturday November 17 discussing the groups' progress to date and the upcoming Southlands design charrette in the spring.

Sandor Gyarmati has written an informative article in the November 7 Delta Optimist in which he highlights some of the complexities of housing and education and how we are challenged in South Delta to come up with an appropriate equation to meet the needs of the community as we grow.Thoughtful Street Design

Brian Lewis of the Vancouver Province had this to say about the Southlands Community Planning Team in the October 28 edition.

Here is a brief follow-up video to the Open House on October 20. More to come.

Nice job Carla, Jon and video and agriculture committee!

The SCPT video commitee and the agriculture committee joined forces to produce this short film that investigates some ideas of how agriculture will fit in to an overall plan for the Southlands. The film was premiered at the October 20 Open House.

All around us are the signs of the harvest. Fall Harvest is an exciting time of year in British Columbia because it is generally the last time we get to see touch and eat the majority of our fruits and vegetables that are seasonal and fresh.

In South Delta land use issues are particularly sensitive. Legacy notions of farming conflict with realities of industrial commodity trading and it is most difficult to convey ideas that may suggest that agricultural practice can and may need to change in a local environment.

The agriculture committee made a presentation to the SCPT at our last meeting.

The SCPT and the collaborative video committee have been filming aspects of our dialogue for several months now. The video committee will be presenting some of this dialogue at our next open house on Saturday October 20.

In addition, we will be conducting short interviews within the commmunity to offer our citizens an opportunity to express their views on development scenarios for the Southlands. This is the first weekly interview...

A great night for an after dinner walk! The weather held on a beautiful late summers night which gave the SCPT the opportunity to see the scope of the land from a seldom seen vantage point.

Traffic Gridlock
There is an interesting article in the September 2 Vancouver Sun. The article, a first in a series describes various commute scenarios around the Lower Mainland including Tswawwassen.

Traffic is a major concern in the community as was noticed in our first Open House Questionnaire.

The SCPT will be addressing this issue in coming sessions and will post our thoughts here.

On Monday, August 13, three members of the collaborative video committee under the watchful eye of Jessica Hallenbeck "Eartotheground" discussed a plan of action for the next video in the series under way, this one to focus on the part agriculture can play in the development of the Southlands. It was decided to visit some existing product focused farms on Westham Island and footage was captured at the herb farm with stills covering the honey and berry farms.

On May 27 of this year Edward Porter gave us a lively and informative backgrounder to his University Of Virginia thesis paper for his Masters Degree in landscape architecture.
His case study for "Edge Design" was the Southlands were typical residential lands meet traditional rural lands.
The thesis is available in its entirety as a PDF attachment below and is also archived in our Document LibraryEdward Porter

Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, are co-founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), recognized by the New York Times as "the most important collective architectural movement in the United States in the past fifty years."

Their firm, DPZ is known all over the world for their innovative community building ideas.

We've talked about how agriculture will fit in to a developed Southlands and the agriculture sub-committee is currently discussing the possibilities.

It is that time of year when we begin to see and enjoy the variety of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables. A farmers market type venue on the Southlands may eventualy be enjoyed by many in our community.

James Howard Kunstler

The use of space is discussed in this vibrant presentation by well known planner and author James Howard Kunstler.

It is a must see. His books can be purchased Here. A couple of Mr. Kunstler's works are available at the Barn Library as well.

The video committee asked some interesting questions in this look at some key questions facing our community.....

This is a video that was produced earlier in the year in which issues of need were discussed. You can see other items that were discussed at our open house in the open house questionnaire. Some of our other videos are available HERE

Edward Porter
Edward Porter led a fascinating discussion revolving around agriculture at our seventh planning session. Edward was in town a little over a year or so ago and addressed a Smart Growth BC seminar dealing with 'edge' use of land. Simply put, the edge is where residential land meets agricultural land.
Edward wrote his Masters Thesis on design in the 'edge' and used the Southlands as the foundation of his thesis.
A short movie on the discussion is available below or by clicking Here
Sean also provided a brief slideshow on Fairview Gardens where 12 acres in the middle of suburban Souther California produces a couple of dozen types of fruits and vegetables for the local community.

Patrick Condon of UBC's
Design Centre for Sustainability counters recent arguments by Randall O'Toole in the Vancouver Sun
We Haven't specifically addressed Transportation as a module quite yet but it is certainly a major issue as identified in our Open House Questionnaire