Southlands in Transition

 From the November 14 Delta Optimist......

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"We have all heard how our region is expected to grow significantly in the next 50 years. Some municipalities in Metro Vancouver are growing faster than others and some are trying to figure out how to accommodate and benefit from the growth.

Patrick Condon from the University of British Columbia’s Design Centre for Sustainability recently suggested that Metro Vancouver (former GVRD) will require 800,000 additional dwelling units by the year 2056.

Locally, the Corporation of Delta has been busy investigating our regions housing situation. The “Housing Task Force” has been at it for quite some time now and will be pouring over details of a recently completed survey.

We know some of the results already. For instance, we know that of the 600 responses to the questionnaire 49% came from residents of Tsawwassen. With about 24 % of the population this would tell you that housing is an important issue in Tsawwassen.

This could be because Tsawwassen has proportionally less housing choice than Ladner or North Delta. As was reported in this paper, respondents clearly cited the need for town-homes as a more prevalent housing option.

Sub communities in Tsawwassen are primarily single detached homes. We have more of them than in any region in Metro. The “core” of Tsawwassen has many condominium style housing choices but there is little or nothing in the way of town-homes or row houses.

The Tsawwassen Area Plan Committee (TAPC) will ponder zoning changes that may likely allow the core of Tsawwassen to become more dense but this does not mean that we will see town-homes or cottage housing in the core.

The Congress for the New Urbanism  promoted a film festival with features relating to the topic of New Urbanism and Sustainability.

The winner is the excellent short film BUILT TO LAST.

Take a look and you will see how this film quickly highlights many of the isssues we have been discussing over the past couple of years.

 Concept illustration (strict copyright protection)

Mark Holland and Janine De La Salle collaborate on an interesting article entitled 'Food for Thought'  that was published in the February 10 Vancouver Sun.

Delta Cable hosted an all candidates forum last night. Each candidate was given the opportunity to share their thoughts and platform.

The public was given the opportunity to phone in with questions of their own. There were only a few questions but one came from a "Tom" who asked the candidates to give a yes or no answer on weather they supported the Southlands development.

Of the nine in attendance, 7 suggested in some form or another that they would need more information. A couple of incumbents mentioned that there is no proposal in place so it is not particularly appropriate to comment.

One candidate, Duane Laird, who is chair of the Earthwise board, indicated support for the project and one candidate, Kathleen Higgins said that she was against the project even though she earlier indicated that she supported alternative and affordable housing options in our community. 

There was an interesting article on walkability in the August 26 Vancouver Sun

 Packed House

Even though we watched and participated in the process, it was still amazing to watch it come together as it did.

Right to the end.....literally.......as corrections on drawing items found their way in to Andes Duany's computer at the podium at the very last momment.

Well done everyone! 

ideas

Four major schemes have evolved from 12. Check them out HERE illustrations for the schemes will be posted shortly

Steve Mouzon gave an excellent presentation to the group this morning. "Feedable Places" gives us cause to consider just exactly what sustainability really means. The word has often been misused in recent times and it s important to understand what feedable places are.

The Southlands is a feedable place waiting to happen.You can take a look at this excellent presentation which is attached below.
Thanks Steve!

Mad people

These are some thoughts from Bob Ransford a couple of days in to the Charrette........

 Something extraordinary is happening in that big red barn down in Boundary Bay. Citizens are building community-- they are not building just "a community". A physical community or settlement has long existed in this place collectively referred to as"Tsawwassen". Something greater is being constructed in the barn.

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Over the past few days an amazing collective commitmenthas manifested itself in the informal discussions and the dialogue that hasbeen taking place around the charrette's scheduled meetings in the SouthlandsBarn. That collective commitment is deep and real and it is about more thanplanning and designing a new physical community-- an enhanced and more livable extension of the existing human settlement set sensitively on the natural landscape. 

The commitment I am witnessing at the Southlands charrette is infused with optimism, with a simple trust in the notion that citizens working together can create a common good that leads to a collective happiness. That’s what building community is all about. It’s an expression ofhuman effort and passion that we don’t often witness these days.

Drawings...Big ones!

Whoa!!

 The last hour or so this afternoon/evening was intense. Eleven different plans with several types of architecture and form were presented late in the day.

It was an amazing experience and thanks to all for letting us watch it happen! 

Andres Duany

A couple of hundred locals showed up to listen to what Andres Duany had to say at the first of three public events within the Southlands Design Charrette.Take a look at the Charrette Diary Page to get a sense of the event.

The expression "selling the farm" should be regarded a little more closely when we reminisce about local large scale farming of yesteryear. Local Dairy , beet or potato farming that USED to take place locally is no longer given any guarantee of success now. Who would pay to buy this land to grow and produce this type of product now?

Certainly an agricultural component can exist on the Southlands but it does not make sense to suggest it should be of a type that existed a few decades ago or that all of the land could be farmed. The math does not work for the owner of the land and it would certainly be a challenge for any investor to produce a financial model that made sense to farm all of the land now.

Hence the compromise that will be discussed at the table in the coming weeks. The challenge is to recognize innovation and dive in to opportunity.

Some farmers and restauranteurs are doing this now and this type of relationship is what will drive the future of the Southlands. Small plot Urban agriculture is a very real and profitable business for new thinking farmers who are creative enough to recognize dollar signs when they see them.

There is a very interesting story in the April 26 Vancouver Sun that shows how a relationship can develop between small scale producers and local customers. This has Southlands written all over it.

Tsawwassen has a very real opportunity to excel here. Let's be open minded enough to explore the possibilities.

After many hundreds of hours of discussion, research and planning, the Southlands Community Planning Team is pleased to present the Southlands Design Brief. This document will be the foundation for the upcoming Design Charrette May 6-May 13

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments on the Design Brief which is attached below as a pdf file.

School Garden Plot

Here is a recent and interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle regarding residential development and food production