Today, our city faces three important challenges:
- how to continue to grow in a way that is sustainable and reduces the city’s ecological footprint;
- how to grow in a way that maintains our livability; and
- how to grow in a way that improves opportunities to create more affordable types of housing.
Single-family dwellings still take up half of the land area in Vancouver . In fact, only 11 per cent of the city’s land area is currently used for multiple-unit dwellings.
Consequently, EcoDensity will explore increasing density in a variety of contexts across the city (i.e. in lower density areas; along transit routes and nodes, neighbourhood centres,). The key will be to support density that is high quality, attractive, more energy efficient, and respects neighbourhood character, while lowering our footprint.
For the next four months, the City will ask citizens, businesses and those in the development, housing, social services and environmental communities, to help look at ways the City of Vancouver can promote greater density in Vancouver that is also green, as well as livable and affordable.
EcoDensity will mean altering some City policies, bylaws, incentives and zoning to reduce barriers and promote ideas that will create communities that are sustainable, livable and affordable.
EcoDensity will help ensure that sustainable ideas that are currently rare or difficult to achieve today, become commonplace in Vancouver in the years to come. EcoDensity will also build on the successes already achieved in some major development and neighbourhood centres in Vancouver . Lastly, EcoDensity will help realize many of the goals and aspirations for communities that were articulated through the community visioning processes, but have not been acted upon.
Some of the ideas the City could explore or questions that will be asked during the consultations are:
- Do
people want the City to allow more flexibility in our bylaws to promote
sustainable building practices such as: use alternative energy sources
(e.g., solar and geo-thermal energy systems); green roofs; use recycled
rain water; recycled building materials?
- Should
the City make it easier for residents in single-family zoned areas to
build a secondary suite above their garage, or convert their garage to a
coach house?
- How
does the City encourage the creation of more secondary suites? Should
we require that any new single family home rough in a secondary suite?
- Do
people want the City take more advantage of streets and nodes well
served by transit or areas located around Skytrain and future Canada
Line stations by increasing density significantly in those areas?
- What
aspects of our bylaws need to be changed in order to better accommodate
or promote sustainable building practices such as energy-saving
systems, recycling of grey water and rain water, green roofs, etc.
- Should
the City reduce its parking requirements on new developments, and if
so, which type of developments? Should we require spaces for car
sharing, or electric plugs in new underground garages to promote the use
of electric vehicles? Should the city establish car free
neighbourhoods?
- How
can the City help ensure that the necessary community amenities are
included in areas where only smaller, incremental developments are
built.
- How could the City promote a greater range of types, sizes, locations and tenures of housing?