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Green Acres? — Page 2
2. SHIFTING GOALPOSTS
Former industrial lands, Southeast False
Creek
After more than a decade of planning, Southeast False
Creek was supposed to be a model of sustainable development.
But during the long process of design and construction,
the goalposts were moved: as other green initiatives
progressed by leaps and bounds, Southeast False Creek
chugged slowly along its own track. “What we were
originally committed to was impressive and world-leading
at the time,” says Dave Ramslie, the city’s
sustainable-development program manager, “but
because the industry is rapidly evolving, it’s
not as impressive as it seemed.” Criticizing the
development, the surrounding architecture, and the lack
of low- and medium-cost housing has become a local pastime.
Yet most of the environmental goals set forth in 2005
have been met, including that all residential buildings
meet a minimum of LEED Silver standards, that a neighbourhood
power plant provide efficient energy, and that the development
make real progress toward carbon neutrality. But planners
compromised in some places rather than face a protracted
battle. Gone is the requirement that 50 percent of roof
space include vegetation (insurers worried about leaky
condos); ditto a plan to burn wood chips as a cleaner
fuel source (neighboring residents claimed it would
up air pollution). “We were on a constrained timeline,
and we just weren’t able to educate ourselves,
and then the public, on going this way,” says
Ramslie. Still, Southeast False Creek will be powered
by a slightly less efficient heat-transfer set-up that
feeds off the sewer system. And, insurance concerns
or no, all housing in the Olympic Village will have
green roofs.
3. THE COLOUR OF MONEY
Planned community, East Fraserlands
Southeast False Creek is municipally driven, and UniverCity
has an academic component. East Fraserlands, on the
other hand, is what Vice President of Development Norm
Shearing calls a “pure market-driven project.”
The 132-acre development is being built by ParkLane
Homes under the guidance of the City of Vancouver to
meet a range of sustainability goals, a method similar
to the one used in Southeast False Creek. ParkLane is
willing to meet the environmental goals, but not at
too high a cost. “What we haven’t done in
East Fraserlands,” says Shearing, “is promise
to do anything that we haven’t proven out economically.”
The property itself, at the southeast corner of the
city along the north bank of the Fraser River, is former
industrial mill land that had to be cleaned of contaminants
before development could start. The project is similar
in size to UniverCity, with about 10,000 residents ultimately
filling 6,500 residential units, a further 250,000 square
feet of commercial space, two schools, two daycares,
two after-school centres, 200,000 square feet of office
space, and a “full public-art initiative.”
Energy-efficiency guidelines are similar to those the
city required for Southeast False Creek, with LEED Silver
requirements for all buildings and a LEED Gold target
for the community centre. Currently under examination
is what energy source to use for the Neighbourhood Energy
Utility: the sort of biomass system that was rejected
at False Creek; the same heat-transfer system that’s
going in there; geothermal power; or garbage incineration
to produce electricity. Shearing argues that small improvements
to a large-scale project can do far more environmental
good than any single homeowner possibly could achieve.
The developers are in the process of getting the land
rezoned; they plan to start construction on the 20-year
project in 2009, completing the first phase by 2011.
Marina Khoury, an architect with Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk
& Company, which is overseeing East Fraserlands,
says the development is a world environmental leader.
“This is about making entire communities sustainable,”
she says, “rather than just the buildings.”
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