Green Infrastructure

RESILIENT REGION DESIGN CHARRETTE TACKLES NEW HOUSING LEGISLATION: “The goal of the regional charrette is modest but profound: to create tangible, holistic solutions that influence policy, shape built form, and, ultimately, reduce social pain,” stated Patrick Condon, UBC professor emeritus, author of Broken City, and sustainable design thought leader

March 24, 2026 - Posted in Design With Nature to Create Liveable Communities & Protect Stream Health - an array of contextual resources, Integrated Community Planning

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. Stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective, and the Story Behind the Story.

The edition published on March 24, 2026 featured Patrick Condon, UBC Professor Emeritus. He has long been the champion in British Columbia for the “charrette process” as a design methodology for achieving sustainable community design.

Now retired, Patrick Condon continues to give back. He is contributing seed funding and energy to revive the idea of a Resilient Region Design Charrette as a vehicle to help reduce social pain in accommodating population growth.

ONE MINUTE TAKEAWAY for the extremely busy reader

Many individuals have played important roles in the green infrastructure movement in British Columbia. But whose efforts have truly been “make or break”? UBC’s Patrick Condon is one such leader. He pioneered the use of the charrette method in the field of sustainable community design as applied to urban planning in British Columbia.

The 2026 Resilient Region Design Charrette is a collaborative approach to integrating growth in Metro Vancouver

“The charrette method is the crucible for actually getting disparate people at the table who understand, as designers, how to put the pieces together comprehensively in something that is visual. It is future casting in three dimensions,” Patrick Condon states. He held the James Taylor Chair in Landscape and Liveable Environments until his retirement in 2025.

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE / CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER

“Patrick Condon is a sustainable urban design thought leader. Although recently retired, his mission continues as he continues to give back – for example, he seeded the Resilient Region Design Charrette with a contribution of $80,000 from the James Taylor Chair research fund in 2025,” stated Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.

“Patrick Condon and my career paths became intertwined almost 30 years ago when he conceived and led the charrette process for the East Clayton Sustainable Community in Surrey. Patrick also contributed to the success of UniverCity atop Burnaby Mountain.”

“The East Clayton and UniverCity twin successes were the springboard to what Patrick Condon subsequently accomplished via his Sustainability by Design charrette series during the 2000s,” concluded Kim Stephens.

Patrick Condon advocates striving for Good Solutions rather than Perfect Solutions to reduce social pain

“I am reviving with Derek Lee the idea of a regional charrette prompted by a lot of the same kinds of housing, transportation, and ecological issues that informed the original Sustainability by Design series,” explains Patrick Condon.

“Metro Vancouver faces increasing resistance to provincially mandated Transit-Oriented Area (TOA) development amid concerns over the impacts of rapid densification. Without coordinated planning, this growth risks producing fragmented, unaffordable, and poorly serviced communities.”

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Resilient Region Design Charrette tackles housing legislation – synthesis of a conversation with Patrick Condon about why regional livability is on the table again

The complete transcript of the interview with Patrick Condon is included in the downloadable document version of this story behind the story. Structured as four theme areas, the storyline that follows is an edited and visual narrative of the highlights.

1-Patrick Condon situates the 2006 Sustainability by Design Charrette within a broader regional history

“The Sustainability by Design Charrette was one of many undertaken across the region over about a decade,” Patrick Condon states. “All shared a common aim: to visualize what a sustainable metropolitan region could look like.”

“These efforts were driven initially by ecological concerns—particularly the protection of water resources—but also integrated neighbourhood quality, proximity of jobs and services, and access to nature as both a recreational and ecological asset.”

“Yet housing affordability, relative to incomes, is now worse than in cities that built far less. This directly challenges the prevailing assumption that affordability is simply a matter of insufficient supply.”

2-Patrick Condon explains why unintended consequences result from draconian actions

“There is a second dynamic in play,” continues Patrick Codon. “The provincial government has come to believe that planners, local regulations, and public processes are obstacles to affordability. Recent housing legislation reflects this view, sweeping aside much of the local planning framework.”

“These approaches are unlikely to deliver their promised outcomes,” warns Patrick Condon. “The cost will be the erosion of livability, sustainability, and long-term fiscal efficiency. Infrastructure costs, in particular, will rise sharply on a per-capita basis, increasing the burden on taxpayers.”

3-Patrick Condon makes the case for the 2-track structure for the Resilient Region Design Charrette

“The Resilient Region Charrette initiative has two objectives,” Patrick Condon emphasizes. “First, it will test whether the new legislative framework can, in fact, deliver affordability without undermining ecological services or increasing public costs.”

“Second, it will explore whether the stated goals of the legislation—rather than its specific prescriptions—can be achieved more effectively through alternative approaches.”

“The essence of the charrette process is that it brings the right people together, facilitated by skilled urban designers, to collaboratively produce three-dimensional designs, cost them, analyze outcomes, and translate results into publications and actionable policy recommendations.”

4-Patrick Condon elaborates on how the Resilient Region Design Charrette addresses a central concern

“The Resilient Region Charrette would address the false assumption that deregulation alone will produce affordability,” states Patrick Condon categorically. “The charrette offers municipalities tools to respond constructively to the new framework without abandoning decades of progress on ecological, social, and technical fronts.”

“Success is never guaranteed but the objective is not certainty—it is participation, contribution, and reducing social pain. The current moment, shaped by public concern and municipal resistance, is a rare and teachable one.”

“Charrettes succeed because they harness collective intelligence, intuition, and experience to produce “good”—not perfect—outcomes that are socially negotiated, visually grounded, and practically useful.”