The City of Courtenay was the first BC municipality to adopt a policy requiring developers to provide a minimum soil depth on building sites as a rainwater management tool.
The Wal-Mart development in the City of Courtenay precipitated the beginning of a major change in how the City administers the zoning/development/approval process, collaborates with other agencies and also manages the rainwater resource.
From a City of Nanaimo perspective, the Inland Kenworth industrial development is a milestone project because it represents the turning of the tide in the way land is being developed in the City. Furthermore, the raised expectations have changed the nature of consulting in Nanaimo by stimulating green infrastructure innovation.
The Hawthorne project is a 230 house suburban neighbourhood development in the City of Nanaimo. The project illustrates how a green value approach has been implemented. The Hawthorne project represents approximately half of the City’s annual new home production.
Published in 2007, “The Green Infrastructure Guide: Issues, Implementation Strategies and Success Stories” builds on a body of work that has preceded it, and is designed to be used in conjunction with the range of important resources available from various organizations and government to support a sustainable approach to community development of infrastructure.
Building on the interest in rainwater / stormwater modelling generated by a province-wide series of technical seminars, the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC) is collaborating with the Green Infrastructure Partnership to deliver a one-day seminar on how to implement ‘green solutions’ that actually protect stream health. Scheduled for November 15, the seminar is the next step in the rollout of 'Beyond the Guidebook: Context for Rainwater Management and Green Infrastructure in British Columbia.'
Completed in 2006, the award-winning Kenworth Inland project in the City of Nanaimo applied a unique approach to site development that combined function and design in first capturing and then absorbing rainwater on-site. The project won a City environmental award and is currently a candidate for a design award.
Pressure to build on hillside lands was the catalyst for the City of Nanaimo adopting the steep slope development permit area and zoning bylaws. Cottle Creek Estates provides an early example of how these bylaws, and Nanaimo's approach to green infrastructure, are being implemented.
The Center for Neighbourhood Technology promotes the development of more livable and sustainable communities by enhancing the value of hidden assets and undervalued resources inherent in the urban environment.
New green building techniques beginning to take hold in Skagit County aim to slow that water’s flow. Examples of these techniques include rooftop gardens and vegetated strips of land between streets and sidewalks called “rain gardens.” The idea is to use the natural topography to help handle rainwater.
